In the age of an electronically connected global economy, where capital travels from nation to nation at the speed of light, swimming afloat in the supply stream is not always easy. It really doesn’t matter what sort of business your in, globalization of the supply chain means that if you’re not ready and in it, your business is simply and quickly passed by for one that is. Manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers—there’s no discrimination when it comes to the instant gratification of the consumer demand. With the maturity of enterprise resource planning software (ERP), the expectations are for vendors to operate lean in order to respond rapidly and with a cost-effective value.

It is certainly true that, because of ever-tightening margins, wasteful production practices are no longer tolerated. Instead, producers and providers are expected to run lean, a process of streamlining production and distribution to reduce and eliminate waste or non-value activities to the process. In a broader sense, one could extrapolate this philosophy out to the larger supply chain as well as focus it into the movement of products within the supply chain. In other words, connectivity also means that the stream of supply must flow with as few impediments as possible. At the same time, any processes that stop supply chain flow must be steady and unceasing, and processes that use inventory should always (more…)

It’s an unfortunate fact of the manufacturing life that customers are increasingly demanding lower costs for seemingly perfectly produced products, and delivered on-time—every time. And, never mind the excuses for not performing. Today, customer loyalty is often a vacuous concept and any dissatisfaction at all simply becoming a matter of clients moving along to next vendor in line who promises the desired delivery. At its root, the bane of most manufacturers is excessively long order-to-delivery cycle times, even when efforts have been made to streamline production systems.

In lean models of manufacturing, wasted time means wasted opportunities to gain efficiency. Evidence of the waste of time is everywhere in the system and often takes the form of waiting for something to happen. The shop floor waits on sales orders to get processed, machine operators wait for engineering documents to update or clear, bottlenecks form in the production line, material delivery is slowed during inventory searches, and the list of waiting maladies goes on and on. Just remember that waiting—any waiting—keeps making the order-to-delivery cycle time longer than it really needs to be. And, longer order-to-delivery cycle times nibble into valuable, and narrower, margins.

Another factor in extending the order-to-delivery cycle time, to the point of bottom-line profit erosion, is that (more…)

A project, by the very definition of the term, is all about parts. Parts considered, parts acquired, parts assembled, parts finished. In a job shop or on a manufacturing floor, a project usually involves another aspect—people. In a shop project, people work as a team to compete a task that, ultimately, is greater than the sum of its parts. The questions to consider, however, are how often do shop projects end up as unsuccessful, and why? With so many people contributing to the cause, it should be a matter of fact that projects would succeed merely by virtue of having so much oversight.

This is not always the case; indeed, shop project success is probably more infrequent that you would think. Of course, most project failures are unnecessary and avoidable. Common to nearly all such failures is the absence of good planning, preparation, and communication among team members. Assuming material resources and financials are already in place, to avoid missteps and achieve success in shop project efforts there are a few simple management tools that can help.

Surprisingly, in many shop project failures it is clear that many team members are on separate pages about the ultimate goals, specifications, and even products of the project. Like a theatrical production without a script, improvisation during performance is mistake-laden, often lacking (more…)

We all go into business with the idea of providing a quality product; otherwise, what’s the point? Pride of production in meeting or exceeding customer expectations is the measure of our performance as conscientious manufacturers or job shops. And, while our success in being able to produce a quality product time and again is the reason for the growth of our business, we also understand that we must continually improve if we are to remain competitive. This is why we set out plans to ensure quality.

Once we’ve set the standards for achieving quality in reoccurring work orders, sustaining quality is usually a simple matter of the spot check or routine inspection. However, shop projects, by their idiosyncratic nature, bring about their own unique criteria for what is meant by a quality outcome. Therefore, in any shop project, a Quality Plan specifically designed for that project should be written. Such a plan takes into account not only what standards are to be met in the project, but by what measures and methods of measure (the metrics) these standard will be ascertained.

The thoroughness in the preparation of a Quality Plan is what is meant by the term quality assurance, and it is here where the shop in general, and the project team specifically, hang their hat in terms of customer satisfaction. Furthermore, you may also find the more robust enterprise resource planning software systems (ERP) will contain modules that (more…)

With the cost of raw materials apparently not going down any time soon, scrap reduction has never been more important for manufacturers. To ensure the maximum use of materials, precision laser-cutting and water-jet machines have been developed. Computerized metal stamping can bring out parts and pieces to the very edge of the stock. In manufacturing, materials management has been made better because both machining technology and management through cost accounting have been improved.

