This article is to reduce the lead time, and always a time-based competitors known.
The concept of supply chain is a useful metaphor. Your company is only a link in the chain between your customers and your suppliers. The ability of the company, best quality, best delivery and the desired properties intended to provide the best price for your competitive position. Reduction of cycle time also reduces the cash, the capacity increases, enabling suppliers to a moreCustomers
Lead-time for the purposes of this article as the time from when a customer places an order until they are defined to accept the product from the supplier.
In the food trade, lead-time, as defined above, takes place immediately, a customer selects the inventory to the shelf and puts it into the basket. If we look back one step in the supply chain to the wholesaler, grocery store, probably an order for the voice of the first 1-3 days. If the voice was coolactivities to produce well-ordered this morning. Requires three to six hours of delivery time was. Continuing with fresh products, we take another step backward in the supply chain. The farmer has to plant the seeds, cultivate, harvest, collection and send it. This processing lead-time can take 6-10 weeks or more, depending on the nature of the variables. In the above example, lead-time significantly prolonged, as the production moves away from the consumer. The farmer, unlike theManufacturer of a product, has no real way that nature takes time for organic products in order to reduce mature.
A producer, on the other hand is almost unlimited trade-offs are in the process used to produce their products. Let's take a Total Quality Management (TQM) view of the typical process. For this we use an Ishikawa diagram or fish bone to some of the factors that lead times of a typical product can be identified impacts.
Image of fish has fin spine, the identificationthe main questions and each question can be important branches go into more detail. After the chart was created, usually by a multi-functional team can begin to look at how to control or eliminate these factors reduce the lead time. The ribs are these areas: order entry, accounting, engineering, planning, purchasing, materials management, production, quality control, shipping, accounts receivables management, all contribute to drive a long time at a high level.
Another approach is to list allActivities involved and the time to do them. The list could start with the customer, the order and ends with the customer able to use the product. (Note that is not the end of shipment or delivery of goods, the customer may not use, defective or damaged products.)
Now that the list is complete (also known as Value Stream Map), a value-analysis conducted to determine what activities the customer is willing to pay. After reducing or eliminating theseProduct, the customer does not want to pay, the effort is to reduce the time spent, the remaining tasks. Redesign of the product is often the result of this process. You can eliminate waste in the time of the production process and the loss of material. The bill of material for some manufacturers may all inputs and outputs used in the manufacture of the product. This could also be used, the amount of electricity, heat or other products in the transformation process. You couldall the elements that were previously regarded as wastes, such as the waste is not used in the final product. It could also be the amount of byproducts such as pounds of CO2 is produced.
"Less than 5 percent of the total production and supply of a product to a customer has spent, the actual process. Not the other 95 percent value-added time. This time lost is a window of opportunity for time-based competitors. "Time-Based Competition by Joseph D. Blackburn
A third alternative is to estimate the time of delivery is benchmarking. Benchmarking is the process of comparing your organization to that of your competitors, or best in class, in different areas. For example, your company two weeks to process an order from the customer to the factory. Your best opponent takes a week. The best time is one day in your industry. Comparing, or benchmarking key areas of business you can start to determinefocus where the greatest efforts to reduce delivery times.
Some examples of the above techniques and the potential impact on a company a competitive advantage.
So far we have discussed lead-time and how they are reduced to three different techniques. But with some thought you could say that the techniques presented: fishbone diagrams, Value Stream Mapping and benchmarking are different aspects of the same world-class philosophy. Total Quality Management TQM is a whole orcomprehensive method of examination processes. According to TQM, everything can be described as a business process. And every process should be a feedback loop to improve its performance. A feedback loop, expressed in art, means an input (measured), process (measurable), output (measured), and a control loop from the rear exit and entry process to set the parameters to ensure that the product meets the customer requirements / specifications.
The Deming wheelPlan, Do, Check, Act, and, of course, can be applied to problems with concrete data, namely those that can be measured. The first problem to recognize that there is a problem. In this case, we will lead in time to the research. The benchmarking process to isolate our business compares to others in our industry and in other areas, best practices and performance. It is determined by the level of performance, we can determine our situation. If we decide that is the lead timeProblem, you can bring more tools to bring upon them. The fishbone diagram is a way to collect data that focuses on isolating a problem to arrange. Once identified, other tools can, as a capacity to process and statistical process control are applied.
