Incoplan - Catalyst to Lean Manufacturing - Part I

1. OVERVIEW

The current manufacturing world is driven by multidimensional forces, which leads to a complex and dynamic decision environment. This demands high competencies, vigilance and knowledge. The complete manufacturing system is closely dependant and integrated as well. A good visualization of such a system could be very well seen as function of a human body.

Without any dilemma, we can mention the core manufacturing activities of any organization is equivalent function of ‘heart’ of a human body. The most of the ‘value addition’ inside the system is governed by the manufacturing function in industrial organization as it is by ‘heart’ in a human body. It is also interesting to observe that the material flow through the organization is govern and controlled mainly by manufacturing activities. Naturally, when a function is a central activity with lot of surrounding factors, it is obvious to have deviations, critical decision points and inter-dependencies. All these factors lead to create ‘system losses’. These losses could be in any form, shape and size. It could be tangible or even intangible.

These are what could be termed as ‘System Fat’ or simply ‘Waste’.

The ‘Lean Manufacturing’ intends to eliminate these ‘System Fat’ or ‘Waste’, throughout the system. It is important to note, waste accumulates maximum where the dynamics and uncertainty is higher. Therefore, in any industrial environment the focus of attention to evolve this concept is rolled around three objects:

• Means [Stock, Material …]
• Flow [Workflow, System, Process …]
• Manufacturing [Resources, Constraints, …]

In general, the definition of ‘Lean Manufacturing’ is: “Lean manufacturing is the system which aims in elimination of the waste with a systematic and continuous approach”

2. SCHEDULING FOCUS

The scheduling application has the ability to create a ‘short term plan’ based on the manufacturing model identified. Technically, scheduling could be defined as:
“A plan for performing work or achieving an objective, specifying the order and allotted time / resources for each part”

Logically, any problem domain with following four base elements can be identified as problem of scheduling:

• Task
• Time
• Resource
• Constraints

It can be well understood that for any given set of problem, with four basic elements as mentioned above, environment and nature of solution could be different. In fact, for one particular environment, the solution demand may change as the factors affecting the problem domain are dynamic and probabilistic.

There are three most important aspects of scheduling application to achieve the ‘best-fit’ case:

• First is to create a good manufacturing model,
• Second is to create inbuilt agility and
• Third is to have a strong engine to drive the system in best possible direction.