In short, accountability is in place on the shop floor and in the front office, and this means that tracking scrap is part of the production process. Of course, the relationship between shop floor and front office has always been one made through data, and it is through data that the root causes of scrap and the methods for its reduction are found.

In short, scrap rate (or yield quality) is a function of production standards and the cost of quality itself: process settings, raw material lots, maintenance activity, operator focus, and so forth. Better working processes and more cost effectiveness in materials management, especially in the creation of scrap, can enhance a manufacturer’s competitive edge. And, competitiveness today is measured in terms of (more…)

Remaining in play is the name of the game in manufacturing competition today. That is to say, to find the orders that keep things going, and going well, you have to be on the field with your competitors in the first place. That’s where the action is found, that’s where potential customers come to look for services, parts, and products. Through consolidation, however, the competition is changing. The days of parity, where niches were carved to pinpoint exactly what you and your competitors were all about, are becoming fewer and fewer. To remain in play in manufacturing today, a company must often introduce flexibility into their shop floor operations. Once a novel notion, flexible manufacturing is increasingly taking hold as both a practice in the shop and a philosophical approach for management.

Manufacturers no longer work in isolation from each other; rather, they usually exist as part and parcel of a large supply chain whereby the degree of success of one partner is driven by the reciprocal success of the others. Throughout the supply chain, the potential for downstream producers being flexible in their production activities means that unless you are equally dynamic you could easily lose the work as the upstream partner. This concept is more fully considered as customizability whereby operations must be (more…)

When facing competition—particularly fierce competition—it’s important to know all you can about your adversary and their weapons, the battlefield on which the fight will take place, and the best time to strike or retreat. In other words, knowledge is power, and the ability to remain flexible and fast to emerging or changing developments is a tremendous tactical advantage. This notion of changeability is at the heart of new movements in manufacturing based in production agility.

While certainly a modern business concept, agile manufacturing goes beyond simply being another version of 1980’s-styled computer integrated manufacturing or 1990’s lean manufacturing. Rather, agile manufacturing represents a complete shift in the mindset of production industries in the 21^st Century; one in which there is both a greater relationship between technology and worker skills, and greater customer access to, and demands upon, the core competencies of their manufacturers/vendors.

The basic concept of agile manufacturing is to develop what could best be called a nimble mindset when it comes to understanding market environments. In short, rapid changes in the market environment are not (more…)

Taking a simple Sunday drive down a road through the countryside, there are many things you depend upon to get you where you’re going. Most are common to all drivers. You need good tires, windows, seats, perhaps an air conditioner, and certainly a solid body. These are the essentials that in various states of repair have little bearing on the efficient functions of the car by which it sustains forward motion. However, start talking about the engine these days and you’ll get an earful regarding notions such as fuel efficiency, pollution control efficiency, maintenance efficiency, and so forth. Less common from driver to driver, car to car, are the various types and conditions of car engines, but it is the engine upon which all drivers depend the greatest to get them where they are going. As opposed to seats and seat condition, a less efficient engine simply means a less efficient car.

In this same sense, manufacturers are very dependent upon each other to be efficient in their operations—your performance is often dependent upon the performance of your upstream suppliers, while downstream your customers depend on you for their own performance levels. It is a circuitous feeding chain that traditionally has relied up on the sustaining of on-hand inventories to keep ahead of demand. With the introduction of lean manufacturing came the elimination of large inventories and the need for greater (more…)

The greatest mysteries of the ancient world usually revolve around how something was made. The Pyramids of Egypt, Greek Parthenon, and Roman Colosseum are all immense structures that required organization and many associated industries for their completion. Chances are, though, the coordination and production requirements of these wonders of the world were not much different than what we expect today in modern manufacturing.

Then, as now, resource management included labor, materials, physical plant, and administration. The mystery, of course, lies in the question of how the sheer size of these projects and the resources they necessitated allowed for successful coordination. For example, the various data centers for the building of the Pyramids, like all other great ancient structures, were geographically dispersed with, of course, no form of immediate production communication available.

We also know that ancient productions were not lean operations, and the subsequent progression of manufacturing production technique moved very slowly over the centuries. The major change in production development from Dynastic Egypt to Depression America was in the capability of (more…)