Page 36 - MetalForming March 2014

Most of my professional life has been spent working in Europe with different kinds of sheet- metal fabricators, and I was very pleased when I had the opportunity to travel around North America studying the way things were done here. I knew that all of the ideas regarding mass production, lean manufacturing and Six Sigma were formalized and cham- pioned in the United States by people like Ford, Taylor, Deming and Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE. And while these disciplines have evolved and been optimized as time has passed, the basic ideas remain valid.
So, it’s against the backdrop of these giants of manufacturing processes that I share some thoughts on eliminating waste, continuous improvement and shortening the time between order and cash.
Time has become the key perform- ance driver of manufacturing strate- gies for worldclass companies. Every company’s goal is, or should be, to increase shareholder value, and the
Ricky Hanson is vice president, project management and applications, Sal- vagnini, Hamilton, OH: 513/874-8284; www.salvagnini.com
BY RICKY HANSON
only way to succeed with such a task is to shorten the elapsed time between order and payment.
Cash flow will increase, inventory will turn more often, and we will free up cash otherwise tied up in inventory and stock. Every process can be improved.
Job one for all of us in manufactur- ing: Satisfy the needs of the ultimate customers, the people who buy the fin- ished products at retail. These ultimate customers want new products, new designs, new cosmetics, new tech- nologies, new experiences and lower prices.
These demands reverberate through the entire supply chain. To satisfy con- sumers’ needs for novelty, we manu- facturers must work in a lean, agile and fast-paced environment.
• Working lean helps companies stay cost competitive.
• Working with agility allows us to reflect the changing tastes of the mar- ketplace.
• Responding quickly means hav- ing the final product where and when the consumer wants it.
Companies that work lean, agile and responsively gain control of their time and of their bottom lines.
Managing the Timeline
Many factors and activities con- tribute to the final form of any product, but in the end it’s the role of manufac- turing to fill the pipeline with high- quality profitable products. The three main practices of efficient timeline management:
1) Agility—the ability to move with quick, easy grace and having a quick, resourceful and adaptable character.
2) Flexibility—characterized by a ready capability to adapt to new, dif- ferent or changing requirements.
3) Manufacturing Speed—swiftness, or rate of performance or action.
Optimizing these three attributes allows fabricators to achieve world- class responsiveness, able to satisfy not only current market demands but future demands easily and quickly. Effi- cient timeline management will dra- matically reduce work in process ( WIP) and shrink rework and scrap to next to nothing. And, the value added by man- ufacturing will reach peak levels.
Process Cycle Efficiency
Since speed is the primary means of shortening the timeline, the question fabricators must ask is, “How fast is fast and how slow is slow?”
Ready; Set;
Lean
A sheetmetal-fabricating industry veteran shares some thoughts on eliminating waste, continuous
improvement and shortening the time between order and cash.
34 MetalForming/March 2014
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