Gaining Control: Managing Capacity and Priorities - Hardcover

James G. Correll; Kevin Herbert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471979929 ISBN 13: 9780471979920

Publisher: Wiley, 2006

Synopsis

In this new edition of Gaining Control, the authors present best practices for optimizing control of manufacturing processes to meet business objectives. This reliable resource includes real solutions for measurable improvements in effectiveness, employee engagement, and morale. Written by leading experts, it’s perfect for anyone who manages production facilities or supply chains and includes updated coverage of many new developments.

About this title

About the Author

JAMES G. CORRELL is Principal of Oliver Wight Americas, Inc. Certified by the Association for Operations Management (APICS) in production and inventory management at the Fellow level, he has presented several papers at APICS international conferences.

KEVIN HERBERT has been an Oliver Wight Associate since 1998. He was formerly Eastman Kodak's director of supply chain management-logistics for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He is a member of APICS, and has taught students how to achieve qualification for the APICS Diploma in Production and Inventory Management (DPIM).

From the Back Cover

The business world is more challenging than ever. New technologies present new opportunities and the increasing demands for responsiveness and flexibility mean that manufacturing must have levels of control never imagined twenty-five years ago. In attempting to face up to all these challenges, it is often difficult to know where to begin, and this can lead to employee confusion and underperformance. Gaining Control helps you get control of manufacturing facilities and achieve increased output by retaking command with expert advice and down-to-earth writing from James Correll and Kevin Herbert, two prominent consultants from the Oliver Wight company.

Gaining Control takes you inside the Hayes Tractor Company, a fictitious company but one with all too familiar characteristics and situations. The authors expose the conditions that are causing the company to fail and miss production deadlines, leading to employee morale and discipline problems. Then, they reveal the proven and effective strategies that Oliver Wight uses to help businesses with these issues gain control of their production resources for more effective deployment whether the resources are people, processes, or machines. Following the example of Hayes, you'll learn how to apply these best practices to your own operation, leading to better control, higher efficiency, and more satisfied employees and customers.

This fully up-to-date new edition includes twenty-four new methods, concepts, and technological advances introduced since publication of the last edition. The authors explore methodologies like Finite Capacity Scheduling and Advanced Planning and Scheduling, pointing out pitfalls and potentialities and showing you how to implement planning and scheduling enhancements across the entire business. A complete guide to manufacturing effectiveness, the book also offers expert coverage of topics such as advanced planning systems, and lean and computer- based scheduling.

Gaining Control will help you close the loop in your goals to consistently deliver on time, maximize efficiency, and reduce lead times. Combining new software, technologies, and processes with tried-and-true methods, this revised edition of a classic text will help you take command of your facilities and improve all aspects of performance.

From the Inside Flap

The business world is more challenging than ever. New technologies present new opportunities and the increasing demands for responsiveness and flexibility mean that manufacturing must have levels of control never imagined twenty-five years ago. In attempting to face up to all these challenges, it is often difficult to know where to begin, and this can lead to employee confusion and underperformance. Gaining Control helps you get control of manufacturing facilities and achieve increased output by retaking command with expert advice and down-to-earth writing from James Correll and Kevin Herbert, two prominent consultants from the Oliver Wight company.

Gaining Control takes you inside the Hayes Tractor Company, a fictitious company but one with all too familiar characteristics and situations. The authors expose the conditions that are causing the company to fail and miss production deadlines, leading to employee morale and discipline problems. Then, they reveal the proven and effective strategies that Oliver Wight uses to help businesses with these issues gain control of their production resources for more effective deployment--whether the resources are people, processes, or machines. Following the example of Hayes, you'll learn how to apply these best practices to your own operation, leading to better control, higher efficiency, and more satisfied employees and customers.

This fully up-to-date new edition includes twenty-four new methods, concepts, and technological advances introduced since publication of the last edition. The authors explore methodologies like Finite Capacity Scheduling and Advanced Planning and Scheduling, pointing out pitfalls and potentialities and showing you how to implement planning and scheduling enhancements across the entire business. A complete guide to manufacturing effectiveness, the book also offers expert coverage of topics such as advanced planning systems, and lean and computer-based scheduling.

