Meaning of Tool Control Tool control in production management implies (1) determining tool requirements (2) procuring necessary tools and (3) controlling/maintaining tools once they have been procured. A tool or process planner must calculate tool requirements prior to the time of production to ensure that proper tools will be available when needed. Lost time resulting from incomplete tools planning can be expensive as well as causing work to delay. In order to facilitate tool control and to limit the investment in tool inventory, it is important to standardize wherever possible all the tools within an organisation. Need for Tool Control It is very important to ensure: Against loss through theft or negligence and production delays through misplacement or non-availability of tools. That the investment in tool inventories is minimized consistent with proper tool availability. Tool Control Procedure Two methods are commonly used to control the issue and receipt of tools Continue reading
Operations Management
Role of the Warehouse in Postponement Strategies
The rapid changes occurring in customer-supplier relationship has resulted in shortening the product life cycle along with the product variations, which could meet the complex customer satisfaction demands. As the customer requirements changes rapidly, it increases the complexity of planning and demand forecasting to suit the changing demands. Hence, postponement strategies are able to help in solving such complex issues. The strategy involves delay in the production process to the maximum possible time, while delaying the point of product differentiation. As the whole strategy is related to the value of information, it can be maximized with delay in production decision time, giving more time to receive and analyze the customer requirement and demand. Hence, the postponement strategies help in improving the quality of decision, while also optimizing the quality of product planning and demand forecast. The relevant strategy also allows for the flexibility in the production scheduling, where the actual Continue reading
Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA)
Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) method was introduced by Geoffrey Boothroyd since 1960s on automatic handling. This enables the use of gathered data of previously done mistakes, speeding up the development process and accomplishing new philosophies and technologies to further ensure that the activities that are quicker and more precise in generating results can really reach this target. All aspects of design, development, manufacturability, total parts, assembly time, cost and modularity are considered in this analytical process. This process mainly focuses on enhancing the product to allow improvements in the manufacturing, quality, reliability, cost, time to market, and many other fields. Integration of discrete but highly interrelated issues of manufacturing processes and assembly occurs in DFMA. Through its use companies can make the full use of manufacturing processes that exist while minimizing the number of parts in an assembly. Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) is a system that Continue reading
Supply Chain Management Processes
Although there are many views of supply chain management (SCM), at present, many practitioners look upon SCM as the management of key business processes across the network of organizations that form the supply chain. A supply chain is a network of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, transporters, storage facilities and retailers that perform functions like procurement and acquisition of material, processing and transformation of the material into intermediate and finished tangible goods, and finally, the physical distribution of the finished goods to intermediate or final customers. According to the definition given by the Global Supply Chain Forum, supply chain management is the integration of key business processes from end-user,to original suppliers that provides products, services, and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders. There are eight business processes that are carried out across the supply chain. They are: Customer Relationship Management: Customer relationship management involves establishing a framework for building Continue reading
Quality Management Tools: Ishikawa Diagrams or Fishbone Diagrams
Cause and Effect diagram are a graphical method for finding the most likely causes for an undesired effect. The Cause and Effect diagram also known as the fishbone diagram or Ishikawa diagram after its creator Kaoru Ishikawa is used to systematically list all the different causes that can be attributed to a specific problem (or effect). A cause and effect diagram can help identify the reasons why a process goes out of control. The Ishikawa diagram is one of the seven basic tools of quality control, which include the histogram, Pareto chart, check sheet, control chart, cause-and-effect diagram, flowchart, and scatter diagram. The purpose of this diagram is to arrive at a few key sources that contribute most significantly to the problem being examined. These sources are then targeted for improvement. The diagram also illustrates the relationships among the wide variety of possible contributors to the effect. The basic concept Continue reading
Routing in Production Management
Meaning of Routing Routing lays down the flow of work in the plant. It determines what work is to be done and where and how it will be done. Taking from raw material to the finished product, routing decides the path and sequence of operations to be performed on the job from one machine to another. The purpose of Routing is to establish the optimum sequence of operations. Routing in production management is related to considerations of layout, temporary storage of in-process inventory and material handling. Routing in continuous industries does not present any problem because of the product type of layout, where the equipment is laid as per the sequence of operations required to be performed on the components (from raw material to the finished products). In open job shops, since, every time the job is new, though operation sheets (sometimes) may serve the purpose, but the route sheets Continue reading