An examination of design processes adopted by a company involved in design-based manufacturing and forming an approach to an optimum system: A case study in Teba-Günkol

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Industrial Design, Izmir, 2006Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 63-69)Text in English; Abstract:Turkish and Englishx, 71 leavesToday, a company's competitive advantage is directly related to its capacity to develop new products and global competitive pressure has motivated many companies to change to a more rapid form of product development with an emphasis on team and cross functional working. Concurrent Engineering (CE), or Concurrent Design, is a widely recognized approach to improving product introduction which attracts increasing attention of companies throughout the world. In the context of today.s manufacturing industry, design is essentially a social and collaborative process, thereby imposing cross-functional integration on companies. CE can be defined as a development philosophy that could improve design and produce better process quality via both integration and coordination. The CE approach enables synchronization of structural design and manufacturing processes, thus reduces product development time, and decreases costs by eliminating many of the trial-error steps. This research focuses on CE by using a case-study approach carried out in a Turkish company which has been selected as a representative sample of the companies involved in design-based manufacturing in Turkey. In this thesis, the traditional methods used by the company are extensively analysed and a Concurrent Engineering system for the optimum design and manufacturing of new products is proposed. The objective of this study is to provide further insight into the organizational aspect for success in Concurrent Engineering practices in design-based manufacturing

Leanness and agility as means for improving supply chains. A case study on Egypt

Supply chain management has received greater attention from the academics and the practitioners, however the literature review lacks a comprehensive view for supply chain management practices and how its members should act to contribute to its overall success (Li el at., 2005). In this era, where the business organisations are working in several challenging threats and opportunities, greater attention is given to supply chain management. Nowadays, companies are always searching for means to improve their supply chains. The main aim of this research is to show "how leanness and agility approaches can be used within the same enterprise as complementary means for improving its supply chain". To achieve this research objective, the research has provided an assessment and summarised the literature on the supply chain management, lean thinking and agility thinking including their importance; their definitions; their practices and the relationship between lean and agility. The resulted proposed framework deduced from the literature has been applied in the Egyptian Manufacturing Business to show the relationship between the agility principles, lean principles, entity performance and the successful supply chain

Scor Quality Model Affecting Manufacturing Firm’s Supply Chain Quality Performance And The Moderating Effect Of Qms

The main objective of this study is hypothesis testing to explain the nature of the relationship between the independent variables (The SCOR quality model) and the dependent variable (Supply Chain Quality Performance) and moderated by (QMS). Objektif utama kajian ini adalah untuk menerangkan hubungan antara model SCOR kualiti dengan prestasi kualiti rantaian bekalan sesebuah firma dan QMS memoderasikan huungan model SCOR kualiti dengan prestasi kuality rantaian bekalan

An assessment of supply chain and innovation management practices in the manufacturing industries in Turkey

This paper aims at assessing the supply chain and innovation management in the manufacturing industries in Turkey on an empirical basis. The assessments presented are based on parts of the data and information collected through the execution of the Competitive Strategies and Best Practices Benchmarking Questionnaire in 82 companies from four sectors of the manufacturing industries in Turkey. Results of these sectoral benchmarking studies reported elsewhere indicate the need of adopting product differentiation particularly through more knowledge intensive products as the dominant competitive strategy and also the need for improvement in various areas of supply chain as well as innovation management. In this paper, these issues are analysed through the survey results and some conclusions are drawn. Several policy measures applicable in near future are suggested for improving the areas found in need of improvement

