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Greg
M. writes-
What
kind of article is this?
I thought Strategos was a LEAN consulting resource. I have
enjoyed your article in the past, so I was surprised when I saw
this article touting "Focused Factories".
Everything
I have learned about Lean Manufacturing and Flow is contrary to
this narrow minded strategy of Focused Factories.
I
am often amused by people that want to "focus" on a
particular metric as a manufacturing strategy.
Customers
these days want it ALL: on-time, high quality, low cost,
reliability, safety, service, etc. In my opinion, I think the
author is myopic in thinking that if a factory is narrowly
focused they are more likely to excel in business.
1)
"There are many ways to compete besides low cost."
Really? You don't say. That's brilliant!
2)
"A factory cannot perform well on every measure." What
do we consider "well" and whom do we benchmark
ourselves from? This statement seems to say: 'Let's focus on two
measures and let the rest go to pot.' This is ludicrous! I
belieive (sic) it is also the reason that many factories are
lost in a sea of misdirection today.
3)
"Simplicity & repetition bring competence." I do
agree with the underlying principal that Simplicity and
repetition bring competence. We as manufacturers tend to make
things entirely too complicated.
Thanks
for your time,
Greg |
Q's
Commentary-
Focused
Factories & Lean Manufacturing
The
Focused Factory concept is highly compatible with, and often
essential to Lean Manufacturing.
The literature in the past few years has not emphasized focused
factories but the earlier literature on Toyota,
JIT and WCM does. Toyota was and is a strong advocate and
practitioner of Dr. Skinner's concept. Their factories,
particularly their supplier's factories, are highly focused.
This
is not the only aspect of the Toyota Production System that has
gotten short shrift in the transformation to Lean Manufacturing.
The Toyota "Suggestion" system has had a similar fate.
Norman Bodek, who met Taiichi Ohno and was a close friend of
Shigeo Shingo is attempting to correct this oversight with "Quick
& Easy Kaizen."
Metrics
The
focus in a Focused factory is not on a particular metric but on
a "Key Manufacturing Task." This
is usually the task that, executed well, wins orders in the
marketplace. Upcoming issues of Lean Briefing will
discuss this in more detail.
Neither
I nor Dr. Skinner advocate total reliance on a single metric. First,
one needs to distinguish between Process
Metrics and Results Metrics. "Results" Metrics tend to
measure a final outcome. "Process" Metrics measure
aspects of the process which affect the final outcome. Process
metrics measure phenomena that are often far removed from the
result. An organization must
often track many metrics to produce an intended result.
The
topic of metrics is a wide one and there are several good books
devoted to it. (See: "Performance
Measurement for World Class Manufacturing").
Underlying
Concepts
While
the underlying concepts may seem like simplistic truisms. the
same might be said of Sun Tzu's and von Clausewitz'' Principles
of War. It is surprising how often they have been ignored by
supposedly competent people. For example, Eisenhower and
Montgomery pretty much ignored von Clausewitz' principle of
concentration during the WWII European campaign. It cost
thousands of Allied lives and drove Patton to apoplexy. It also
opened the door for the German Ardennes offensive. According to
Stephen Ambrose, it prolonged the war by nine months.
Customers
& Markets
Customers
may say they want it all but they seldom get it. We
must often infer market criteria from customer behavior
rather than assertions. For
example, examine your own buying behavior with respect to an
automobile. Do you own a car with the gadgetry of a Cadillac,
the quality of a Toyota, the styling of a Jaguar, the prestige
of a Mercedes and the price of a Kia? At some point, you made a
buying decision that favored one or two factors over others.
This is all part of marketing strategy planning from Marketing
101:
1.
Identify Target Markets
2.
Develop A Marketing Mix
This
is why Manufacturing strategy is intimately intertwined with
Marketing strategy.
The idea of the Focused Factory is to find a set of target
markets with similar requirements and design a manufacturing
system that addresses common needs with common approaches and
systems. Simple but not easy.
Misdirection
& Multiple, Competing Goals
Neither
individuals nor organizations are very good at achieving many
goals simultaneously, especially when the goals compete.
What happens in practice is that one week they work on cost, the
next week quality, next delivery and then back to cost for a few
days before going on to inventory. Without a sustained,
concentrated effort on just one or two goals, not much gets
done. Check out "The
Great Nuclear Fizzle" for an example of what happens
when objectives are ill-defined.
The
paradox is that by focusing
on one or two common "Order-Winning" criteria (for
example, delivery reliability) cost, quality and other metrics
improve as well.
Too
many competing objectives is also a common reason for the
failure of many Lean Manufacturing initiatives-- the company
tries to do too many things simultaneously. Setup Reduction
competes with SPC and before either one is digested, cellular
manufacturing comes along and tears everything up. Before the
cells get started, meetings start on kanban and teamwork. People
are torn between competing projects and make progress on none. A
critical part of any Lean Manufacturing strategy is the priority
and timing of each element.
Tradeoffs
This
business of "collateral competency" is also a source
of confusion when discussing tradeoffs. Tradeoffs
are inherent to any engineering design.
In some systems, the tradeoff curve is very sharp with steep
slopes and a clear optimum. This is much like the EOQ curve when
setup cost is high.
If
the system can be redesigned, the tradeoff curve may change
drastically in character with gentler slopes and a lower overall
location. This is what happens when we implement setup
reduction. The
tradeoff still exists but it is less critical and the overall
improvement makes the tradeoff less critical.
Business
Success
Finally,
focus by itself does not guarantee business success. One might,
for example, focus on the wrong thing or an unsustainable market
segment. Again,
the manufacturing strategy must integrate with marketing and
business strategies. |
