Simultaneous Assembly: Shortening Production Time
| Date | 01 April 1990 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635579010002325 |
| Published date | 01 April 1990 |
| Pages | 6-12 |
| Author | H.‐P. Wiendahl,A. Brosch |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Simultaneous
Assembly:
Shortening
Production
Time
H.-P. Wiendahl and A. Brosch
6 INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT & DATA SYSTEMS 90,4
S
hortening the manufacturing cycle of
products with many variants can reduce
"Time to Market". Seven ways of
achieving this are detailed.
Competition Factor "Time"
The competitive position of a company is, to a great
extent, determined by product quality. In addition the time
factor, i.e. the time it takes to bring a new product into
the market, is becoming increasingly important. Figure
1,
using an example taken from an industrial case,
demonstrates how a delay in introducing a new electronics
product into the market affects overall profits. Exceeding
development costs by 50 per cent only results in a
5 per cent drop in profits, whereas delaying market intro-
duction by six months results in a 30 per cent drop in
profits[1].
This comparison urgently calls for steps to co-
ordinate and shorten the various planning activities involved
with product development and market introduction. Only
the winner of the race which runs from product conception
to market introduction can expect to gain high market
shares.
This paper was first presented at the Tenth International
Conference on Assembly Automation, held in December 1989
in Japan.
To secure a position in the market, automated manufactur-
ing and assembly systems that can realise economies of
scale are increasingly being used. However, cost reduction
can be further realised by shortening the assembly lead
time and reducing stocks. Additionally, there is a
prerequisite to respond promptly to changing market
conditions, without maintaining cost-propelling stocks of
finished products.
Such planning requirements can only be met by improving
planning efficiency. Along with adequate organisation, this
will improve planning results and shorten planning time.
The prime objective is to replace current sequential
planning in discrete steps, with simultaneously and
extensively overlapping planning stages (Figure 2). This
can be achieved by establishing project teams that can
contain diverging interests. Another important contribution,
within the scope of "simultaneous assembly engineering",
is the use of computers and the provision of a continuous
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