A key success factor that enabled Toyota to become the world’s most successful automobile company is its famous manufacturing method, the so called Toyota Production System (TPS). The evolution of the Toyota production system approach can be traced to the period immediately following the second world war when the economic outlook was uncertain and human, natural and capital resources were in limited supply. Against this background, the most important objective of the Toyota System has been to increase production efficiency by consistently and thoroughly eliminating waste. This concept developed between 1948 and 1975 by Toyota’s former president Toyoda Kiichiro and later by Ohno Taiichi and Eiji Toyoda represents a highly efficient production system that is similar to that of Henry Ford several decades earlier, although Toyota’s approach to both product development and distribution proved to be much more consumer-friendly and market-driven. The main objective of TPS is to produce goods Continue reading
Operations Management Techniques
Operations Management – Definition, Elements and Objectives
An operation may be defined as the process of changing inputs into outputs thereby adding value to some entity. Right quality, right quantity, right time and right price are the four basic requirements of the customers and as such they determine the extent of customer satisfaction. And if these can be provided at a minimum cost, then the value of goods produced or services rendered increases. Operations management is concerned with managing the resources that directly produce the organisation service and products. The resources are generally consist of people, material, technology and information but may go wider than this. These resources are brought together by a series of processes so that they are utilized to deliver the primary service or product of the organization. Thus operation management is concerned with managing inputs (resources) through transformation processes to deliver outputs (service or products). The objectives of production management are “to Continue reading
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR)
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) is defined as a business practice that combines the brainpower of two or more trading partners in planning the ways to fulfill the customer demand. They also explained the relationship that CPFR links best practices of sales and marketing, such as category management, to the implementation of supply chain planning and completion process, to increase availability while reducing inventory, transportation and logistics costs. Basically CPFR is an approach that deals with the requirements for good demand management. The most involved industries with CPFR are consumer products and food and beverage. The main objective of Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) is to “optimize” the supply chain process by: Improving accuracy of forecasting demand, Delivering the right product at the right time to the right location, Reducing inventory, Avoiding stock outs, and Improving customer service. But the most important fact on which the achievement of Continue reading
Seven Management and Planning Tools
Competition level within every industry is constantly growing and businesses try to find any possible ways to improve quality of products and services. However, quality is quite a complex concept that can be viewed as a measure of perfection. Quality improvement leads to a perfect product that is meant to satisfy the customer. In the early 1980s, the seven management and planning tools were designed as major tools for effective planning and management of processes, which are above the quality operation. They are as follows: 1. Affinity Diagrams The first of the tools in the list is Affinity diagrams. The affinity diagram is a visual brainstorming instrument that can be used to categorize various facts and data, ideas and opinions by a proximity factor. It is especially useful for the purpose of systematization of big data into groups and categories, according to some forms of affinity. In its own turn, Continue reading
Just-In-Time (JIT) Method – Eliminate Waste and Improve Productivity
Just-in-time or JIT means producing goods and services exactly when they are needed, like for example a new company opens that is producing steering shaft for automobiles. The company, under the JIT system, will set up the machines to produce the jobs in a row from those who collect the metals at one end, all of the way to those who ship the product at the other end of the factory. The people at each station, as they receive the product, take the job order, perform their duties on the product, and then transfer the product out to the next station after their work is completed. Along the way, the product is screened for infirmities, and if they exist, the line is stopped until the defect is repaired. In the end, the shipping agent will receive the product and ship it to the customer. All along Continue reading
Criteria for a Good Layout
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