Strategizing A Turnaround

Cracking the code of change
Creating a superfactory requires application of innovative and simple concepts and practices to achieve manufacturing excellence. This can be best adopted by the Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) model of an enterprise. Many industrial corporations are now turning to just-in-time (JIT) and lean manufacturing strategies. While these strategies have proven effective, we should consider they were first developed and perfected by Toyota more than 30 years ago. How can we expect to stay ahead of the competition by adopting 30-year-old strategies? According to him, JIT/lean strategies may not be applicable to all companies across-the-board. Therefore, companies need to shift to QRM strategy to compete globally.

Company-wide strategy
QRM is a company-wide strategy that pursues the reduction of lead-time in all aspects of a company's operations. We can define QRM in two contexts:

• Externally, as perceived by customers: QRM means responding to those customers' needs by rapidly designing and manufacturing products customized to those requirements
• Internally, in terms of a company's own operations, QRM focuses on reducing the lead times for all tasks in a company, resulting in improved quality and lower cost. QRM is a practical strategy that embodies the mindset of pursuing lead time reduction, along with detailed management principles, manufacturing methods, analysis techniques and tools, and a step-by-step methodology to achieve the desired reduction in lead times.

If implemented in the right spirit, QRM could result in:

• reduction in lead times of 80-95 percent
• reduction in product cost of 15-30 per cent
• on-time delivery performance improving from 60-99 per cent
• Reduction in scrap and rework by 80 per cent or more
  

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