Manufacturing Systems Foundations of World-Class Practice (1992) / Chapter Skim
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Improving Manufacturing Competitiveness Through Strategic Analysis
Improving Manufacturing Competitiveness Through Strategic Analysis
Pages 224-232
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From page 224... ...
A truly effective analysis process brings together the essential facts and specialized knowledge necessary to understand the challenges and opportunities facing a business, fosters insights that enhance decision making, and catalyzes the transition from planning to action.
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From page 225... ...
USING DATA FOR PROCESS UNDERSTANDING Strategic analysis at Alcoa is designed to focus and enhance strategic judgment through the careful consideration of facts. Analysis participants are asked to set aside expectations associated with their prior mental models of their manufacturing system, customers, and industry, and to work to discover the implications of models true to the data that have been assembled.
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From page 226... ...
For the manufacturing system, the following tools can provide helpful structure for identifying and organizing data that will contribute to process understanding: SIPOC (supplier-input-process-output-customer) models, flow charts, cause-and-effect diagrams, Pareto diagrams, output equations, mass balances, and energy balances.
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From page 227... ...
Our approach to forecasting is also easily described in a manufacturing context, where the relationships between processes and underlying principles are relatively straightforward. The historical time series graphs for the most significant manufacturing process features become the platform for the interactive approach we use to develop forecasts of manufacturing process potential.
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From page 228... ...
" A careful understanding of historical performance provides the basis for forecasts of future process potential. Understanding theoretical limits provides both an outer bound for forecasts of potential process performance and a framework for clarifying the principles that govern the process.
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From page 229... ...
The most visible product of the exploration is a set of graphs that include quantitative estimates of manufacturing process potentials over the next 3, 5, or 10 years. Behind these numbers, however, are shared mental models of how key processes in the system behave and shared understanding of the issues associated with striving to approach process boundaries (see Figure 21.
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From page 230... ...
SUMMARIZING FORECASTS AND INTERPRETING OPPORTUNITIES Developing the forecasts of manufacturing process potentials on simple graphs of single parameters allows individuals with diverse perspectives on the same manufacturing enterprise to build a common understanding of process-specific issues. Before the strategic implications of the manufacturing process forecasts can be harvested, however, a meaningful summary of the manufacturing process analysis is essential.
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From page 231... ...
Yet, this estimate ties directly back to the individual explorations of manufacturing process parameters. Current values and forecast potential values and both historical and potential rates of change are all arrayed in a supporting table.
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From page 232... ...
Operating personnel and technical experts are essential to forecast and summarize manufacturing process data. Broad representation from the business engages in force field analysis, which is used to identify the business implications of relationships among manufacturing, customer needs, market demand, and competitor forecasts.
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