dwanehollands
Well-known member
Because there are just not enough acronyms in the world, I'm going to throw in the QRM philosophy! LOL!
David Dodd my question is what you think about Rajan Suri's Quick Response Manufacturing philosophy in relation to the printing industry. I bought the guys book and read most of it, until it got a little scary when he was talking about running at 70-60% capacity for manufacturing.
Hmm, now if there ever was a scary concept for printers (particular when you fork out a couple of million on a press) is running capacity so low.
I like the concept of 'lead time reduction' that he talked about, however. Reducing the time the job is in the factory. Such as reducing the space between the processes to get the most dramatic reduction in lead time. So for example, it's all well and good to get a 10 minute makeready, but if the job has to sit on the floor for another day between the next process, then your 10 minute makeready makes little difference.
I've misplaced my book so I can't brush up on it, but it was also interesting when he was talking about the spiraling of time waste. Where departments will generate estimates of how long it will take to complete a job. Those time estimates are built into estimation software etc. Then when the department gets the job, they see how much time is specified and they only aim to get it within that time frame. Instead of thinking innovatively how to reduce the time.
Then the average time to completion of that task goes up. So new estimtes are given back to the software that it now takes longer. So then they have more time to do it...Prices go up, but so does waste.
It was something along those lines.
POLCA was another interesting concept too. Like an autonomous scheduling methodology based down stream to prioritise tasks done by upstream departments so that when a press or lathe is not busy, work for that press/lathe is prioritised higher in the upstream department. Instead of preparing work for a press/lathe/machine which is already over-capacity. But autonomous.
It's interesting, but I'd like to know what you think about it - how it relates to the industry.
Cheers David!
David Dodd my question is what you think about Rajan Suri's Quick Response Manufacturing philosophy in relation to the printing industry. I bought the guys book and read most of it, until it got a little scary when he was talking about running at 70-60% capacity for manufacturing.
Hmm, now if there ever was a scary concept for printers (particular when you fork out a couple of million on a press) is running capacity so low.
I like the concept of 'lead time reduction' that he talked about, however. Reducing the time the job is in the factory. Such as reducing the space between the processes to get the most dramatic reduction in lead time. So for example, it's all well and good to get a 10 minute makeready, but if the job has to sit on the floor for another day between the next process, then your 10 minute makeready makes little difference.
I've misplaced my book so I can't brush up on it, but it was also interesting when he was talking about the spiraling of time waste. Where departments will generate estimates of how long it will take to complete a job. Those time estimates are built into estimation software etc. Then when the department gets the job, they see how much time is specified and they only aim to get it within that time frame. Instead of thinking innovatively how to reduce the time.
Then the average time to completion of that task goes up. So new estimtes are given back to the software that it now takes longer. So then they have more time to do it...Prices go up, but so does waste.
It was something along those lines.
POLCA was another interesting concept too. Like an autonomous scheduling methodology based down stream to prioritise tasks done by upstream departments so that when a press or lathe is not busy, work for that press/lathe is prioritised higher in the upstream department. Instead of preparing work for a press/lathe/machine which is already over-capacity. But autonomous.
It's interesting, but I'd like to know what you think about it - how it relates to the industry.
Cheers David!