Manufacturing Strategy MGSC 602 Prof' Saibal Ray

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Manufacturing StrategyMGSC 602Prof. Saibal Ray

• Module 1 Wrap-up
• Handout 4
• Session 5

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How is the management of processes changing?

• Few processes today run unchanged for many
  years as they might have in the past
• Challenge is the management of ongoing process
  change
• rapid continuous improvement is the norm
• Learning curves? You make your own (DTI)
• Process flexibility is an increasingly important
  aspect of process management
• Dramatic increase in the degree of operator
  involvement
• In both the design and improvement of processes

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Designing Processes for Improvement

• In spite of increased importance of ongoing
  improvement, few processes are designed with
  improvement in mind
• Old view
• Develop and Install finished process
• Use Human Factors Engineering to deal with
  human issues
• Continuous Improvement is an afterthought

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Designing Processes for Improvement

• What principles might we apply in the design of
  processes that anticipate their subsequent
  improvement?
• Accessibility
• Inclusiveness
• Modularity

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(a) Accessibility

• Black box processes very difficult to improve
• No ongoing mechanism for changing how the
  processes work
• Example
• Furnace was installed as a sealed unit
• No one understood the control language
• Product requirements changed
• Now considering removing the whole system

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(b) Inclusiveness

• Involving the people who will work with the
  process in its design has compelling advantages
• Provides valuable information from existing
  processes
• Can still use technology push through
  rapid-prototypes then use the feedback for
  iterative design
• Able to shape the design based on its usability
  
• Most important
• People become engaged in the subsequent
  improvement of the process because they were
  involved in the original design decisions

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(c) Modularity

• Monolithic processes mean that a change in one
  element demands change in the others
• Modularity
• Decreases the degree of interconnectedness
• Reduces the risk associated with local
  experimentation

Same
Same
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Managing Processes for Improvement

• A. Building an Integrated View
• Different Managerial perspective
• - Technologists view (based on technical
  details sometimes misses the broader view)
• - Operations Managers view (control and
  coordination sometimes too much concerned with
  day-to-day details)
• - Operations Strategistss view (fit, focus and
  creation of capability)
• Modern operations managers must have an
  integrated view

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• B. Building Operator Involvement
• Move from a control mode to commitment mode of
  workforce management
• Where commitment mode is not desirable?
• Any process change must take into account the
  effects on the workforce (in general, community)
  both physical and mental

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Improving Processes

• Stages of Process Knowledge
• Improving Process Flexibility
• Four Levels of Process Change

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Four Levels of Action in Improving Existing
Operations Processes
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Process Performance

• Process Performance has Multiple Dimensions e.g.
• Output Rate
• Conformance Quality
• Safety
• Versatility
• Uptime
• Ultimately there are tradeoffs between these

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Process Tradeoffs

• Tradeoffs for a particular process configuration
  result primarily from engineering limits e.g.
• Physics of the transformation
• Limits of controllability
• Order in which operations are carried out
• There may be many important dimensions of
  performance
• This diagram shows only two

Performance Dimension 1 (e.g. output rate)
Operating Region
Performance Dimension 2 (e.g. process reliability)
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Why Process Tradeoffs often dont appear to exist

• Many processes are operated way below their
  potential
• Why?
• Lack of Knowledge
• Lack of Attention
• Satisficing Behavior
• good enough
• Some processes perceived as unimportant
• Great Opportunity!

Performance Dimension 1 (e.g. output rate)
Current Operation Point
Performance Dimension 2 (e.g. process reliability)
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Four Levels of Action in Improving Existing
Processes

• Repositioning the Process in a known region
• Exploring and pursuing the boundary of the
  existing process configuration
• Progressive reconfiguration of the process
• Radical redesign to replace the process

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1. Process Repositioning

• Can alter the combined performance by changing
  process parameters such as
• Feed rates, temperature, speeds, compositions
• Will always know how to achieve some different
  combinations of performance

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1. Process Repositioning (cont.)

• Involves adjusting parameters to achieve new
  combinations of performance in a known, local
  region
• Little exploration or knowledge creation required
• Can still be significant and an important first
  step

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2. Probing and Approaching the Process Boundary

• Learn to access new combinations of performance
  for an existing process configuration
• Involves creation of new knowledge through
  experimentation with process parameters
• Also discover why the limits of the existing
  configuration exist

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2. Exploring and Approaching the Boundary

• Two very different approaches to getting closer
  to the boundary
• One that plays hunches to move in the general
  direction
• Another focused on building knowledge that helps
  direct the search
• Both may work but only the latter approach will
  provide knowledge about how the process might
  subsequently be reconfigured to build even better
  performance, helping with the next level

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3. Accessing a new boundary through progressive
process reconfiguration

• Involves progressively
• Combining process steps
• Resequencing the process
• Changing process elements
• The process itself is now different
• Allows access to a series of new boundaries, and
  new combinations of performance

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3. Progressive Reconfiguration

• Combining, Adding, Changing, Re-sequencing
  elemental processes
• Experimentation style is different
• In-line experiments (before-after)
• Off-line experiments, pilots
• rather than experiments with settings
• Starts to be critical here to have operators
  involved they will make the new configuration
  work(or not)

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3. Progressive Reconfiguration

• Making the process measurable so as to be able
  observe the effects of any changes
• DTI strong effort to foster ideas from the
  ground up to build better process (Kaizen)
• Having the idea is easy
• Making it work much harder
• Daewoos suggestion scheme pays the implementer,
  not the suggester!

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4. Radical Process Redesign

• Completely replace existing process architecture,
  using non of its existing elements e.g.
• New processing method
• Different physics and chemistry
• New materials
• Previous exploration will often provide clues
  that the existing architecture has reached its
  limits

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Cycles of Progressive Process Improvement

• Higher levels still require reexploration of
  lower levels
• Stages of Knowledge really applies only to levels
  one and two a process at Stage 8 may be still be
  stagnant!
• Even though the diagram is serial many of these
  activities are carried out in parallel

4. Radical redesign
3. Progressive Reconfiguration
2. Probing the limits of the existing
configuration
1. Process Repositioning
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Key question when do you move from one level of
action to the next?

• 1. Exhaustion of existing efforts
• Gains from existing type of change drying upand
  understand why that is so to facilitate moving to
  the next level
• Level 1 Level 2 e.g. We think this process has
  potential for more improvement but we dont know
  what the right amount of filler is for different
  grades of rubber
• Level 2 Level 3 e.g. Process cant get much
  better with a functional layout, people dont get
  the immediate feedback they need, so we need to
  move to a cell-based layout
• Level 3 Level 4 e.g. Chemistry of the existing
  process has well-understood limits and we cant
  take it any further

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Reasons for moving levels

• 2. Inspiration/New Ideas
• Discontinue work on existing level because of new
  ideas about how things might work
• Inspiration commonly results from
• Working with existing processes (DTI)
• Seeing solutions in other industries
• Developing and drawing on theory (Solagen)
• Solagen (Working on level 2 changes, but see the
  potential of a level 4 change)

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Reasons for moving levels

• 3. Necessity
• Existing Process can no longer be used
• e.g. Environmental and Safety issues (McDonalds)
• e.g. Loss of key skills
• Compelling competitive disadvantage with
  insufficient time for gradual change
• Possibly true in the DTI case
• May well take too long to develop existing line

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Some Tools of Continuous Improvement in this
framework
Level 4