Gaining Control will help you close the loop in your goals to consistently deliver on time, maximize efficiency, and reduce lead times. Combining new software, technologies, and processes with tried-and-true methods, this revised edition of a classic text will help you take command of your facilities and improve all aspects of performance.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Gaining Control

Managing Capacity and PrioritiesBy James G. Correll Kevin Herbert

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2007 James G. Correll
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-471-97992-0

Chapter One

Out of Control

Brian Miller rebuilt the 1957 Chevy convertible for his wife as he had planned. She loved old cars and especially the 1957 Chevy. Her dad drove one when she was little and she never forgot it. Brian knew what parts he needed and had them there when it was time to install them. He figured out the proper sequence in which to reconstruct his pride and joy. He even scheduled his weeknights and weekends to ensure that he would complete the car in time to coincide with his wife's 30th birthday, yet not interfere with his family life, and work-in that order. Because things never seemed to work out exactly as planned, he constantly rescheduled his time to get things done. He met his target date a day early. On her birthday night, he ceremoniously opened the door of the Chevy for his wife. She seated herself, turned the key, and took Brian for a ride in her new car.

His planning and execution had resulted in a project completed on time. Why then, he thought from his office at the Hayes Tractor plant, couldn't he get his three production shifts running smoothly? He was the manager of the machine shop. He had a computerized planning and scheduling system that was supposed to provide schedules with which he could run the machine shop. Why was it that he couldn't achieve the same success he'd had rebuilding the Chevy?

Brian had only been at the West Coast plant for two months, having transferred from the company's Midwest division. He was the new guy on the block, and he was learning how to survive in this good-ol'-boy environment. As he looked out over the shop, he was not a happy man. The plant was in real trouble. Product was never delivered on time, lead times were unpredictable, and productivity was atrocious. The schedule that was generated by the computer was unusable and may as well have been thrown in the trash as soon as it arrived. Things were simply out of control.

It had been 6 months since Pete Smith was promoted from the Midwest plant to replace the retiring general manager. Pete had slowly begun to prune the ranks of the old-guard managers, replacing them with a group of more forward-thinking people.

Brian was one of these, replacing the Machine Shop manager who had been with the company for 45 years and had been moved over to the Human Relations department. Brian came from Quality Control to the Machine Shop, which didn't make the people in the shop too happy. They thought the new manager should have been elevated from within their own ranks, as was the tradition. Ralph Barnard, the Production Manager, had thought so, too.

On Brian's first day on the job, he was called into Ralph's office. Pete had known Brian at the Midwest plant and had arranged for his transfer, feeling that Brian's management style and quality perspective were needed at Hayes. Ralph, on the other hand, didn't know Brian at all. Ralph, who was in his early sixties, wore a constant sour smile as if his stomach were continually in revolt. He closed the door and sank heavily into the high-backed chair behind his desk.

His desk was covered with production reports, shipping schedules, product drawings, engineering changes, and memos about missed schedules. What caught Brian's attention, however, was a statue of a steel-gloved hand with a lightning bolt struck through it. The inscription read: "Cause it to happen!" This exemplified Ralph's attitude.

"All right, it's as simple as this," Ralph said, leaning back in his chair. "You've been brought in here as the Machine Shop manager. But here's the deal, Miller: You've got three months to get productivity up and shortages down. Nobody expects you to meet the schedules that come out of Production Control. That would be virtually impossible, since they're so screwed up. What I want you to concentrate on is the hot list from Mickey in Assembly. That'll tell you the real priorities, and that's what I want you to work on. If you don't, I'll find someone who will!"

Brian slowly lifted himself from his chair and thought to himself, "What have I gotten myself into?" He said, "Well, Ralph, I appreciate your vote of confidence. And I guarantee you I'll work hard to get the job done. I know I can do it."

"I hope so, kid." Ralph couldn't suppress his smile.

Needless to say, Brian left the office concerned about his lukewarm welcome, but even more determined to make a difference at Hayes. He had little idea of what he was up against.

He knew his first move was to try to establish a working relationship with his people, so Brian had his supervisors take him around and introduce him to everyone. He wanted to let these people know that he was a friendly sort and not one to just stay squirreled away in his office.

The second part of Brian's plan was to enroll quietly in a Machine Shop class at the local community college. Since his knowledge about machining parts was limited, he figured it'd probably be in his best interests to get some hands-on experience.

It was after the third class session that his teacher, Frank Snider, came up to Brian, having noticed that his hands weren't exactly the hands of a machinist. "Where do you work, Brian?" he asked.

