jump to navigation

Optimizing Your Manufacturing Process Using Lean Manufacturing October 14, 2008

Posted by candasys in Production Control Software, Supply Chain, business advice, business help.
Tags: , , ,
add a comment

What is Lean Manufacturing? Lean Manufacturing is the principle of increasing revenue not just by increasing sales but by reducing waste.

“Lean manufacturing or lean production, which is often known simply as “Lean”, is the practice of a theory of production that considers the expenditure of resources for any means other than the creation of value for the presumed customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. In a more basic term, more work with fewer people. Lean manufacturing is a generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System.”
Source: Wikipedia

The Lean Manufacturing philosophy names seven major wastes that should be dealt with

  • Over-production,
  • Transportation,
  • Waiting time,
  • Processing,
  • Motion,
  • Inventory,
  • Scrap.

The idea here is that when you are able to control the waste you will be able to control earnings and expenditure.

Lean, as in free from superficial baggage, aims to help manufacturers become more cost efficient and less wasteful. The principle follows a domino effect. If waste is reduced, the quality of the product is increased. If the quality of the product is increased, the production time and the production cost decreases. This whole scenario ends up with an increase in total revenue from sales.

If the process is able to minimize or eliminate any of the following listed below, then the production will be said to be “lean”. Also, with Lean Manufacturing follows greater income, greater quality, and less waste an interesting for any company whether they are already pulling down a good amount of revenue or if they are flagging in their sales.

Defects, Overproduction, Transportation, Waiting, Inventory, Motion, Processing

Process planning should adapt to current situations and should be critical of itself. Only then can there be any meaningful and productive change in the processing system.

How To Solve Supply Chain Related Issues June 29, 2008

Posted by candasys in Production Control Software, Supply Chain.
Tags: , ,
add a comment

How To Solve Supply Chain Related Issues

By: David Gass

Businesses whose operations rely on supply chains have to manage inventories of a large variety of assorted items. Traditional systems of inventory management lead to many inefficiencies. Adapting newer technology can largely eliminate these. To this end, many companies are exploring silent commerce or exploiting the benefits of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags combined with wireless communication and sensors.

Advantages of Using RFID Tags

RFID is a technology that uses radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. An RFID tag or transponder is a microchip attached to an antenna. It stores a serial number that identifies a person or object. The RFID is the size of a grain of sand and sends out an electronic signal when it is near a sensor. Production costs have been significantly lowered and RFID tags are now finding a host of applications in industry. Their use in lowering costs in the supply chain is of particular significance. Typical applications include the following.

  • Items with RFID tags reaching a warehouse will not have to be registered manually. The information lodged on the tag is read automatically and entered into the inventory database.
  • Physical counting and sorting is eliminated. Damaged items or those nearing expiration will be automatically identified.
  • Packing instructions will be displayed automatically on a reader for the warehouse staff to act upon.
  • Costs can be cut down substantially as many clerical functions and labor intensive processes are eliminated.
  • Greater warehouse efficiencies are possible due to greater accuracy in order fill rates, faster inventory turnover, and increased customer satisfaction.
  • It is easy to track lost or misplaced products, thus enhancing security.
  • Availability of reliable data makes it possible to do demand forecasting and replenishment applications with greater accuracy.

Data Management Issues

Implementation of silent commerce and associated analytic capabilities raises data management issues that companies must address. Below is a list of the issues

Standards: The Auto-ID Center, an organization comprising more than 90 manufacturers and companies is doing work on Electronic Product Identification Codes (EPC) that will replace the existing Universal Product Code (UPC). This will enable companies to track products on a real-time basis along the entire supply chain globally.

Data Sharing: Organizations are presently in the initial stage of using RFID tags in their supply chain systems. Most implementations exist in closed system environments. As the systems proliferate and companies realize the advantages of cost saving even in closed systems, they will increasingly be convinced about sharing data with trading partners.

Privacy: Having a chip in various products creates unforeseen privacy issues that have to be addressed. Theoretically, anyone with a scanner will be able to locate any product. There are ways to overcome this, but it does highlight the serious nature of the problem.

Modern technology offers many ways to bring about operational efficiencies in a company’s processes and systems. Using RFID tags can bring about substantial cost savings in an enterprise’s logistics systems. Firms planning to use silent commerce can think of starting a pilot business to business project before implementing the technology on a global scale.

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) January 24, 2008

Posted by candasys in MRP, Production Control Software.
Tags: , , , , ,
add a comment

Material requirements planning (MRP) is a computer-based inventory management system designed to assist production managers in scheduling and placing orders for dependent demand items. Dependent demand items are components of finished goods such as raw materials, component parts, and subassemblies for which the amount of inventory needed depends on the level of production of the final product. For example, in a plant that manufactured bicycles, dependent demand inventory items might include aluminum, tires, seats, and derailleurs.

The first MRP systems of inventory management evolved in the 1940s and 1950s. They used mainframe computers to explode information from a bill of materials for a certain finished product into a production and purchasing plan for components. Before long, MRP was expanded to include information feedback loops so that production personnel could change and update the inputs into the system as needed. The next generation of MRP, known as manufacturing resources planning or MRP II, also incorporated marketing, finance, accounting, engineering, and human resources aspects into the planning process. A related concept that expands on MRP is enterprise resources planning (ERP), which uses computer technology to link the various functional areas across an entire business enterprise.

MRP works backward from a production plan for finished goods to develop requirements for components and raw materials.MRP begins with a schedule for finished goods that is converted into a schedule of requirements for the subassemblies, component parts, and raw materials needed to produce the finished items in the specified time frame, Thus, MRP is designed to answer three questions: what is needed? how much is needed? and when is it needed?

MRP breaks down inventory requirements into planning periods so that production can be completed in a timely manner while inventory level and related carrying costs are kept to a minimum. Implemented and used properly, it can help production managers plan for capacity needs and allocate production time.