Common production and manufacturing strategies include, amongst others the push

Question

Common production and manufacturing strategies include, amongst others the push and pull methods , differing based on the management approach to the organization/environment that exists and structuring relevant processes/ products for organisational growth and revenue.

Production and manufacturing have evolved in terms of the productivity concept that prevailed in the Industrial Revolution to eliminating all waste motions during production(therbligs) formulated by the American industrial psychologist Frank Gilbreth by being “lean and mean”.

A lean production system offers a systematic method and process for waste minimization in a manufacturing organization/ process without sacrificing productivity and thereby enhancing “value” and “quality”.

Value is any action or process that offers a product or service in return to the customer’s patronization and money. This was pioneered by Toyota during 1990s.

Lean accomplishes this by comprising a set of tools to identify and eliminate the waste in the production cycle. With the elimination of waste, an improvised production time and cost are achieved.

Common tools of accomplishing this include value stream mapping, Kanban or pull system, total productive maintenance, scheduling , GANTT and control charts – among others.

Primary goals of Lean production include and are not limited to:

Improve Quality

Eliminate Wastes

Reduce cycle time

Reduce costs

Improvise profits.

Thereby offer added value to the customer, that is achieved easily in a pull production system as a evolution to the “Just in time aka JIT Manufacturing”.

A pull system (Kanban) is based on the customer’s order and the internal production capabilities , and uses visual signals or cards or bill boards to control the inventory levels on the production floor.

1.The production floor orders only for parts listed on the Kanban card

2.Supply department sends only those parts listed to the production floor, thereby eliminating unnecessary space , movement and materials.

3.All the parts are tagged with a Kanban card for reference and further orders.

4. Incorrect quantities or parts are not sent to the next phase of the production cycle

5. Analysis of Kanban cards offers an insight to detect potential problems.

Thereby, over production is overcome alongwith maintaining unnecessary levels of inventory. With limiting the production thereby, quality levels are improved with accurate forecasting of delivery times.

In a push production system, the focus is not on the maximum limit that is produced – rather, it works at full capacity by pushing more output from the production floor to be made available to the customer. The disadvantage of this system is that , as it does not consider the demand of the customer, there is a tendency to produce in excess of the requirement – thereby with the excess supply, cost of the product comes down with no demand and thereby the organization has to put up with lesser profit.

Ideal supply chains and organisations therefore employ a mix of push and pull production systems.

As a ideal pull system is one where the product is manufactured on the specific demand from the customer, similar to “Make to order”. A ideal push system is one where the product is “Made to stock”. Thus, even without a customer demand as required by pull systems, the product is manufactured, but unlike the ideal push system scenario when the demand has no market, only certain levels of inventory are maintained. Certain examples include Dell computer’s “Build to order” model. or IBM’s “On demand business”.

It can be seen in the present day that the uprising Information Technology industry also uses the pull production concept in most of the start ups. Programs are written specifically to the requirement of the customer .(though software project management focusses on rewritable or reusable code that can be used for other entitites). Software are not deployed unless there is a specific need for it – especially as in the Aircraft industries where there is no manufacture unless there is a customer who has paid for it.

Explanation / Answer

Pull Production Systems Discuss in detail the 'Pull Systems' as a lean production strategy? Write a short essay (800 to 1200 words) on the 'Pull Systems' as a lean production strategy. Your essay should discuss and explain: Definitions relevant to the Pull systems concepts? The importance (advantages) of the pull production systems over other production systems? How it works? What are the internal or external factors to the origination that encourage or prohibit the organization to apply this production systems What are the conditions in which 'pull production strategy' needs to be supported by a ‘push production strategy? address this point first by defining 'Push production'. Give example(s) from the various industries or service providers of how they apply (and how they benefit) from applying the 'pull' production concept?

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