Lead times

I think Scott Adams has covered this in detail (:

Short-term, there's not much that can be done. Long term, building the disciple and documentation system for efficient design reuse will help. I was about to make a joke about "firing all the slow engineers and obstructionist managers", but I won't.

Yes, details would help a lot! The more, the better. First off, define "appeal manufacturing" or clear up the typo.

What are the ten things that take the longest to complete?

Why not just increase the amount of inventory you have on hand?

Oh, Jesus. I just noticed that this is cross-posted all over the place to technical groups. You ought to post this to the business groups, like misc.business.moderated.

Mike

^^^^^^ apparel?

I think this is where a system analyst earns his keep. How about forming a focus group of key players of each department that is affected from sales through shipping. Brainstorm to determine what specifically the market wants and how you can provide it. You might end up with a premium fast track system along side the existing one for a while (or forever).

Thad

Sorry guys. It should be apparel manufacturing.

In order to reduce lead times you need to look at several things on the shop floor and the process ahead of it that takes the orders. Map out the entire process from the time the customer calls in the order to the time the order leaves the building and arrives at the customers location. Mark down every step along the way and assign a time value to each step. Get your total amount of time

Follow an order around from start to finish. Map out how far each order takes from raw material to finished product. Assign a value in feet for each step. Get your total amount of travel

Map out the actual amount of time that is spent actually spent adding value to the garment. That would be things like sewing, cutting, dying etc. The difference between the total amount of time between order taking and delivery and the amount of time actually spent changing the garment from raw material is the non value added time. You will likely find out that the amount of time actually spent on value added is no where near the amount of total time spent. The non value added time is where you need to start reducing.

In a lot of cases you will find low hanging fruit where you can take out time. Orders that remain in someones inbox is one. Duplication of steps is another one. Product that travels from one side of the building to the other and back again is waste and increases lead time. See if you can move equipment closer to one another.

I could go on forever but you get the idea. Reduce waste of transportation Reduce the amount of time it takes to change over a machine to run another order. Eliminate redundant steps Etc. Increasing inventory is not the answer. That increases your costs and leaves you open for waste of product that suddenly no one wants to order or it gets ruined. Tools for reducing non value added steps or functions are the Kaizen process, value stream mapping, autonomous maintenance, changeover reduction, etc. At all times involve the production worker. They know where the waste is.

I used to run the continuous improvement dept at the auto parts plant that I worked at. It is amazing on the improvements that can be gained with a minimum of time and money.

Use your brains before you open your wallet.

Yeah, bring in a consultant (hint, hint)... :O)

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My best advice is to apply Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. Visit - = The Improvement Guru

There is no quick fix for this. It is primarily a cultural and organisational thing. Tell me more about the current process and maybe i can make some usful suggestions.

Ian

HIre a consultant.... that really is the brunt of it. If you ever have to ask "how do I reduce lead times" you know you are in trouble. There are about a million and one reasons why you have slow lead times. And a billion and one possible solutions that may or may not work.

If you cant afford a consultant you need to document your ENTIRE process and all the sub-processes and pre-processes and look for problems. you also need a really good knowledge of organisational structure and process planning and operations research. .... Hire a consultant (They are worth their weight in gold if you can find the right one)

BTW i am not a consutant. I am a regular old mechanical engineer.

Just print up some business cards that say "consultant" on them. That's how I got started. ;O)