Manufacturing Processes
Leading the way to Profitability
By
Term Paper
MKTG 3130:901
Supply Chain Management
Executive Summary Page Manufacturing process are important to the manufacturing companies in America. Since the early eighties American has been behind the eight ball when it comes to efficient manufacturing of products. US manufactures have been trying to catch up over the last twenty years. The information below is how we have made the change. Manufacturing companies have worked hard to become efficient and effective against foreign competition. This competition and free trade agreements lead to the fall of US manufacturing. Manufacturing companies needed to become efficient and do this quickly! Lean manufacturing was the solution that American manufactures used to complete with the worlds manufacturing changing environment. Lean manufacturing can be described by using Quick response manufacturing, Just in Time, Time based competition, and Value Stream mapping. These processes can be used singularly or mixed and matched depending on the requirements needed by the company.
Introduction In researching manufacturing tool & die shops and the supply chain for tool & die shops, I found the University of Wisconsin made a breakthrough in the ability of streamlining shop products and processes. The studies not only found that the constraints were on the manufacturing floor, but also in the families of products produced. In-office movement had the largest savings in steps and helping to streamline processes. Once I came across this information, it tempered the way I wrote writing the paper. I wanted to start with an understanding of QRM strategies and process. I will define what QRM means by comparing the strategies of QRM against lean. Lean manufacturing is a system where more processes are done by less people. Value stream mapping is the ability to review and see the process through the manufacturing shop. TBC (Time Based Competition) is the ability to have development and delivery speed. JIT (Just in Time) is the ability to get the right raw materials and correct quantity of parts produced.
Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) QRM is a company-wide strategy to pursue a reduction of lead-time in all aspects of a company’s operations. (Turnball) Unlike many JIT programs, which focus mainly on the manufacturing side of business operations, QRM starts at the time of order entry and is relentless in its ability to reduce lead times at every step of the process (i.e. order entry, design of product, purchasing and the manufacturing of the product). QRM is a process of lead-time reduction at each step in manufacturing operations. This has proven to be an excellent advantage for shop owners to implement into their production facilities. Implementing a QRM system can actually save processing time of product and yield higher profit margins for the manufacturers.( Turnball) QRM finds its roots in a strategy used by Japanese manufactures in the early nineteen eighties. In the late nineteen eighties this process was known to American manufactures as TBC, or Time Based Competition. In American manufacturing companies, the need to reduce lead times has never been greater and this strategy is applicable up and down the supply chain for manufacturing organizations. Many articles compared QRM to JIT and Lean. The similarities within all these programs are close. JIT and Lean focus on the relentless pursuit of reducing waste to improve quality and reduce product costs across the manufacturing process. QRM actually focuses on the relentless pursuit of reducing lead times throughout the operation to improve quality, reduce cost and eliminate non value-added scrap. QRM incorporates the JIT and Lean principles of waste reduction and incorporating lead-time reduction as a driving factor of production.
Lean Manufacturing Systems Simply put, Lean systems are operation systems that maximize the value added to each of their
