To reach your full efficiency potential, you must take the six steps described below to implement the core practices that are the drivers of manufacturing efficiency. Each step is described in full detail over the next six chapters.
Essential #1 – Plan a Strategic Inventory
Instead of using guesswork with shipping dates and operating with an inventory that is out of control, you plan a demand driven strategy that reduces times to shipment using the least amount of inventory to do so.
Essential #2 – Target Dates with Flexible Feedback
Instead of struggling with tedious manual planning, inefficient quantities and unreliable dates, and all the expediting that goes with it, you generate jobs and POs quickly and efficiently within a coordinated set of target dates that gives you an action plan for shipping on time.
Essential #3 – Release Jobs with Material
Instead of guessing or investigating which jobs have material to get started, or having to rob material from some jobs in order to start other jobs – you avoid all this by using MRP to cover all job demand and and by allocating material to jobs so you know exactly which jobs can be released to production at any given time. An additional benefit is that the master schedule gets automatically adjusted without any need for manual intervention.
Essential #4 – Coordinate Work Centers
Instead of running the shop by guesswork and expediting, you run work center sequences in job priority order so that jobs are automatically expedited to meet required dates.
Essential #5 – Issue Material in Real Time
Instead of backflushing components after the fact so that you never know what is actually on hand and what has already been issued to work in process, you issue materials on a “just in time” basis for real time inventory tracking that benefits all your inventory-related processes.
Essential #6 – Update Job Labor Completions in Real Time
Instead of running the shop by guesswork and expediting, you track job labor sequence Standard hours completions in real time to update job priorities and work center queues, which enables the work center coordination that helps jobs meet their required dates.
Essential #7 – Use WIP-Based Costing
Instead of operating in the dark with incomplete product costs, you will be furnished with estimated and actual product costs that reflect material, labor, overhead, and subcontract services, along with self-adjusting Inventory and WIP accounts.
