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For
either assembly/JIT or traditional Build-to-Order operating
systems to satisfy all the customers' demands (customization,
speed, cost and quality) these systems must evolve again. This
time, the evolution is to Flexibility: the ability to respond
to changing customer demands without incurring penalties in
time or cost.
Bottom-line
improvements are proving difficult to realize for a lot of
people attempting to design flexible shop floor control
systems. Many have invested heavily in the ability to sequence
work through plants. They've made substantial inroads in
eliminating waste and in their management philosophies
regarding how to approach cost cutting, new plant layouts, and
new product development. Regardless, true flexibility
continues to be elusive and shrinking profits are the result.
The
question is often asked, "What is the biggest tactical
hurdle to overcome for us to achieve the type of flexibility
necessary to satisfy our customers and still make a profit?"
The measure of the kind of flexibility that will satisfy
customers and make money is the ability to change plans closer
to the delivery point and not lose time or increase cost. In
other words, the ability to resequence a schedule without cost
penalty that's already gone through firm planning.
No
matter how good the forecasting methodology or the shop floor
control system, everyone has to change their plans. Many
automotive manufacturers develop a sequence for production
that gets scrambled because of quality issues as soon as the
product goes through the paint process. Some suppliers who are
affected by vehicle color have a system for resequencing their
own production schedule in mid stream because of the frequency
of schedule changes by the OEM. When this ability is built
into the shop floor control system as an integral step in the
process, the supplier is able to be flexible quickly and cost
effectively. All it takes to see this in action is to watch
the assembly process at the Johnson Controls plant supplying
the Alabama Mercedes assembly plant. There are resequencing
stations within their assembly line to allow last minute
schedule changes. This allows a rapid response without huge
expenses.
Resequencing
is nothing new and has been around for a long time in a lot of
manufacturing operations. It is called expediting. Expediting
is an expensive way to be responsive. It is disruptive to
overall production and costly in terms of lost productivity.
It is not unusual to see excessive amounts of inventory in
operations that expedite because the two seem to go hand in
hand. As expensive as expediting is, many still do it,
probably because they don't know of a reasonable alternative
to meet customer expectations.
An
alternative to expediting involves accomplishing two things:
shrinking the order-to-delivery time by shortening both the
firm planning time and the manufacturing cycle time; and early
integration of customers and suppliers in the backlog
management/planning process. The less time spent in planning
and production the better, if for no other reason than that it
reduces the opportunities for a customer to change an order
before it is finished and shipped.
The
best plans often have to be changed because customers change
their plans. Creating the means to change will go along way
toward being truly flexible and it may be the key for many of
you to be profitable and competitive. Resequencing, when made
a part of the operating system and without the build-up of
inventory or disruption, can be the answer.
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