Conditions for survival in the manufacturing industry in VUCA era
Satoru Murakami
CEO Goal-System consultants Inc.,
How to handle variations
Last time, I introduced the establishment of the TOC of Dr. Goldratt, who is proud to have taken over TPS. This week I would like to continue to delve a little deeper into TOC.
As I mentioned previous, unexpected fluctuations occur in the factory floor due to various factors. There are several ways to deal with such fluctuations (variations). A common practice is to have some in-process inventory between processes. By doing this, the state where each process is "connected" is resolved, and even if a trouble occurs in some process and it is delayed, the work in process can block the delay for the time that it has. However, the lead time will be prolonged by that amount, leading to deterioration of cash flow.
Another way is to deliberately underestimate the capacity of the process. 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.
To prevent this from happening, Toyota will thoroughly implement an autonomation approach to improve and reduce the "variation" itself. This is similar to Ford's introduction of F. Taylor's Industrial Engineering, which thoroughly standardized and subdivided the work.
The manufacturing environment deteriorates due to various changes in the process, troubles, and environmental changes such as dealing with a wide variety of products. Consider how Dr. Goldratt thought to break the limits of the Toyota Production System that was pointed out. "My job is a successor to TPS," he said.
As mentioned above, TPS has established TSSC (Toyota Production System Support Center, Inc) in North America, not only researchers such as Dr. James Womak, but Toyota Motor itself has actively disclosed its know-how to Western companies. However, on the other hand, there were many cases where the introduction of TPS failed. In response to such a TPS system, Dr. Goldratt said, "Toyota Production System is a mechanism for Toyota, and it certainly brought great success and prosperity to Toyota itself, but other companies have introduced it.
It doesn't go well, "he argued. Times have changed, and many companies have argued that the application of TPS is difficult because the "environment" is not sufficient to meet the assumptions assumed by the Toyota Production System. Dr. Goldratt's focus was on how to apply the concept of flow in an "unstable environment" that was different from the time when Mr. Ohno built TPS.
Dr. Goldratt talks about the problems of TPS
-TPS application is limited to relatively stable environments
-Many companies are suffering from instability in the current environment
And in an unstable environment, the gains from improving the flow are much greater than those in a stable environment, and companies that suffer from being unable to cope with the unstable environment have a large amount of lost profit.
He argued that it was possible to dramatically increase profits by improving the flow.On top of that, in order for TPS to be effective, three "stability" of "product demand", "production process", and "factory load" are required,
and there is a concrete methodology that can be applied even in an environment where it cannot be secured. He said it was necessary.
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