A quality approach to factory design?
| Pages | 241-245 |
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635579810236706 |
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
| Author | D.J. Hall,T.Q. Ford |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
[ 241 ]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
98/6 [1998] 241–245
© MCB University Press
[ISSN 0263-5577]
A quality approach to factory design?
D.J. Hall
Keltek EDMS Ltd, Maldon, Essex, UK
T.Q. Ford
Keltek (Holdings) Ltd, Kelso, Scotland, UK
Provides a link between the
total quality philosophy and
building design/factory lay-
out. The basic principles of
TQ are incorporated into the
design of a 45,000sq.ft
development (comprising
offices of 15,000sq.ft and
30,000sq.ft of electronics
assembly and test) through
meeting the requirements,
management by prevention,
cost of quality and error-free
work.
Overview
The contract electronics manufacturing
(CEM) sector is fiercely competitive. Without
products of their own, CEMs compete for
business primarily on grounds of cost (quality
and delivery for electronic assemblies are
assumed to be “given”). Switching costs
between product designs is low; with product
life cycles continually decreasing, the forecast
horizons are forever reducing, and the envi-
ronment for price-based competition is sus-
tained. Whilst satisfaction may be high, loy-
alty is still difficult to generate.
Despite this downward pressure, Keltek has
been working to transform the culture across
two sites (Maldon and Kelso), to differentiate
its business on the strengths of the people that
it employs. Recognising itself fundamentally
as a service provider, the organisation has
been working to extend the range of services
beyond mere product manufacture. In particu-
lar, there is a well established company-wide
drive towards total quality, a philosophy
which is being used to good effect both up and
down the supply chain.
Presented with a need to extend its facilities,
Keltek acquired a plot of 4.5 acres on which to
build a 45,000sq.ft factory, and a blank piece of
paper on which to design it. This presented
the directors with a rare choice: whether to
take the “easy” option and build a standard
manufacturing unit, or to take up the chal-
lenge, to design a unit that specifically reflects
the fundamental values and beliefs of the
organisation, serving to enhance further the
differentiation strategy. The moment was
seized, and the latter option pursued.
Four foundation blocks
The quality initiative at Keltek has been dri-
ven on the foundation of four fundamental
principles:
1 management by prevention;
2 error-free work;
3 meeting the requirements;
4 cost of quality.
Management by prevention
With no responsibility for the conceptual
design of the product being manufactured, the
role of the manufacturing unit is merely to
convert customer demand into delivered prod-
uct. Provided that the base capacity can be
kept busy, and with full control of the procure-
ment cycle, the unit should generate the
quoted profit as a matter of course.
However, factors combine to frustrate this
simplicity, and the fundamental source of
error is through poor communication. With
24-hour operation and continuous flow manu-
facture, the consequences of poor communica-
tion can be profound.
Past experience suggested that an absolute
root cause of communication breakdown is
the physical layout of the factory. Information
is injected into the organisation through the
commercial office, passing through materials,
production control and possibly engineering
before getting to the point of impact, on the
shop floor. Managers’ offices, departmental
walls and even staircases present physical
barriers to the flow of information, and points
of exchange provide every opportunity for the
information to be corrupted on its way. The
late Christopher Lorenz (ex-business editor of
The Financial Times) summarised neatly:
Transferring information through an organ-
isation is like carrying water in a sieve.
The new factory, therefore, is completely open-
plan. Managers have lost their offices, and all
support functions (commercial, purchasing,
finance, engineering, quality, administration)
are intermingled by the arrangement of desks.
Cross functional teams are clustered without
destroying the communication within a func-
tion (see Figure 1).
Further, the “office” opens directly onto the
shop floor (demarked only by the end to the
carpet tiles, required to reduce noise from
shuffling chairs) (see Figure 2 and Plate 1).
This unrestricted access between the two
areas, traditionally partitioned, vastly
improves both the communication between
the two, and also the mutual empathy. Indeed,
this design has finally removed the status
barriers between office and shopfloor work-
ers. The single-status organisation has long
been a goal of Keltek, but physical barriers
have limited its success. Coupled with open
parking for all employees (with spaces
reserved only for visitors) and common wash-
rooms regardless of position, Keltek can truly
claim to be single-status.
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