PARENTINGTHEPRODUCTIONPROCESS

Can guiding and supervising a productthrough its lifecycle be considered analogous to

raising children? The aim is the same, saysRoger Meloy, Product Manager responsible

for the planning of product directionfor Control, Cincom's manufacturing

control software.

Production controllers could do well toshare the same goal as parents: to raiseoffspring in such a way that they requirethe minimum of supervision by the time

they are mature; or in this case, to reduce the timespent supervising a product throughout its lifecycle.

During the first few phases of a product's lifecyclethere is more need for control than later on during thesupport and service period (Fig 1). As products andproduction methods mature, people gain experienceand fewer checks are needed to ensure that driftingfrom initial design and production specificationsdoesn't occur.

One lesson learnt from the Just in Timemanufacturing methodology is the cutting out of.needless expense. Since control of the JIT processitself is an expense, it must be of direct value to anenterprise. If adopted, though, JIT teaches thatsimple and direct control management techniquesare more successful and cost-effective thanelaborate, and often remote, formal systems.

Apart from expense, detailed and formal planningand control is essential at the inception stage of aproduct's lifecycle. At this stage, materials andprocesses are unproven and need to be planned andmeasured in detail. For example, if a prototype needsmany specialised components, there should beaccurate accounting for when each component willbe needed during the production process.

In addition, every aspect of production, from partsto personnel, must be set up to meet designspecifications. Each aspect needs feedback regard-ing its ability to meet these specifications. Necessaryperformance management techniques must beincluded at the inception phase to meet the main goalof reducing control levels as product and processmature.

The main concern in the prototyping phase shouldbe coordinating and managing the diverse activitiesinvolved. This phase requires that product andprocess design engineers, quality engineers andproduction planning specialists, for example, work

MANUFACTURING ENGINEER OCTOBER 1989

together. They may not necessarily be used tocooperating to produce a real product; however, if adecrease in control is to be achieved, there must becooperation. Product and process designing are notjust significant aspects of product cost; they must beaccomplished as part of a complete schedule to bringsomething to market on time.

A good first step in introducing a product is to usethe project management technique of breaking downlarge tasks into smaller ones (Fig 2). This makes iteasier to measure production costs and detail theinterrelation of the different tasks involved. Workunits become manageable and their interrelation-ships graphically clear. This is critical to achieving asynergistic combination of product and processdesign, quality, production and even marketingplanning.

After prototyping comes pilot runs. At this point,product design, process and materials must betested under certain conditions. Traditional job shoptechniques for planning, tracking and measuring theperformance of detailed operations are useful here:for example, production activity planning and controlof operations are effective. Also, performancestandards for each step of the process should beestablished.

Again, control is related to specifications. If clearand accurate specs have been used so far, theamount of control and inspection to monitoradherence to them should be diminishing. Secondly,production scheduling techniques can be used at theoperation level to gain experience in the correctscheduling of production flow. Finally, as qualitystandards and the relationship between quality levelsat successive operations are still being established,lot tracking is useful in tracing materials back to thesupplier that produced them.

If pilot production succeeds in meeting designrequirements, the next step is to release a product tocontrolled production. Remembering that the objec-tive is to decrease the level of control as soon aspossible, this is the stage at which operations andmaterials that are simple and working well should bereleased from detailed control. At this stage the effortof tightly controlling common materials is not usuallynecessary, and is not cost-effective; some of thesecomponents may be candidates for materialbackflushing. Also, operations that are proven shouldno longer have resources such as machine-hoursreported. If operations are under control, the varianceof actual production to operations standards shouldbe negligible, so there would be no point inmeasuring.

It is important that monitoring be eased only onoperations and materials that are definitely undercontrol. To use the parenting analogy, nothing can bemore disastrous than to give a teenager immediatefreedom. No two adolescents need the same amountof supervision, and the same is true of productioncomponents.

Flexibility is the key. It is essential to have asystem flexible enough to allow the level of control tobe smoothly tailored to the need for control. Forexample, a system must be able to selectively

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.Controlled

Full , ; ,Production

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Figure 2

backflush individual components rather than theentire bill. Common sense dictates that one-off, costlycomponents shouldn't be treated in the same way ashigh-use, lower-cost items.

Repetitive techniques can be used in industriesnot normally associated with the high-volumecontinuous production of repetitive items. Thesetechniques can be used where the lower-levelcomponents are common and the process time isshort. Here, techniques such as backflushing cangive benefits where detailed control is not required.

If a product is a service item, there may be a final'hiccup' at the end of its cycle. The item may beproduced infrequently, so experience making it maybe lost. It may be needed on a priority basis, so closerattention should be paid to scheduling and tracking.Costing can be done on an 'actual' basis, so a workorder is important. Essentially, the product hasregressed to the point where traditional workorder-based discrete manufacturing techniques areeffective.

Finally, control should be a smooth, continuousfunction. Project management, work order control

and repetitive control techniques must support asmooth transition rather than a series of discontin-uous leaps; a single system must support all of thesetechniques. The project breakdown structure musteventually correspond to the bill of material, and thedata, including costs and specifications, should beretained and be accessible throughout the cycle.There should be no division of project control andrepetitive control. Elements of both may be applicableat a single time, and the transition from technique totechnique should be made in small increments.

Both parenting and production processes needadjustable, carefully thought-out control. Parents thatmaintain harmony and exert such control over theirchildren generally produce well-balanced, well-adjusted, useful members of society. Likewise,cooperation, planning and understanding between allthose involved in the production process, coupledwith a firm control over all stages in the lifecycle of anemerging product, should produce a useful,economical, marketable offering that could, in time,take care of itself. 123

MANUFACTURING ENGINEER OCTOBER 1989