Quick Response Manufacturing


Book Description

Developed by the author and now being employed by a number of businesses, Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) is an expansion of time-based competition, aimed at a single target with the goal of reducing lead times. The key difference between QRM and other time-based programs is that QRM covers an entire organization, from the shop floor to the office, to sales and beyond. Providing guidelines for establishing a QRM enterprise, this volume builds upon kaizen, TQM, TPM, and other practice to help organizations streamline all functions of their operation. It shows how to quickly introduce products, along with ways to rethink materials and production management.




It's About Time


Book Description

In the decade since the publication of Rajan Suri’s landmark book, Quick Response Manufacturing, the innovative principles of QRM have been proven with impressive results at many companies, big and small, in a variety of industries. While the key principles of QRM remain unchanged, after a decade of teaching QRM workshops to senior executives, Suri has developed a clear, concise, and accessible method of presenting QRM strategy using four core concepts: 1. The Power of Time – the huge impact time has on your entire enterprise 2. Organization Structure – how to structure your organization to reduce lead times 3. System Dynamics – understanding how interactions between jobs and resources impact time to make better decisions on capacity, lot sizes, and similar issues 4. Enterprise-Wide Application – QRM is not just a shop floor strategy, it extends across your whole enterprise including material planning and control, supply management, office operations, and new product introduction Presenting new case studies on QRM implementation, It's About Time: The Competitive Advantage of Quick Response Manufacturing illustrates how QRM can not only reduce lead times but also improve quality, reduce operating costs, and enable companies to gain substantial market share. This practical reference explains how factories in advanced nations can use QRM strategy to compete with manufacturers in low-wage countries. In addition, it provides helpful pointers for QRM implementation, including accounting strategies, novel cost-justification approaches, and a stepwise process for implementation. Also included are downloadable resources with five appendices that provide a number of practical details to assist in the success of your QRM implementation. When you are ready to start implementing QRM, you will find that these appendices contain time-saving tips to help you work through implementation issues¿including simple calculation methods and tools to support the design of your QRM strategy. You can also access these Appendices on the Downloads and updates tab on https://www.crcpress.com/9781439805961. The author, Rajan Suri, recently became one of only 10 people to be inducted into Industry Week's 2010 Manufacturing Hall of Fame.




The Practitioner's Guide to POLCA


Book Description

POLCA (Paired-cell Overlapping Loops of Cards with Authorization) is a card-based visual control system that manages the flow of jobs through the shop floor: at each operation, it controls which job should be worked on next to meet delivery targets. POLCA ensures that upstream operations use their capacity effectively by working on jobs that are needed downstream, while at the same time preventing excessive work-in-process (WIP) build-ups when bottlenecks appear unexpectedly. POLCA is particularly suited to companies manufacturing high-mix, low-volume and customized products. Such companies struggle with long lead times, late deliveries, and daily expediting to meet delivery dates. ERP systems are not designed to deal with this highly variable environment, and add-on software such as Finite Capacity Scheduling systems can require complex installation. Also, the Kanban system does not work well with low-volume or custom production. POLCA has delivered impressive results in such environments. It does not require any complex software implementation: it can be used without an ERP system or it can seamlessly complement an existing ERP system. This book: Provides a step-by-step roadmap on how to implement POLCA; invaluable for both companies that wish to implement POLCA as well as consultants and academics advising such companies. Explains the concepts in practical and easy-to-understand terms by showing detailed shop-floor examples. Includes more than 100 illustrations for understanding how POLCA works as well as for elaborating on details of the implementation steps. Contains case studies written by company owners and executives documenting their POLCA implementation process and the results achieved in various industries in six countries.