"Hayes."

"Oh, yeah? What's your position there?"

"I'm the Machine Shop manager," Brian said.

Frank just about fell over. He had retired from Hayes' machine shop and now was teaching this class to stay busy. "I'll give you all the help I can," was Frank's generous reply. Fortunately Brian liked working with the equipment and proved himself to be a quick learner.

Several weeks later, Frank returned to Hayes to pick up some scrapped parts that Hayes had agreed to give the college for its students' use. Brian was on the shop floor, expediting a past-due part, when he found Frank chatting with a group of Brian's machinists who were some of Frank's old buddies. Frank made a point of telling them all about his new star pupil. Brian was embarrassed. But, contrary to his fear that it would lower his workers' estimation of him, it earned Brian a good deal of respect. The old timers were really impressed that the "kid" would take the time to try to learn the trade.

Brian, however, had bigger problems to face with his new job than just earning the respect of his workers. First, there were the daily 8:30 A.M. part-shortage meetings.

Some years ago the company had installed an Enterprise Resource Planning system to generate information that told the material planners when to release orders. The computer was also providing Brian with schedules and machine-load reports for each of the work centers. The only problem was that they were completely worthless. They didn't reflect the work that really needed to be done, and a large percentage of the scheduled orders were already past due. Consequently, everyone was using hot lists to communicate the real priorities.

The supply chain organization constantly told Brian that there wasn't anything wrong with the computer system. The problem was with the people, who were simply not following the schedules. Brian knew that they were including him in their comments, but he had no idea what he was doing wrong.

Brian also knew there were problems with management. It was as if top management didn't understand the limitations of the manufacturing process. It seemed they just wished things would happen and then expected Brian and the other managers to get them done on time. Sales was continually promising new orders with less than normal lead-time and expecting them to be shipped on time. To say the least, the job ahead of Brian was not going to be easy or fun.

Brian arrived at the factory each morning around 6:30. He wasn't expected to be in the office until 8:00, but expectation and reality had already proven to be two different things. His first action was to find his third-shift supervisor to see what went on the night before. Then, he would track down the expeditor. "Tony," he would yell through the constant noise that permeated the plant, "where's the hot sheet? Get me an update, will ya?" Thank God Tony was devoted and arrived even before Brian.

The next half hour or so would be spent going through the parts on the hot list, checking their status with Tony, and, at the same time, trying to assess what progress had been made and where he needed to concentrate his effort to "cause it to happen." Brian would walk into the plant and check with his own eyes to make sure that the hot parts were running on the machines.

Built in the 1920s, the Hayes facility was an old shop, with a smattering of new state-of-the-art equipment mixed in with mostly older machines. Even though they'd been painted and repainted over the years, there was no escaping the age of the plant and its equipment.

At 8:30, the managers gathered for the shortage meeting: Ralph; Dan from Fabrication; Mickey from Assembly; Joan from Production Control; Roy, the Materials Manager; and Harold from Purchasing. It was Dan and Mickey who made Brian's life difficult. But, then, they probably felt the same way about Brian.

Dan was in his mid-forties and had been a buddy of Ralph's for years. They were regular golfing partners, football couch potatoes, and they'd been known to enjoy a beer or two together as well. Mickey was in his mid-thirties-the same age as Brian. Ralph's relationship with Mickey was also special. Ralph had a son of his own, but it was common knowledge that Ralph also looked upon Mickey as a son. The only problem in this little mutual-admiration society was that Dan and Mickey didn't like each other. Neither had any advantage over the other with the boss. Their only common ground was that they could both gang up on Brian.

On this particular day, the shortage meeting got under way right on schedule. It was one of the few things at Hayes that was consistently on schedule. As usual, they started at the top of the list of shortages, which was typically over 300 parts. The status of each and every part was reviewed. Brian was prepared. He'd done his homework and knew where most parts on the shortage list were, and when they should be delivered to Mickey or Dan. Invariably, Mickey's response was, "That's not good enough! I need that part at least two days earlier." Now, everyone in the room knew that Mickey always wanted everything before he really needed it. If a part from Dan's Fabrication department was late, Dan always pointed the finger at Mickey, saying, "The parts are in the paint shop," which was under Mickey's jurisdiction. It was how Dan always got off the hook. But on this particular day, Mickey had decided it was time to push back.

