Time Out Using Visible Pull Systems to Drive Process Improvement

by Smith, Wayne K.

• ISBN13: 9780471192145
• ISBN10: 0471192147
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-29
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Time Out introduces a revolutionary process, Visible Pull, for integrating the new world-class management tools aimed at cycle time reduction, quality improvement, and optimum customer service. Many leading companies-DuPont, Union Carbide, and International Specialty Chemicals-have seen significant benefits from its application. Typical benefits have included a 10 to 20 percent gain in capacity, a 30 to 40 percent reduction in inventory, a 50 percent reduction in cycle time, and more. In this authoritative new book, one of Visible Pull's pioneers describes the development of Visible Pull and lays out a detailed roadmap for applying it to your own unique business. With thirty years of hands-on experience, Wayne Smith knows the obstacles that can impede improvement in a plant. Here, he outlines the changes in philosophy and behavior that must take place before progress can be made. Smith differentiates between the traditional, inefficient "push" scheduling, where forecasts are made and everyone pushes material forward to meet the schedule, and the Pull Systems, which limit and control production based on downstream demand. With Visible Pull, workstations act in concert with one another, which in turn enables the company to better allocate resources, build a culture of teamwork, and link time-on-line to business goals. In a series of five logical, carefully structured segments, Smith takes you step-by-step through the entire Visible Pull process, including: Making the Decision-helps you decide if Visible Pull is appropriate for your organization through a high-level overview of its goals, resource requirements, and potential benefits Assessing and Planning-explains how to identify and assess opportunities for improvement, choose the right tools, and develop a specific plan for change Pull Systems-demonstrates how to use Pull Systems as the primary tool for managing time in a process and how to apply them to your specific environment Visible Management and Continuous Improvement-describes how to use Pull Systems to institute an ongoing improvement process, build employee involvement, measure your organization's evolving capabilities, and guide your future growth. Replete with examples drawn from the experience of world-class manufacturers, Time Out in-cludes a full range of simulation techniques, as well as detailed, real-world application methods set within the context of an integrated enterprise. Designed for manufacturing, operations, and distribution managers, supervisors, team leaders, design engineers, and others concerned with manufacturing processes, Time Out offers an immediate and unprecedented opportunity for truly breakthrough improvement. Time Out offers a detailed roadmap for dramatically improving manufacturing cycle time in your company by using Visible Pull Systems to integrate and focus the complex array of competing management techniques. The book details how world-class businesses like DuPont, Union Carbide, and others have benefited from implementing cycle time techniques and how you can draw from the toolbox to meet your company's unique needs. With Visible Pull, companies learn how to maximize the use of their manufacturing workstations, allocate resources better, and link time-on-line to business goals. With a full range of real-world examples, simulation techniques, and application methods, Time Out offers manufacturing managers, supervisors, engineers, and others a dynamic new way of raising overall manufacturing performance. "Wayne Smith has an obvious depth of technical and conceptual knowledge together with a breadth of manufacturing experience rarely found these days. Our members know the genuine article when they see it and Wayne Smith is asked back after every presentation."-William H. King, President, AME Northeast Region. "The principles set forward in this book apply to every plant. Wayne Smith describes th

Author Biography

WAYNE SMITH is the founder of Process/Time Management, a consulting management firm active in the development and application of cycle time techniques. Mr. Smith previously worked at DuPont, serving in the full range of plant management assignments as Manufacturing Manager for the Industrial Films Division, and ended his DuPont career as Corporate Manager of Continu-ous Flow Manufacturing. He is a frequent guest speaker at industrial conferences, including the American Society for Quality Control, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), and the Institute of Industrial Engineers. About the NAM The National Association of Manufacturers is the nation's largest broad-based industrial trade association. Its more than 14,000 member companies and subsidiaries, including more than 10,000 small manufacturers, are located in every state and produce roughly 85 percent of U.S. manufactured goods. Through its member companies and affiliated associations, the NAM represents every industrial sector, 185,000 businesses, and more than 18 million employees. The NAM is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has regional offices across the country. For more information on the NAM, call David W. Walker, Assistant Vice President, Marketing and Member Services, at [phone].

