Manufacturers are facing enormous challenges. They are either confronted with an increased demand from their customers with a pressure to deliver more reliably and faster, or with severe competition for their market share. Many end up in a price war. Where, as a result, the whole sector suffers. There is another way though! How can manufacturers realise the maximum from their limited capacity in order to raise their productivity, and deliver speedily and dependably to customers?

Additional delivery, reduced lead time

On the one hand it is extremely difficult for the manufacturing industry to adjust the capacity of their engineering and production; often the effort requires comprehensive knowledge and the production is complex and expensive.

On the other hand it is not acceptable to refuse orders when demand is high. Often the business is cyclical. To delay a customer order (let alone to decline) can result in a damaged customer relationship. These orders may well be critical for the next economic cycle.

Manufacturers need to accept most orders and deal with the consequences of the logistical execution. Lead times of projects or orders increase whilst the speed of delivery comes under pressure when extra work is required from the shop-floor. Operating costs rise and there is a possibility of fines for late delivery. This not only hurts the bottom line but can also jeopardise customer relations. The companies’ reputation can be impaired and the market share put in danger. In order to be able to compete, manufacturers need an approach with which to tackle the above challenges.

Irregularity and idle time

Many manufacturers scarcely differ from any other project environment. Often the organisation appears to be working at full capacity. However, a great deal of capacity is lost due to a lack of (coherent) co-ordination. In some cases as much as 50%! Elimination of this wastage offers amazing opportunities!

Where does the waste in project work reside? Every company realising strategic projects has to deal with irregularities and uncertainty in the execution of orders and tasks. This leads to delays and corrective actions to compensate for lost time and/or quality. This is where the problems start. The impact of delays is that resources aren’t able to begin at the planned time. The available resource capacity gets lost. Even when the problem is resolved and resources can start, there is often insufficient capacity to do the outstanding work in the remaining time. These peaks and troughs create a hectic and often frustrating work environment. In addition, due to commercial pressure it is often almost impossible to delay the project of a particular customer. There is continuous pressure to work on each project as quickly as possible. Each project needs to be able to show progress, and resources therefore switch between projects. This leads to multi-tasking. Costly resource capacity gets lost when multi-tasking between projects. The price for wanting to show progress on as many projects as possible is that there are delays on each one! Multi-tasking only adds to the existing waste. The whole organisation becomes cluttered with work. Very few of the projects and orders are delivered within the terms of the original contract.

Solution

We help companies manage and conduct their business with a minimum of waste so that speed, productivity and lead-time performance remain as high as possible. We offer a proven proprietary process to identify the systemic and behavioural constraints. In the next step your company, with our facilitation, will be able to eliminate wasteful activities and revert into productive capacity using behaviours and processes that are effective. In just a few months, your company will be able to identify spectacular improvements.