Benchmarking is conducted as a matter of course of World Class competitors. It can not always be called, but companies are always comparing the performance data. Telecommunications ISO9001: 2000 TL-9000 variant requiresSubjection to a benchmarking database for providers and suppliers. Can be measured as simple as revenues per employee, or how many items can be included in a warehouse in a day. How to measure yourself against the best. Francis Tucker, et al in HBR APICS CIRM Readings for reprints
Phases of the benchmarking process:
Identify what is to be compared Identify comparative companies Determine method of data collection and Determine current performance"Gap" Project future performance levels Communicate the results of benchmark and gain acceptance Establish functional goals Develop Action Plan Implementation of specific projects and monitor progress Recalibrate benchmarks
Benchmarking: The Search for best industry practices, the superior performance of the ASQ, Lead-quality printing.
Alcoa areas such as administration, production and service benchmarking capabilities. The process allows them to identify newIdeas and possibilities. Several excellent articles on benchmarking can be found in the journal Quality Progress. The above information on benchmarking is the article "The Benchmarking Bandwagon" by Karen Bemoswski 1 / 91
Now we have identified areas for improvement. Next, we will be able to use different tools to isolate problem areas.
"First comes the discovery there is the need here is a useful technique. Without prejudice to the Pareto analysis process and then a diagram in a herringbonegross level of analysis problem. Do it (Pareto-bone) back knitted a finer degree, and again with an even bigger edge. Repeat this process until the solution of the problem turns out to require measures or perhaps applied to SPC charts "The concept of quality. And yet, Richard Schonberger, customer and product-reprints CIRM
A Pareto chart is simply a list of occurrences of frequency from highest to lowest in a vertical histogram. A multi-functional teamsis the best way to isolate alternatives to using this method. Now that we have isolated the problem, we can take steps to reduce or eliminate the long term.
Conclusion of shortening lead-through TQM
In the last section we discussed a process for benchmarking as a world-class performance for lead-time and other business processes to be established. Now you can reduce the lead time reduction in series with two methods of total quality management to monitor performance over time and lead are:Value Stream Mapping and Statistical Process Control.
One method of taking action is to use Value Stream Mapping to redesign the product or process, so that operations are reduced or eliminated. Value Analysis has been defined as "... the effort to analyze functional requirements of systems, facilities, equipment, procedures, and supplies in order to achieve performance, reliability, quality and maintainability at the total lowest cost." Purchasing World, Feb. '89
Value Stream Mapping, also called Value Engineering, has been used in the Aerospace and Defense industries for many years. It has proven to be useful in both original design reviews and ongoing process analysis. John Deere reduced the cycle time for design of a new line from 3 years to under I year. Using Value Stream Mapping, John Deere increased flexibility, as well as offering 25,000 configurations from the original 160. "Value Analysis has helped Deere achieve shorter lines of communication among design, manufacturing, purchasing and other support functions." Purchasing June '88
Textron Lycoming has also benefited by using Value Analysis with outside suppliers. "Over million dollars has been saved since the program was implemented", Purchasing, June '88. I equate money saved with reduced lead-time; although it can be argued that this is not always the case.
Now that we have identified the problem, isolated some solutions, and reduced the lead-time of the product, how can we insure that the new lead-time will remain as short as possible in the future?
Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a technique that can be applied to any business or manufacturing process. It is effective because it highlights variability. Variability is one of the chief causes of waste and delay. By using control charts, SPC eliminates time-consuming rework and scrap.
SPC charts visually alert the operator that a process is exceeding the allowed variability; control is drifting. The process can now be corrected to avoid output that is not acceptable.
"The Ingersoll-Rand Energair (IR) plant at Davidson, North Carolina, reduced manufacturing losses 76% over 10 months through the use of SPC." Quality, April '91
There is one serious problem with using SPC. Companies have found that many employees have basic math and reading problems. "If business wants its workers to take control of their jobs, it will have to invest in the education and training needed. When Plumley Companies tried to teach its workers SPC, it discovered that over 50% could not do basic math. Motorola Inc., refocused its efforts to help employees gain reading and language skills. Employee productivity at its cellular plant is 5 times higher than predicted." Industry Week, April '91 and all of this before Six Sigma!
United States suppliers should have a lead-time competitive advantage for products made or assembled to order. However, due to foreign investment in more efficient order entry, production and logistics methods, the local supplier advantage is all but eliminated. World Class suppliers recognize that lead-time is not the only customer expectation. Only through understanding customer needs for Quality, Price, Delivery, and Customer Satisfaction can a firm be successful.
To briefly summarize, lead-time reduction is a process. Processes can be measured and controlled. Benchmarking can indicate the potential for improvement, or it can help establish a goal. Value Stream Mapping can reduce steps. Employees must be provided with the skills needed to implement process improvement programs. It can seem daunting at first but you are now on the path to becoming a World Class competitor.