MCT Quick Reference Guide


Book Description

This handy book is a working reference for practitioners using the MCT metric. MCT is a time-based metric that supports continuous improvement projects, since it quantifies an organization's total system-wide waste. Properly used, MCT does not need to be data-intensive and can be relatively easy to apply. Thus, by comparing "before" and "after" values, MCT provides a simple yet powerful metric with which to measure improvement.Although the origins of MCT are in manufacturing - the acronym stands for Manufacturing Critical-path Time - the metric can be used in many other contexts including insurance, banking, health care, and other industries.This Guide provides the key rules and guidelines for using MCT. It serves as a reminder of the main points as well as a checklist to ensure that you have taken into account the major items needed for MCT calculation and use.Practitioners will appreciate the concise and easy-to-follow format. In particular, the formatting and binding of the Guide allows you to lay the Guide flat and easily reference all the points for a given topic at one time.This Guide is a "must-have" for anyone using MCT in continuous improvement projects!




Innovative Quick Response Programs in Logistics and Supply Chain Management


Book Description

Quick Response (QR) policy is a market-driven business strategy in which supply chain members work together to react quickly to volatile market demand. Nowadays, with advances in information technologies (such as RFID and ERP systems), new challenges and opportunities arise for the application of QR. This handbook explores QR extensively with a view to discovering innovative QR measures that can help tackle the observed and emerging challenges. The book is organized into four parts, which include chapters on analytical modeling and analyses, information technologies, cases, reviews, and applications. This handbook provides new analytical and empirical results with valuable insights, which will not only help supply chain agents to better understand the latest applications of QR in business, but also help practitioners and researchers to know how to improve the effectiveness of QR using innovative methods.




Recent Trends in Manufacturing and Materials Towards Industry 4.0


Book Description

This book presents part of the proceedings of the Manufacturing and Materials track of the iM3F 2020 conference held in Malaysia. This collection of articles deliberates on the key challenges and trends related to manufacturing as well as materials engineering and technology in setting the stage for the world in embracing the fourth industrial revolution. It presents recent findings with regards to manufacturing and materials that are pertinent towards the realizations and ultimately the embodiment of Industry 4.0, with contributions from both industry and academia.




Fundamentals of Flow Manufacturing


Book Description




The Fourth Industrial Revolution


Book Description

World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolu­tion, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is already all around us, from supercomputers, drones and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wear­able sensors and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning: nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine “smart factories” in which global systems of manu­facturing are coordinated virtually, or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials. The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant, and its ramifications more profound, than in any prior period of human history. He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, business, civil society and individu­als. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future—one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frame­works that advance progress.




The Routledge Companion to Lean Management


Book Description

Interest in the phenomenon known as "lean" has grown significantly in recent years. This is the first volume to provide an academically rigorous overview of the field of lean management, introducing the reader to the application of lean in diverse application areas, from the production floor to sales and marketing, from the automobile industry to academic institutions. The volume collects contributions from well-known lean experts and up-and-coming scholars from around the world. The chapters provide a detailed description of lean management across the manufacturing enterprise (supply chain, accounting, production, sales, IT etc.), and offer important perspectives for applying lean across different industries (construction, healthcare, logistics). The contributors address challenges and opportunities for future development in each of the lean application areas, concluding most chapters with a short case study to illustrate current best practice. The book is divided into three parts: The Lean Enterprise Lean across Industries A Lean World. This handbook is an excellent resource for business and management students as well as any academics, scholars, practitioners, and consultants interested in the "lean world."




El Sistema de Produccion Toyota


Book Description

Si usted quiere entender como se origino el sistema de producci?n Toyota y por que tiene exito, debe leer este libro. Aqui encontrara una introducci?n avanzada del justo a tiempo. El mundo le debe mucho a Taiichi Ohno. Nos ha demostrado como fbricar con mayor eficacia, como reducir costos, como producir una mayor calidad, y a examinar atentamente como nosotros, en nuestra calidad de seres humanos, trabajamos en una fbrica. El relato que Ohno cuenta en este libro es brillante. Deberia ser leido por todos los gerentes. No es solo un relato acerca de la fabricaci?n; sino tambien sobre como dirigir exitosamente una empresa.