Reading down the list, Ralph came to a cover that was supposed to be coming out of Fabrication on its way to Assembly. Dan, without blinking, said, "It's in paint." Mickey was ready for this, and jumped right on Dan.

"That's a bunch of bull!" Mickey shouted. "I just came from there. That cover's not in paint! It's sitting in your hand-grind area."

This backlash infuriated Dan. "You're wrong, as usual, Mickey! We've completed enough on that order to cover the shortage, and they're in paint!" Ralph interceded and cooled the two men down. Brian shook his head in dismay. This was the daily atmosphere in which he now found himself.

After the meeting Dan had taken off immediately. Brian went looking for him to try to learn more about the Hayes environment and found him just leaving the grind area. Brian asked him if the covers he had so adamantly insisted were in paint were really there. Dan smiled, and said, "The parts are always there when Mickey goes back to look. And they were there this time, too. I saw to that long before the meeting was over. You don't think I have to go to the bathroom that much, do you?" Brian was beginning to realize that intimidation was the only way to survive in this environment. You tried to intimidate the boss. You tried to intimidate your peers, and you absolutely had to intimidate the people that worked for you.

It was surprising that anything got built in this factory. It did, but only through sheer brute force and the dedication of guys like Mickey in Assembly. Mickey battled against confusion and chaos, and was in constant communication with his people and the expeditors. He knew what must ship and when. He also knew what was missing to make those shipments and he made sure he let everyone else know.

For Brian, that meant on average 150 different parts in his shop that were all past due and needed in assembly that week. Most of the parts had more than a six-week lead time. Each part had a specific day during the week when it was needed, and it took constant watching to make sure that Mickey got the parts that he needed when he needed them. Brian was continually checking, making sure the right parts were running on the machines.

Every day Mickey would come in with a list of additional parts that weren't on the original shortage list. "You know that motor mount we thought we had? Well, we had some screw-up and we need more." Brian loved to get half a page filled with extras. It just made his day.

Once the part-shortage meeting had been completed, everyone had a new set of priorities. Brian rounded up his supervisors and Tony to let them know about the additions. "Guess what, guys, more hot parts." No one seemed the least bit surprised. "What I live for," said one of the supervisors reviewing the list. Tony added these new items onto the original hot sheets and passed them around to the supervisors. Afterward, Brian was once again out on the floor making sure they were running the right parts.

With 170 employees in his machine shop to deal with, Brian's life was rarely dull. There were grievances to arbitrate, promotions to consider, attendance problems, fixture breakdowns, and industrial engineers plotting new equipment layouts. "The new Libiher hobb won't fit in the same position as the old hobb and the foundation for it is larger than we expected," said an engineer, looking over the drawing. "This means we'll have to move the horizontal broach." Next there were the personnel meetings to review all the problems about hiring new people. Then, it was time for lunch.

Brian closed the door to his office. He didn't want to see anybody. He just wanted to eat his sandwich in peace. The phone rang-it was his wife. "Yes, dear, just another day in paradise."

After lunch, it was more of the same: more meetings, more problems, more parts to expedite. The frustration level continued to rise. "All I want," Brian thought to himself, "is some decent, reliable information. At least then I might be able to come up with some sort of game plan." At 35 years old, Brian hadn't gotten to the point where he was ready to accept that things couldn't and wouldn't get better. He knew that lots of things were wrong at Hayes. He had graduated from college as an industrial engineer, and that had supposedly trained him to find better ways. Although he wasn't exactly sure just how it was supposed to be, he knew it was not supposed to be like this.

One day, while he was waiting in the expeditor's office, which was located in the middle of the shop, Brian picked up the computer-printed schedule. It listed everything that was supposed to be made in each work center for the next week, sorted by operation start date. He took it to Tony and asked, "Why don't we start using these instead of hot lists?"

Tony sighed disgustedly and told him that the first 12 items on the schedule for the lathes were parts nobody seemed to need. Then, he pointed out that the 23rd item on the schedule was the hottest job in the whole factory, according to the shortage meeting that morning. Brian was confused. He stared down at the computer printout. It was the right concept, but the information on it seemed useless. Not knowing where the information came from or how it was developed, he was at a loss.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Gaining Controlby James G. Correll Kevin Herbert Copyright © 2007 by James G. Correll. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471979929
• ISBN 13: 9780471979920
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 336