Managing Production Ramp-Up in Manufacturing Networks

This paper will provide an analysis of 2 production scenarios. We will calculate costs associated with running a production facility. Furthermore, the analysis will be used to provide a basic understanding of how changes in staffing and productivity impact profit and loss.

As you may recall from the chapter on production theory, in the early stages of production, a firm is expected to encounter increasing marginal product. As inputs are used for production, they become more specialized and the resulting efficiency gains cause production to increase more than proportionately. For example, suppose one worker was capable of producing one unit/hour. By adding a second worker, each worker

Try to reduce overall production runs by aggregating different orders, thereby increasing batch size. Marketing strategy of delay in turnaround time is required to achieve this

The average lead time of a corporation is 15 weeks from production to consumption. Benchmark firms have a lead time of 8 weeks which is the goal for the supply chain (Heizer & Render 2010). The 8 week number will be achieved by analyzing opportunities to streamline the process thereby creating efficiencies and driving down the amount of time it takes to produce and ship products. Setting a goal for an 8 week lead time will give the firm an opportunity to assess their forecasting and production capabilities presenting a way to identify and address inefficiencies.

The company can also use a unit within its own process, with exceptional performance levels, as a yardstick for other units. These types of practices can help the company formulate goals and targets for performance (Slack et al, 2008). It can also be achieved by methodically measuring internal services, products and processes against those employed by competitors. Thus, Custom Molds stands to learn a lot from other companies through benchmarking. It can also help the company identify key processes and bridge the disjunction between the company’s actual state and its expected state (Boxwell, 1994). It’s also an expert method for identifying the bottlenecks which have been plaguing Custom Molds. For instance, the company’s competitors might be able to get products to customers on time. If management were to investigate the flow of their own processes [Figure 1-Question 2], then they would realise that too much time is being wasted waiting on raw materials to be delivered before starting work. A possible solution might be to hold higher raw material inventory, so that preliminary processes can begin, while waiting for other materials to be delivered. This can help reduce lead time for orders. In this way, the benchmarking technique will present the company with new opportunities to evolve with the market. However, the process can be expensive and time consuming because it might

Excel OM/QM Learning Curve tool was used to complete this analysis. This tool was selected because of the strategic importance of the learning curve. The learning curve is applied to aid in the formulation of strategic decisions about employment levels, capacity, costs, and pricing. This tool showed that with the learning curve applied how production hours would be affected if the batches increased. This allows the company to understand what their costs associated to labor is and also if they will be able to meet

In this world of technology and innovation even Ford Motor Company is investing in new technologies in order to improvised their supply chain management, build an environment with interaction between each department as well as suppliers in order to reduce the bridging gap between them. As it is a leader in auto market segment, needs to update and coop with time and technology periodically but due to huge competition from the Japanese auto makers like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, Suzuki etc., who are strong and powerful with references to the supply chain process management due to which Ford market share dip compared to others as well as the sales also declined. During this time, Ford analysed the situation and thought positively and started improvement in the supply chain management.

Businesses benefit from having a good relationship with their suppliers of raw materials and components. In manufacturing, companies are adopting “Just-in-time” manufacturing. This means that businesses only produce when they have an order, and they only get materials delivered when they are needed. Businesses require reliable and efficient suppliers to be able to order their stock last-minute.

From a production perspective, we invested heavily in the early rounds in automation and building capacity for the new products. In the early rounds, we also invested a lot in marketing to create as high a customer awareness as possible.

Manufacturing operations are crucial to our company. To be successful and satisfy consumers, Jaguar Land Rover must have an efficient line of production. The operations management team is primarily concerned with overseeing, designing, and controlling the process of the business operations in the production of our goods. While we have been prosperous in the past, it is critical that we change our production process from just-in-case manufacturing to just-in-time manufacturing. Not only will implementing this new practice allow us to maintain our success, it will also allow us to surpass it and achieve an entire new level of prosperity.

Eliyahu M Goldratt purpose of writing this book is to introduce individuals to how to manage and measure effectively. Goldratt illustrates how the accounting cost figures and productivity per machine can actually be problematic for it misleads individuals into thinking they’re achieving the goal. Rather all attention should be focused on strategy planning and managing the bottlenecks because they are the true driving metric of production. One major takeaway message from this novel is that there is always room for improvement. This philosophy of ongoing improvement originated in a Toyotas production system and is better know as the Kaizen theory. The Novel, stresses the Kaizen theory, which starts with an indication, then an in-depth analysis, followed by a diagnosis, eventually arrive ate a hypothesis and ending with

Supply Chain Management : The vertical integration in the supply chain led them to achieve shorter time frame of release and also helped them to

Reference Case from "Project Management, A Systems approach to planning, scheduling and controlling" by Harold Kerzner, PH.D.

The market introduction project of a new product is as important as its design project. When a company is budgeting for a new product project, it is fundamental to include the marketing expenses in the initial budget, thus, the company will not have future surprises. Dr. Levoy, in his article, The difference between efficiency and effectiveness, he explains that it may be a waste of time if a company has an entirely efficient manufacturing process, however, at the end is not effective, or does not achieve its objective, such as bringing more clients or selling a new product, (Levoy, B., 2011). This is the importance of a marketing project, the marketing professionals can sell ideas, products, services, anything that is marketable, and if a company is launching a product I believe that the goal is to reach the customers. Therefore, to understand well our plan for Fiat Chrysler and the launching of the new Jeep Wrangler Pickup Truck, we design the following schema to explain the plan details: 1. A fast explanation of the actual market and some challenges; 2. Explanation of the nature of the new product to be launched and its industry; 3. The marketing project to introduce the new product to the customers; 4. Explanation of how we will use the Total Quality Management - TQM tools to measure and control the marketing plan execution; 5. How FCA already applies TQM philosophy to achieve client satisfaction and how we can expand the use of TQM

Even when the demand for an operations products can be reasonably well forecast, the inherent uncertainty in all estimates of future demand may inhibit the business from investing capital to meet the most likely level of demand. Contrastingly, this principle can be linked to the concept of economies of scale. For BCF the addition of one unit of capacity i.e. from the extra capacity provided by the conventional technology option, the total fixed costs per unit of potential production output will decrease. For the new technology option, the addition of one unit of capacity will increase unit costs – a diseconomy of scale. Initially, this claim is based on the capital cost of implementing the new technology option, as well as diseconomies of over using capacity having the effect of increasing unit costs above a certain level of output. As a result, more operations activities