Production and Operations Restructuring: Using Time‐based Strategies
| Pages | 3-7 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635579210015374 |
| Published date | 01 June 1992 |
| Date | 01 June 1992 |
| Author | Bob Barker,Marilyn M. Helms |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
PRODUCTION
AND
OPERATIONS RESTRUCTURING
3
Production
and
Operations
Restructuring:
Using Time-based
Strategies
Bob Barker and Marilyn M. Helms
Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 92 No. 6, 1992. pp. 3-7,
© MCB University Press Limited, 0263-5577
T
ime-based systems can restore the
competitive advantage of ailing British
and American manufacturers.
As British and American manufacturers struggle to be
competitive, there remains a vast amount of unused
energy and potential trapped by inadequate production
systems in their industries. Ironically, many of the
component parts required to achieve
a
world
class
position
are already in place but appropriate infrastructure and
organizational systems are lacking. This results in
a
large
number of production workers entering their organizations
every day to perform tasks which make limited
contributions to, or may even detract from, the process
of adding value to products.
The emerging industrial nations of the Pacific Rim have
been quick to identify the sources of
our
uncompetitiveness
and have designed organizations that can quickly add value
to manufactured products without high work-in-progress
inventory or cumbersome control systems. To regain
market share Western manufacturers urgently need to
restructure their production operations. One
way
this can
be achieved is by using a time-based strategy.
Though implementing a time-based strategy requires
substantial effort, the results can be a major source of a
much needed competitive strategy.[1]. This article looks
in particular at how a time-based strategy can be used to
improve the operations of all value-adding organizations.
This approach is functional in nature and centres around
improving the restructuring process at the factory level.
Using a time continuum framework to analyse when value
is added can give the industrial manager strong guidance
in the reduction of both manufacturing cycle costs,
stockholding costs, and overheads. Incremental
improvements to the total organization result when support
activities are adjusted to augment the time-sensitive
strategy. When other organizational functional activities are
combined with cross-trained, flexible employees the more
efficient production process, a faster product development
cycle and products that meet customers' quality and time
requirements can
result.
This strategy thus creates barriers
to entry for competitors (both domestic and international)
and provides a time-based strategic niche
in all
the markets
served by the organization.
Decline, Complacency and Change
Manufacturing industries in the United Kingdom and
United States share
much
in
common.
The most significant
and disturbing of these trends in the
final
analysis is the
declining share of world trade supplied from the domestic
industry base of each nation. In Britain, the current
account deficit reflects the failure of producers to meet
the demands of
even
the home
market[2].
Similar statistics
in the US point to the decline of manufacturing, the
proliferation of foreign goods, and the rise in low-wage
service jobs. From 1973 to 1989, for example, annual
productivity
gains
in
output per hour averaged
5.5
per cent
in Japan compared with 2.6 per cent in the US[3].
According to a recent poll in the
US,
Americans are now
worried that they are going to be number three in the
world after Japan and Germany[4].
Many American and British manufacturers are thus
struggling
to
hold their existing market share, sometimes
at
any
cost. In real terms this means, as the world market
increases, value-added output from the UK and US is in
actual
decline,
and each year new and previously unknown
products enter our domestic markets as competitive
pressures increase. Some companies are still struggling
to beat their domestic rivals, while not realizing they are
players in
a
global market with international competition.
Those who have realized the seriousness of the problem
want to reverse these trends but do not know
how,
whilst
others may have already lost the race through ignorance.
For those inside these competitively deficient organizations,
the chain of
events
and management action share common
characteristics. The typical company has implemented
MRP-II (Manufacturing Resources Planning) systems or
other computerized panaceas over a complex and slow
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