|
by Laurie Joan Aron, Contributing Editor Posted on Friday, November 03, 2006 3:10:08 PM   | Abstract: | Flow manufacturing techniques have gained acceptance in the last few years, but until recently, manufacturers have been reluctant to adopt the supporting software. |
John Strotbeck, president of custom team-apparel maker Boathouse Sports Ltd. (Philadelphia, PA), started investigating demand flow manufacturing in 1995. By late 1997, he had instituted flow techniques to keep work-in-process (WIP) moving smoothly and continuously, eliminating bottlenecks and the under-utilization of capacity. Just by shifting to continuous flow rather than accumulating work-in-process after each production step, Boathouse realized significant gains: delivery time dropped from about 12 weeks to 15 days, and work-in-process time dropped from 30 days down to three and a half days. By 1999, however, Boathouse's manual flow system was overwhelmed. "Our sales volume had increased 300%. There was no way on earth to manage it manually any more," says Strotbeck. To solve the problem, he licensed flow manufacturing software from Factory Logic Software Inc. (Austin, TX), which helps him handle workflow based on daily orders of the company's highly configurable apparel. Strotbeck's journey is becoming increasingly, although not overwhelmingly, commonplace. Flow manufacturing techniques have gained acceptance in the last few years, but until recent months, manufacturers had been far more reluctant to adopt the software to support them. "The initial theory of flow was to make shop-floor operations visible, with simple messages [kanban cards], which everyone could see," says Richard Lebovitz, chief executive officer of Factory Logic. "It was about getting away from computer systems." [Click to continue] |