The layout of a plant or facility is concerned with the physical placement of resources such as equipment and storage facilities, which should be designed to facilitate the efficient flow of customers or materials through the manufacturing or service system. The layout design is very important and should be taken very seriously as it can have a significant impact on the cost and efficiency of an operation and can involve substantial investment in time and money. The decisions taken with regards to the facility layout will have a direct influence on how efficiently workers will be able to carry out their jobs, how much and how fast goods can be produced, how difficult it is to automate a system, and how the system in place would be able to respond to any changes with regards to product or service design, product mix, or demand volume. In many operations the installation Continue reading
Operations Management Concepts
Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance anticipates failures and adopts necessary actions to check failures before they occur. It includes activities like inspection, lubrication, cleaning unkeeps, minor adjustments and replacements found necessary at the time of inspection etc. Its purpose is to minimize breakdowns and excessive depreciation. Neither equipment nor facilities should be allowed to go to the breaking point. In its simplest form, preventive maintenance can be compared to the service schedule for an automobile. Preventive maintenance can be either: running maintenance or “shut down maintenance”. Running maintenance includes maintenance activities e.g. minor adjustments in machines revealed through inspections, lubrication, cleaning and upkeep etc., which are carried out when the machine is still running. Shutdown maintenance includes preventive maintenance activities such as minor component replacement whose needs are identified through inspections, which require stoppage of machines. Preventive inspection is one of the key activities of preventive maintenance which is usually performed by Continue reading
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
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
Just-in-Time (JIT) as a Management Control System
Just-in-Time (JIT) – Introduction Just-in-Time (JIT) is a Japanese management philosophy which has been applied in practice since the early 1970s in many Japanese manufacturing organisations. It was first developed and perfected within the Toyota manufacturing plants by Taiichi Ohno as a means of meeting consumer demands with minimum delays. Taiichi Ohno is frequently referred to as the father of JIT. Toyota was able to meet the increasing challenges for survival through an approach that focused on people, plants and systems. Toyota realized that JIT would only be successful if every individual within the organisation was involved and committed to it, if the plant and processes were arranged for maximum output and efficiency, and if quality and production programs were scheduled to meet demands exactly. Just-in-Time(JIT) technique tries to ensure that there are no zero inventories, and goods are produced or ordered only when they are needed. Hence the name, Continue reading
Plant Layouts – Definition and Objectives
Plant layout means the disposition of the various facilities (equipment’s, material, manpower etc.) within the areas of the site selected. Plant layout begins with the design of the factory building and goes up to the location and movement of work. All the facilities like equipment, raw material, machinery, tools, fixtures, workers etc. are given a proper place. Some definitions of Plant Layout are; In the words of James Lundy, “It identically involves the allocation of space and the arrangement of equipment in such a manner that overall cost are minimized”. According to MoNaughton Waynel, “A good layout results in comforts, convenience, appearance, safety and profit. A poor layout results in congestion, waste, frustration and inefficiency”. According to Andrew Greasly (2007), the layout of a plant or facility is concerned with the physical placement of resources such as equipment and storage facilities, which should be designed to facilitate the efficient Continue reading