Conditions for survival in the manufacturing industry in VUCA era
Satoru Murakami
CEO Goal-System consultants Inc.,
What is a giant's shoulder? -Following the history of manufacturing(2)
Basics concept of controlling production, "dependency" and "variation"
As I have mentioned, unexpected production "fluctuations" and "variations" occur due to various factors in factories that divide labor. There are several ways to deal with these fluctuations and variations. Usually, it is a method of having some in-process inventory between processes. By doing this, the state in which each process is "connected" is eliminated (decoupling), even if a trouble occurs in some process and a delay occurs, the post-process can block the delay by the amount of time that is in the process. However, the lead time will be prolonged by that amount, leading to deterioration of cash flow.
The other method is to underestimate the ability of the process, commonly known as "mackerel reading". For example, even if you have the ability to make 10 pieces per hour, you can make a plan with 8 pieces. That way, even if you have some trouble, if you have a margin of 20%, you can prevent the delay with a high probability. However, the disadvantage of this method is that it reduces the overall volume, resulting in high costs and, when in good condition, overproduction.
As I mentioned, at the beginning of the 20th century, Henry Ford built a T-type Ford production method with the concept of synchronous mass production to achieve extremely high productivity in response to these troublesome characteristics of "division of labor".
even though it is a dedicated line for T-type Ford model, the work of the operator (worker) is made to synchronize the production through the belt conveyor that determines the pace and the storage space (space) that regulates the amount of work in progress. By breaking down the work into short-cycle work of several tens of seconds and dividing the work, we have achieved an integrated production of "two days from the time iron ore is put into the smelting furnace until the finished vehicle comes out", and the productivity is amazing.
Work is broken down into elemental work, and the daily work amount of workers is set as a quota by time study to improve production efficiency. The point of this "scientific management method" is to aim for the maximum efficiency and maximum operation of the production line on the premise of routine work (repetitive work) that can be done by unskilled workers by breaking down the work into small pieces.
And it was also a revolutionary evolution at that time, in which what was left to the discretion of the workers was transferred to the capital side, that is, the "management side made a production plan (quota)" and managed it. This was the origin in the planning-based control (PDCA cycle) of formulating and executing a plan, measuring its progress, and making corrections. However, after this, Ford's successors gradually forgot the teaching of Ford's synchronous production somewhere, rapidly leaning to the quantity paradigm, and being chased by rival GM (General Motors). Become.
Ford's rival, GM, has entered an era of full-line policy from mass-produced cars to luxury cars, and is on the road to mass production and mass consumption in order to reduce production costs with a wide variety of cars. It will be a thing.
Next time, I will introduce Toyota's approach to "connection" and "variation" that I learned from this Ford production method.
