With all the focus and investment in lean and Six Sigma and all the other methodologies, why do so many companies settle for ineffective, inefficient, and some times just plain incorrect order and manufacturing documentation?
This is a special vice of high-variety manufacturing as, almost by definition, each order and manufacturing packet can be different.
The content and format of manufacturing packets are the inputs to manufacturing value streams. Efficiency and effectiveness of that information is as important to a streamlined and productive production process as any kaizen event. Yet time and time again, I see horrifically inefficient project engineering processes; reliance on manual data management; manual drafting instead of automated, smart drawings and models; poorly constructed and confusing shop floor information packets; manual programming of CNC machines; and so forth.
There are so many opportunities to improve the quality of this information. In many cases, its just making better use of the tools at hand whether it’s 2D CAD, solid modeling, ERP or MRP. The problem is that inertia sets in with how these tools are used, the users are not trained in the application capabilities beyond minimum functionality, and management does not demand an appropriate level of performance accountability.
My call to action for anyone involved in high-variety manufacturing is to really start questioning whether your information foundation and content is really supporting your lean, quality and process improvement programs.
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