Manufacturing in Scotland

Set against the backdrop of current thinking that UK manufacturing needs to move into higher value, this report, commissioned on behalf of the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) Board, set out to: Give an account of the current status of manufacturing SME’s in Scotland including current activities, aspirations, strategies and challenges facing them; Assess the progress Scotland has made towards high value manufacturing; Make recommendations as to the type of support needed to enable Scottish manufacturing SMEs invest in their long-term future. The resulting report is based on findings of a survey that delivered responses from 435 Scottish manufacturing companies and in-depth interviews with directors of 45 companies. This research was carried out during the period April to September 2008. Our research suggests that there have been significant shifts within manufacturing SMEs in Scotland. The most notable shifts include: A shift in the basis of competition. Our research suggests that the primary basis of competition for Scottish manufacturing SMEs is not price. Increasingly Scottish SMEs are adding value through quality and customer service. A shift in the nature and scope of operations. Whilst the primary business function of manufacturing companies remains production, there is evidence of increasing levels of design and service activity taking place. Companies reported they expected this trend to continue as the shift in the basis of competition away from price towards innovation and customer service gains pace. These changes suggest a move towards high value manufacturing. However there are major challenges facing Scottish SMEs if they are to compete on new value propositions. Of particular concern are: Lack of strategic vision and understanding of the capabilities and competencies needed to compete on the new value propositions. Whilst companies largely recognise the need to improve manufacturing efficiency, many have not embraced the need to develop and improve processes that deliver value to the customer (eg. Customer service processes, new product development processes etc). If customer service, innovation and quality are key differentiators and the way they add value, then companies need to ensure they have sustainable processes to deliver this value. Changes in operational activity have tended to be the result of evolution and opportunity rather than coherent operational strategy. Many companies need help in generating and enacting strategic change There is a lack of appreciation of the potential value of innovation in delivering value (and indeed the understanding of innovation in its many guises). Almost all companies interviewed reported some problems finding and retaining staff. Whilst in some cases labour shortages were due to specific skills and knowledge, there was also a general problem recruiting people with basic employability who had a desire to work in manufacturing. The poor image of manufacturing was a worry to the vast majority of interviewees. Many companies recognised the potential to exploit opportunities overseas. Some alluded to the fact that it might not be enough to market and export overseas, but that a manufacturing presence may be needed to fully exploit the opportunity. In terms of the support needed, companies stated that they would be looking increasingly for help and support in the areas of manufacturing efficiency and sales and marketing. Supply chain was also an area where companies reported they would be looking for help and support. Companies also suggested that they would like to see improvements in terms of “community”, with a number of interviewees looking for help in accessing not just help and support, but also introductions to other organisations. The research team believe that whilst not always recognised by the companies, support is also needed in the areas of strategy (and linked to this leadership) and in developing and improving processes that add value. Finally, the research suggests worryingly low levels of manufacturing entrepreneurship in Scotland, with only 3% of companies surveyed established within the past 5 years. This is worthy of further investigation. 4 Key findings and recommendations are expanded upon in Table 1. However the key recommendations can be summarised as: Manufacturing SMEs continue to require support in manufacturing efficiency, sales and marketing and supply chain. As companies move away from price as the main basis for competition and towards alternative value propositions, they also need support in developing and enacting strategy. Of particular urgency, companies need help in developing and improving the processes and capabilities that deliver value (beyond traditional manufacturing) Establishing processes that support innovation and product development will be central to the sustainability of many Scottish SMEs Further work needs to be done to investigate the apparent low levels of manufacturing start-ups Further work is needed to understand the areas where Scottish SMEs can actually compete on high volume /low complexity – often due to “localisation” factors Consideration should be given to supporting companies who wish to establish manufacturing overseas to exploit global opportunitiesA skills strategy must be created in line with the needs of manufacturing industry The poor image of manufacturing in Scotland needs to be addresse

Manufacturing in the 1990s - productivity, flexibility and innovation

The article outlines the evolution of large multinationals as a result of the appearance of new market demands. Companies having to meet specific market demands, are shown to possess certain characteristics, related to the market demands concerned. The analysis shows that innovativeness will, in all probability, be the new market demand in the 1990s, in addition to the already existing ones of efficiency, quality and flexibility. Descriptions of ideal types illustrate the evolution of companies as they move from the Efficient Firm to the Quality Firm on to the Flexible Firm to, finally, the Innovative Firm. The phase model also includes the symptoms of crisis, when moving from one phase to another. Skipping phases appears to be difficult, if not impossible. The same holds true for moving to the next phase, while the organization has not finished with the preceding phase

Maintenance Strategies to Reduce Downtime Due to Machine Positional Errors

Manufacturing strives to reduce waste and increase Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). When managing machine tool maintenance a manufacturer must apply an appropriate decision technique in order to reveal hidden costs associated with production losses, reduce equipment downtime competently and similarly identify the machines’ performance. Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a maintenance program that involves concepts for maintaining plant and equipment effectively. OEE is a powerful metric of manufacturing performance incorporating measures of the utilisation, yield and efficiency of a given process, machine or manufacturing line. It supports TPM initiatives by accurately tracking progress towards achieving “perfect production.” This paper presents a review of maintenance management methodologies and their application to positional error calibration decision-making. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the contribution of maintenance strategies, in particular TPM, towards improving manufacturing performance, and how they could be applied to reduce downtime due to inaccuracy of the machine. This is to find a balance between predictive calibration, on-machine checking and lost production due to inaccuracy. This work redefines the role of maintenance management techniques and develops a framework to support the process of implementing a predictive calibration program as a prime method to supporting the change of philosophy for machine tool calibration decision making. Keywords—maintenance strategies, down time, OEE, TPM, decision making, predictive calibration