Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) is a strategy which needs to applied throughout the company and whose primary goal is the reduction of lead-time in each and every operation of the company while simultaneously reducing costs and improving quality. QRM can be defined in two contexts: (i) Externally (Customers point of view): QRM means quickly responding to customer needs by designing and producing goods customized to cater those needs. (ii) Internally, QRM stresses on reducing the lead times throughout the organization, leading to lower inventory, better quality, reduced cost, and greater responsiveness. Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) uses Manufacturing Critical-path Time (MCT) as the metric for measuring the success of QRM processes. MCT is an extension of the concept of lead-time, which is the time from the receipt of order from the customer till the product is delivered to the customer. There are 2 ways of implementing QRM: one is using large Continue reading
Operations Management Concepts
Rummler-Brache Process Improvement Methodology – 9 Boxes Model
From their best seller Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart, Rummler-Brache Process Improvement Methodology draws inspiration from Gilbert’s Behavioral Engineering Model and its understanding of the interdependency of performance and the environment. According to Rummler-Brache Process Improvement Methodology: Addresses performance in a comprehensive, rather than “piecemeal” fashion. Focuses on the 9-variables that represent management’s performance improvement levers. Presents tools rather than mere theory or model of performance. Demystifies the connection between human performance and organizational performance. Provides a basis for optimism: the challenge can be met. The Rummler-Brache Process Improvement Methodology is comprised of three levels of performance; organizational, process and job/performer; and three performance dimensions; goals, design and management. This model forms nine variables in a structured manner, examining human performance in an organizational system. The Three Levels of Performance: Consists of monitoring performance at Job/Performer level, Process Level and Organizational level. These three levels are intricately depended on each other. Any Continue reading
The Deming Prize – Philosophy, Assessment Criteria, and Benefits
The Deming Prize, named after Dr. W. Edwards Deming, was established in 1951. To reconstruct Japan’s economy after WWII, the Japanese government encouraged the formation of industrial organizations. This initiative resulted in the formation of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). JUSE gathered experts and executives from Japan’s key sectors to achieve this goal by exchanging best practices for quality improvement. Dr. Deming was named an expert by JUSE to educate and coach executives, engineers, and academics in the industrial sector on quality control following his commissioning by the United States Army to help with Japan’s postwar enumeration. His strategies were extensively adopted, culminating in greater production, enhanced quality, and cost savings. As a result of the worldwide awareness of the excellent quality attributed to Japanese goods, demand increased. Deming’s Philosophy The award recognizes achievement in comprehensive quality management and is given to people or organizations who effectively Continue reading
Work Study – Meaning, Importance and Procedure
Work Study forms the basis for work system design. The purpose of work design is to identify the most effective means of achieving necessary functions. Work study aims at improving the existing and proposed ways of doing work and establishing standard times for work performance. Work design involves job design, work measurement and the establishment of time standards and worker compensation. Work Study is encompassed by two techniques -method study and work measurement (time study): Method study is the systematic recording and critical examination of existing and proposed ways of doing work, as a means of developing and applying easier and methods and reducing costs. The main purpose of method study is to eliminate the unnecessary operations and to achieve the best method of performing the operation. Method study is also called methods engineering or work design. Method engineering is used to describe collection of analysis techniques which focus on improving Continue reading
Kaizen Vs Six Sigma: What’s the Difference?
The significance of a positive change is intrinsically characteristic of any culture. However, when viewed through the lens of a specific set of traditions, philosophies and the world picture, the phenomenon shapes, gaining new shades of meaning and incorporating more wisdom. Although kaizen, which is the Japanese interpretation of the continuous improvement concept, originates from a culture strikingly different from the Western one, in general, and the American one, in particular, it rubs shoulders with the Six Sigma concept as the foundation for an unceasing change toward the changing concept of perfection. The concept of improvement, which both Six Sigma and kaizen are meant to be geared toward, evidently is the characteristic that brings the two notions together. Diving deep into the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, one must mention that it implies little changes done reliably over a drawn out stretch of time. In other words, the focus on the Continue reading
Kaizen – Definition, Meaning, Process, Implementation, Advantages and Disadvantages
What is Kaizen? Japan’s management philosophy has introduced a new creative strategy for competitive success in business, or the so-called “Kaizen” model. The term Kaizen began to receive attention from management experts and scholars around the world when Masaaki Imai published his first book in 1986, “The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success”. Kaizen is a Japanese word with literally mean improvement, taken from words ‘Kai’, which means continuous and ‘zen’ which means improvement. Some translate ‘Kai’ to mean change and ‘zen’ to mean good, or for the better. In the context of Lean manufacturing, kaizen is understood to signify small, incremental, and frequent improvements to a process. Lean philosophy states that the large improvement which just require small amounts of investment and risk. The kaizen main mindset is making process improvements without adding people and space to the process. The more important one is implement the change without spending the Continue reading