By Mike Hart
Manufacturing software should be the driver of your manufacturing activities. MRP should generate all your jobs and POs on a just in time basis. The software should advise when to release jobs to the shop and within each work center, what jobs to run next. All transactions, including job labor, stock issues, and customer shipments, should be recorded in real time as processes are performed.
When a company implements manufacturing software for the first time, its process workflow must be completely revamped in order to utilize the software in the manner described above. All too often, however, the software is used to accommodate existing processes and fails to improve the company’s operating efficiency.
Instead of learning to use MRP settings to generate jobs and POs on a just in time basis, jobs and POs continue to be manually planned using shortage lists, BOM explosions, and other homemade workarounds.
Instead of using MRP to generate a rough cut schedule with relative alignment of subassembly jobs, scheduling is still done manually, one chain of jobs at a time, without regard to the interdependent nature of subassemblies and purchased job inputs.
Instead of releasing jobs to the shop in coordination with shop capacity, jobs are released as early as possible, which clogs up work center schedules, as well as staging areas and aisles, making it more difficult for jobs to get through the shop.
Instead of scheduling jobs in prioritized fashion within each work center, jobs are expedited one at a time, to the detriment of other jobs and the overall job schedule.
Instead of recording stock issues when they occur, which provides real time inventory status and feedback on BOM accuracy, stock is backflushed after the fact at time of job completion with no BOM feedback to prevent future stock inaccuracies.
Instead of recording job labor in a timely fashion to get the benefits of real time job tracking and shop floor control, it is entered after the fact and does little more than update job costs and labor history.
It is easy for a company to operate essentially the same as it always has and to use the new manufacturing software simply to record transactions. Some benefits may occur, such as having a nicer job traveler and more reporting, but they will have only a marginal impact at best on overall operating efficiency.
It is totally natural for department supervisors and workers to resist change and attempt to operate as they always have.
So if your company has invested in manufacturing software and you are disappointed in the lack of improvement to your operating efficiency, the software is not the problem – it is the way it is being used. If it is used passively merely to record transactions, you’ll never see significant benefits. On the other hand, if you can throw away your old processes and make the software the driver of your process workflow, you can experience a dramatic improvement in operating efficiency.
Mike Hart is the co-founder and President of DBA Software Inc., a leading provider of manufacturing software for small businesses.
Instead of using MRP to generate a rough cut schedule with relative alignment of subassembly jobs, scheduling is still done manually, one chain of jobs at a time, without regard to the interdependent nature of subassemblies and purchased job inputs.
Instead of releasing jobs to the shop in coordination with shop capacity, jobs are released as early as possible, which clogs up work center schedules, as well as staging areas and aisles, making it more difficult for jobs to get through the shop.
Instead of scheduling jobs in prioritized fashion within each work center, jobs are expedited one at a time, to the detriment of other jobs and the overall job schedule.
Instead of recording stock issues when they occur, which provides real time inventory status and feedback on BOM accuracy, stock is backflushed after the fact at time of job completion with no BOM feedback to prevent future stock inaccuracies.
Instead of recording job labor in a timely fashion to get the benefits of real time job tracking and shop floor control, it is entered after the fact and does little more than update job costs and labor history.
It is easy for a company to operate essentially the same as it always has and to use the new manufacturing software simply to record transactions. Some benefits may occur, such as having a nicer job traveler and more reporting, but they will have only a marginal impact at best on overall operating efficiency.
It is totally natural for department supervisors and workers to resist change and attempt to operate as they always have.
So if your company has invested in manufacturing software and you are disappointed in the lack of improvement to your operating efficiency, the software is not the problem – it is the way it is being used. If it is used passively merely to record transactions, you’ll never see significant benefits. On the other hand, if you can throw away your old processes and make the software the driver of your process workflow, you can experience a dramatic improvement in operating efficiency.
Mike Hart is the co-founder and President of DBA Software Inc., a leading provider of manufacturing software for small businesses.
I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz answer back as I'm looking to create my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. many thanks projekty domów kanadyjskich
Posted by: projekty domów kanadyjskich | May 16, 2013 at 12:06 PM