How to Redesign the Factory for Flow Manufacturing-Integrating Product, Process, and People

摘要

In order to compete and sustain competitive advantage in the 21st century, the business strategy for a manufacturer calls for a cost-effective management of its products, processes, and people. The entire process must achieve faster manufacturing and delivery cycles, lower costs, and better quality to satisfy customer needs in a very highly competitive environment. This strategy requires a dynamic infrastructure and a synchronized network of customer-focused processes, product designs, people organization, and systems to satisfy the demand for product varieties with immediate deliveries. This paper proposes a framework for synchronizing the manufacturing segment of the supply chain by redesigning the factory layout, people organization, manufacturing process flow, and systems and procedures. It takes an integrated resource management approach to blend the cross-functional disciplines from marketing, industrial engineering, manufacturing/process engineering, materials management, production management, and quality. The paper specifically outlines a step-by-step methodology to redesign the factory floor for synchronized flow manufacturing and lean production. The paper proposes the integration of enterprise resources planning (ERP), demand-pull materi-als/Just-in-Time (JIT) and selected initiatives from quality management (QM) that provide for an infrastructure for the manufacturing strategy to operate. The paper also highlights the results that the integrated approach can lead to in achieving the key competitive advantages of reduced cycle time and costs.