Causes of ude 17 Date

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Date: Wed, 19 feb 1997

From: joseph N. Pangilinan

To: tu dinh nguyen

How are you, Mr. Nguyen?

I have a page i think you did not receive, which connects to my ude #17.

Still need to revise the whole thing based on CLR's.

Had a planning meeting with my middle managers staff and tried to explain toc and the 5 focusing steps.

With much difficulty,of course.

Meanwhile, on the shop floor, we identified one process (Steel Painting) as the main constraint based on most work-in-process parked before it, and also based on calculated full capacity. because of the headaches in manufacturing, we hope to convert the entire factory into a finishing, warehousing and loading plant to be supplied by subcontractors around the area.

Our processes actually include (Product Development,Acct finance & hrd are separate):

  • 1) client faxed order
  • 2) marketing group prepares proforma invoice (for confirmation of quantity, price, loadability, color specs)
  • 3) client signs proforma invoice and faxes back

    • -------------------------------------------------------------------------

  • 4) client opens letter of credit and sends us the copy of application

    • -------------------------------------------------------------------------

  • 5) marketing group prepares production order slips
  • 6) production group prepares job Orders, bill of Materials, assignments
  • 7) letter of credit is received by our bank --> production process starts
  • 8) production groups prepares purchase orders for materials
  • 9) stocks are received - timed with process starts
  • 10) fabrication of steel frames (of furniture)
  • 11) surface preparation of metal frames (phosphating)
  • 12) priming of metal frames (epoxy primer)
  • 13) drying
  • 14) weaving on the metal Frame(rattan, wicker)
  • 15) covering of metal frame (with old newspapers)
  • 16) wicker "Whisker" firing / burning
  • 17) wicker sanding

    • ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  • 18) wicker varnishing
  • 19) drying
  • 20) steel painting

    • ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  • 21) drying
  • 22) Assembly/ retouching
  • 23) packing
  • 24) loading
  • 25) shipping
  • 26) documentation & collection

    •  

    I marked the 2 parts above to show our suspected bottlenecks. as in the Goal, we executed ways to exploit the bottlenecks. some things we did:

  • 1) all multiskilled people who knew how to do bottleneck work (paint steel chairs) were instructed to help out there first, regardless of where they are currently assigned;
  • 2) additional quality control officers were placed in front and within the steel painting / finishing departments;
  • 3) smaller batch quality approvals (one by one) and transfer to next process
  • 4) we issued a memo to all other departments to support the needs of this bottleneck, such as Finance, which indiscriminately disapproves based on cash availability; or the warehouse which was giving the steel painters a hard time (making people wait while they comfortably mix paint at their own convenience-not the painters')
  • 5) underutilized equipment were brought back to life, as support and back up if the others break down;
  • 6) supervision - we instructed the pm to stay there at least 50% of the time

    •  

    I am not sure exactly what else we mean by Exploiting, and Subordinating. how do you subordinate all process to the bottleneck... and when you do change policy to subordinate all to one or two bottlenecks, what happens when the bottleneck is broken? or shifts? does it mean we have to change policy every couple of weeks?

    If we choose a non-bottleneck (only temporary constraint) to exploit, will we end up with another stock pile somewhere else which means we go back to step 1 & 2 (identify & exploit)?

    This is it for now. Thanks.

    Joseph