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii	(4)
Acknowledgments	xvii
Section 1 Making the Decision	3	(58)
1 AN OVERVIEW	3	(12)
Introduction	3	(2)
So What? Why Should I Care?	5	(2)
Why Haven't I Seen This? (Why Breakthrough Improvement Doesn't Happen)	7	(1)
Power of the Paradigm	7	(1)
Metrics and Behavior	8	(5)
Issues of Power and Control	13	(2)
2 THE FOUNDATION FOR CYCLE TIME	15	(14)
Philosophy	15	(5)
Quality and Time	16	(1)
Metrics and Behavior (Reprise)	16	(1)
Focus	17	(2)
Incremental Improvement	19	(1)
Principles of Operation	20	(5)
Total Quality	20	(1)
Elimination of Waste	20	(2)
Operator Involvement	22	(1)
Balanced Production	23	(2)
Values: Business as Usual versus Time	25	(4)
Big versus Small	25	(2)
Flexible versus Inflexible	27	(1)
Competition versus The Whole	27	(2)
3 A PROCESS OVERVIEW	29	(14)
Organization and Metrics	30	(2)
Assessing and Planning (Identifying Opportunity)	32	(5)
Mapping	32	(2)
Modeling	34	(2)
Assessing and Planning	36	(1)
Time Tools	37	(3)
Pull Scheduling	37	(1)
Group Technology (Virtual Work Cells)	38	(1)
Visible Management	38	(1)
Robust Process	38	(1)
Continuous Improvement	39	(1)
Understanding Inventory	40	(1)
Defining Process Industry	41	(2)
4 HOW WILL WE KNOW WHEN WE'RE DONE?	43	(18)
A "Do List" for This Segment	44	(4)
Estimating Benefits	48	(8)
Inventory Reduction	48	(3)
Market Share Gain	51	(2)
Employee Utilization	53	(2)
Project Costs	55	(1)
Summary: Is This Worth the Effort?	56	(1)
How Will We Know When We're Done?	57	(4)
Section 2 Organization and Metrics	61	(54)
5 THE PROCESS INDUSTRY AND THE "WE'RE DIFFERENT" SYNDROME	61	(10)
Special Problems	66	(1)
Divergence Problems	67	(4)
6 ORGANIZING FOR A TIME IMPLEMENTATION	71	(12)
The Steering Team	72	(4)
Staffing and Supporting the Core Team	76	(3)
The Core Team Leader	76	(1)
The Core Team Members	76	(3)
Resourcing the Team: Full-Time or Part-Time?	79	(4)
7 PERFORMANCE METRICS	83	(18)
How Many Metrics?	85	(1)
Revisiting Current Metrics	85	(1)
Resetting Metrics: Identifying the Corners	86	(3)
Strategies in the Corners	89	(4)
Some Suggested Strategic Metrics	93	(3)
Customer/Market	93	(1)
Market Share Growth	94	(1)
Stockholder or Financial	95	(1)
Employee or Community	96	(1)
What About Cycle Time?	96	(1)
Building the Supporting Tactics	96	(2)
Benefits of a Four Corner Approach	98	(3)
8 OTHER ORGANIZATIONAL TASKS	101	(14)
Setting Boundaries for the Effort	101	(2)
Developing a Rollout Plan	103	(1)
The Core Team Facilities	104	(1)
The Consultant	104	(3)
The Implementation Team	107	(2)
First-Line Supervision	109	(1)
Summary: Organization and Metrics	110	(1)
How Will We Know When We're Done?	111	(4)
Section 3 Assessing and Planning	115	(58)
9 GETTING STARTED WITH THE CORE TEAM	115	(4)
Organizing	116	(1)
Training	117	(2)
10 CYCLE TIME MAPPING	119	(12)
A Cycle Time Map	119	(2)
An Operations Map	121	(5)
A Management Process Map	126	(2)
Opportunity Identification	128	(3)
11 SIMULATION MODELING	131	(10)
Modeling the Current State	132	(1)
Playing "What If" about the Future State	133	(1)
Justifying Change	133	(1)
Training	133	(1)
Examples: Good and Bad	134	(5)
A "Good" Example	134	(1)
A Second Example	135	(2)
A "Bad" Example	137	(2)
Making the Modeling Decision	139	(2)
What Is Required to Model?	139	(2)
12 ASSESSING OPPORTUNITY	141	(8)
