A Vision of
How it could Be (The Whole Thing).
The purpose of this
document is to describe, in general terms, where appropriate, specific terms,
where known, guidelines associated with improvement efforts involving all
aspects of the Photochemicals business, currently, as well as future efforts.
This is a living, and therefore changing document.
Scope:
The effort to change
Photochemicals into a cost reduction, high quality effort needs to embrace the
total length of the current supply chain, and possibly, on a world wide basis,
address best possible source of supply issues as well.
This effort is directed
at Rochester, specifically but its elements are generic. The following topics
are discussed initially:
Purpose:
To redefine a business
in such a fashion that the new organization exceeds current goals, and is
proactively defining its own future via self-involvement.
1. Shop Floor
Operations
THE fundamental concept
associated with the plan, or vision describing future directions, is that
operations has control, via operation of the tools and mechanisms provided to
them for these purposes, and is supported not directed by staff(s).
The function of staff(s)
is to provide support to operations, and to fix chronic problems that reduce
factory throughput.
Operations should have measures that define the effectiveness of various
improvement
efforts. Those efforts not meeting
objectives in accordance with stated, planned and timed improvements should be re-evaluated for alternative
solutions.
Measures of
effectiveness around improvement programs are the responsibility of operations,
and will affect staff performance evaluations.
An essential element of
Shop Floor operations is the ability to "re-do" the daily schedule,
impacting material planning, labor planning, and possible deliveries. These
adjustments to the daily efforts need to be done at a moments notice, reflecting
current situations.
2. Process
Control
Where it makes sense,
procedures should automatically set up, monitor and drive equipment while data
monitors check operations insuring conformance to standards. All maintenance,
as well as production would be scheduled within this realm, via computer, and
these schedules would represent all the work that is to be done. A people plan
for maintenance and production would be
derived (via the
scheduler) and presented on-screen for execution.
Data will be collected
from all jobs and loaded into history, to be used for various audits, trending
determinations, and problem definitions. Solutions, corrective action
guidelines, can be developed and used in the annual determination of burden
accounts.
The requirements for
this element are hard to plan and almost impossible to achieve, but to meet
future goals around cost reduction, statistically sound practices must be in
place to remain competitive. Obviously, mater1als must be of six sigma quality,
machines must operate at all times, every time, and there must be adequate
people, of appropriate skill levels, motivated to exceed goals while realizing
rewards come slowly.
3. Demand
Planning
The
"schedule" would be initially built in two ways.
·
One, Make to Customer Orders, real
customer orders.
These orders would be
gathered on Mondays for the following weeks production, sorted into the most
appropriate production sequences, material and labor requirements exploded.
Material orders
would be sent to
suppliers while labor orders would be allocated to the work locations.
As these orders are
executed, finished goods would be automatically sorted at the palletizer, by
Customer Order, customer location (truck), and pallet quantities loaded,
on-site, for shipment to major customer sites. These trucks could also pick up
other materials, film and paper, for instance,
at other manufacturing
locations or at distribution, by the same customer order and the completed
customer order shipped.
·
Two
Re-supply orders from
central, or regional distribution systems would be handled in the same fashion
as today. These orders would flow into the process for all items not covered in
approach one. There may be situations where an item is handled both ways, and the
process will handle this.
Re-supply orders would
flow to the distribution systems as they do today.
4. Work Systems
Implications
As shop floor
operations, process control and demand planning proceed towards the objectives
stated in earlier paragraphs, additional efforts in support of these directives
need to be formed:
·
Order Processing, both Customer and Re-Supply would need
specific individuals, and functions staffed provide support around this
critical effort.
b. Distribution
functions associated with Customer Orders, shipping labels, instructions,
loading trucks, ~ and many additional functions would need support.
·
Material supply functions associated with one-week
lead-time, the management, accounting, and payment would need support.
These come to mind
immediately, and I'm sure there are many others to be defined as we go along
this path. Data from the current work systems redesign effort
can be mapped against
this starting vision, and the vision expanded as details are defined.
5. Objectives
The objectives of these
new directions are many, but the most important is to achieve sufficient cost
reductions allowing us, as a business, to remain competitive. Currently, the
costs of indirect labor
(Staff support and
functions supplied to Photochemicals) represent a sizeable piece of cost. It
would
be my proposal that
these functions be examined in a way to determine how they could be brought
into the "direct" labor force and NOT increase head count.
Additionally, costs
associated with Finished Goods Inventory, currently at $15,000,000 plus
carrying charges would be significantly reduced from a corporate viewpoint when
Photochemicals begins manufacturing to real Customer Orders, not resupplying
inventory levels associated with distribution, and all the safety stocks, cycle
stocks and various "windage" added to the level of existent
inventories.
In sure as we move along
this path, other opportunities will make themselves evident.
6. Measures
Efforts to talk about a
project of this scope are, at best, more misunderstood than not, yet some
discussion of both
local, as well as worldwide functionality and measures of success, or
comparison, should be addressed. Each plant does basically the same set of
functions, in slightly different fashions, mostly due to local conditions:
a. Materials
are brought into the plant site for production at some time prior to use.
b. The
materials are utilized in a mixing operation, creating a transformation.
c. Mixed
materials are transferred, via plumbing, to a filling operation where
at least two transformations occur.
§
Mixes are filled into containers
§
containers are either boxed (second transform) or
palletized, as with drums.
§
d. Finished
Goods are palletized, wrapped, and shipped.
I believe it is
necessary, for proper planning, accounting, forecasting, defining improvement
efforts and for many other reason, that measures exist at each section along
the material flow (described) plant by plant, worldwide. If a person were to
draw a picture of what's been described in this effort,
it would look something
like this:
