Executive Summary
Our Chatham factory is a part of Navistar International and producing Navistar’s world famous premium conventional heavy trucks. As an assembly supervisor I have observed that our Just in Time (JIT) assembly procedure were frequently disrupted due to incomplete supply of “Kits” by our key supplier Trimco Industries which contains interior trim parts. Our company is facing challenges to uphold our company strategy “do it right first time”, production of quality trucks and meet delivery schedule.
My studies on 1555 short supply cases revealed that 95% of them could be avoided by Trimco which did not have experienced employees, efficient quality control measures and proper supply management system. We also failed to
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Root Cause Analysis
Our Chatham factory is manufacturing trucks for its customers ranged from no-frill models to highly customized units for last 17 years. Customers were designing their won trucks which represent 50-80 percent of production volumes. Our technical department spent months to decide manufacturing procedure and accessories. Customers were intolerant of delays, quality problems or other factors that failed to meet their expectations.
Our company gave priority to the quality which came before costs. Top management supported all of our initiatives that improve quality, production process and delivery. Our QS9000 certified key supplier Trimco were supplying parts with incorrect specification, defective and damaged parts including frequent short supply of those parts required for interior trim of the trucks. Those resulted reordering of parts, additional material handling, over time for post-assembly installation and the delay in the delivery of the finished truck to the customer. Our company is facing challenge to uphold our company strategy “do it right first time”, production of quality trucks and maintain delivery schedule.
To find out possible causes of interior trim supply problem, I have observed the long production line, supply chain operations, shipping and receiving, monitoring and control in place of Trimco as well as our own company for last seven months. My analysis of collected data reveals following causes behind 1555 particular cases of
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Another problem adopting Roomis is that their ally in US Natex is unreliable as there were often delays and is not very efficient in carrying out the operation. Not being able to supply goods on time affects the goodwill relationship which the company has with its customers which can cause the company its market share. Once the company loses its market share then it will be difficult to regain it back. Also company policy of maintaining low inventory levels to free up capital would require a very efficient supply chain system to maintain the production process flow. So Roomis needs to revamp itself in terms of service levels to meet customer expectation and RMM has to figure out a way to do so.
The main cause of the issues for both Trimco and Navistar are quality issues. Both the supply plant and we the assembling plants are running into quality issues. Trimco Industries is a large supplier of automotive trim parts. It is also a very large Navistar supplier. Trimco faces several problems including mixed technological capability with respect to manufacturing processes; high employee turnover that affects employee training and awareness levels that impacts its ability to meet customer needs effectively. Shipping is an issue in that it lacks internal process. Correct parts aren’t always shipped, and the shipping of materials is not sufficient as damaged
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Navistar was a worldwide leader in the manufacturing medium and heavy trucks for 17 consecutive years in the North America market. Navistar’s premium conventional trucks were produced at the Chatham assembly plant, which had almost 14 years experience in producing Navistar’s premium line since 1983. Navistar had forecasted increased industry demand for heavy and medium trucks in 1998. Especially, the Chatham assembly plant’s customers had strict requirements to the truck’s quality and delivery date. As the assembly supervisor in Chatham, Andy Ramsz encountered the interior trim quality and delivery problem for the truck. Andy had begun to gather data on the interior trim supply problem and he got the crucial reasons for
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Interior trim was provided for each truck in the form of”kits” that contained a specific group of sequenced interior trim parts necessary to complete each truck. When “kits” were delivered to Navistar assembly, problem arose when assemblers attempted to assemble the trim into truck, were not able to do so because of missing or inappropriate interior trim parts. therefore, the subsequent consequences of trim parts reordering, additional material handling, post-assembling resulted in the premium on direct materials, labor costs and the delivery delay of finished truck.
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Navistar was a worldwide leader in the manufacturing medium and heavy trucks for 17 consecutive years in the North American market. Navistar’s premium conventional trucks were produced at the Chatham assembly plant, which had almost 14 years experience in producing Navistar’s premium line since 1983. Navistar had forecasted increased industry demand for heavy and medium trucks in 1998. Especially, the Chatham assembly plant’s customers had strict requirements to the truck’s quality and delivery date. As the assembly supervisor in Chatham, Andy Ramsz encountered the interior trim quality and delivery problem for the truck. Andy had begun to gather data on the interior trim supply problem and he got the crucial reasons
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