The Seven Management Tools	142	(7)
13 OTHER TOOLS IN THE TOOLBOX	149	(14)
Standard World-Class Tools	150	(6)
SMED--Single Minute Exchange of Die	150	(1)
TPM--Total Productive Maintenance	151	(1)
SQC--Statistical Quality Control	151	(1)
SPC--Statistical Process Control	152	(1)
QFD--Quality Function Deployment	153	(1)
DOX--Design of Experiments	154	(1)
Six Sigma	154	(2)
TQM--Total Quality Management	156	(1)
Integrating the Tools Via Cycle Time	156	(2)
Time Core Tools	158	(5)
Visible Management	159	(1)
Group Technology	160	(3)
14 THE BUSINESS PLAN	163	(10)
Benefits Estimates	164	(3)
Cycle Time or Inventory Reduction	164	(1)
Capacity or Market Share	165	(2)
Yield Improvement	167	(1)
Employee Utilization	167	(1)
Planning the Implementation Phase	167	(1)
Delivering the Plan	168	(2)
How Will We Know When We're Done?	170	(3)
Section 4 Pull Scheduling	173	(50)
15 THE PULL CONCEPT	173	(6)
The Origination of Pull	173	(2)
Pull in Industry	175	(1)
Kanban Pull in the Process Industry	176	(3)
16 PULL ADAPTATIONS FOR THE PROCESS ENVIRONMENT	179	(16)
Takt Rate	179	(2)
Bottleneck Control	181	(1)
Produce-To-Order (PTO) Point	182	(2)
Functional Kanbans	184	(1)
Product Wheels	185	(1)
Evolution of the Time Product Wheel	186	(3)
Wt and Capacity	189	(2)
Some Special Wt Formula Considerations	191	(1)
Wt and Inventory	191	(2)
Wheel Applicability	193	(2)
17 DESIGNING PULL SYSTEMS	195	(14)
Structured Inventory	196	(3)
Cycle Stock	196	(1)
Safety Stock	197	(1)
Three Variables, Two Degrees of Freedom	198	(1)
A Design Example	199	(2)
Using Wt Analysis as an Improvement Planning Tool	201	(1)
Complex Wheel Design	201	(3)
Creating Visible Demand	204	(1)
Management Alarms	205	(2)
Result: Paper Company Example	207	(2)
18 ADDITIONAL DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS	209	(14)
Handling Demand Variations	209	(2)
Dealing with Straight-Through Operations	211	(1)
Capacity/Demand Considerations in Straight-Through Operations	212	(1)
Managing/Maintaining the System	213	(1)
A Generic Pull Design Checklist	214	(3)
Isn't This in Conflict with MRP?	217	(3)
How Will We Know When We're Done?	220	(3)
Section 5 Visible Management and Continuous Improvement	223	(36)
19 VISIBLE MANAGEMENT	223	(6)
Introduction: Are We Done Yet?	223	(1)
Visible Management	224	(5)
20 LINKING VISIBLE MANAGEMENT WITH CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT	229	(8)
Root Cause	230	(2)
Creating Cause Categories	232	(1)
Pareto Analysis	233	(2)
Problem Correction	235	(2)
21 MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE	237	(12)
Shift Change	237	(2)
Daily Production Meeting	239	(1)
Pull Status	239	(1)
Weekly Priorities Meeting	240	(1)
Production and Inventory Status	240	(1)
Monthly Sales and Operations Planning (SOP) Meeting	241	(2)
Quarterly Continuous Improvement Meeting	243	(3)
The "Rabbit" Pareto	245	(1)
Summary	246	(3)
22 THE BENCHMARKS	249	(10)
The Time Benchmark	249	(7)
Cycle Time: The Prime Metric	250	(1)
Pull Scheduling Systems: The Primary Time Tool	251	(1)
Focused Improvement: The Path Forward	252	(1)
Integrating Business Components	253	(1)
Building Quality	254	(1)
Avoiding Local Optimization--Concentrating on the Overall	255	(1)
Empowerment	255	(1)
Conclusion	256	(3)
Notes	259	(2)
Bibliography	261	(2)
Index	263