CUARTA PREGUNTA

The goals of the 'world class competitors' have been shown to be higher and different from those of the traditional manufacturing company. This has an impact on the information required a t all levels. Sumitomo Metal Industries describes one of these differences, with the aid of the following diagram.

Figure 19 A Comparison of the Traditional and Revised Control Cycles

TRADITIONAL REVISED

CONTROL CYCLE CONTROL CYCLE

Manager 5= S Worker Manager « * Worker

Plan ____ £ Plan

1

I 1 Plan

Do

J

4

Check . * Check Check , ~*~ Do

The traditional approach often leads to large volumes of information, at a high cost, which produce low value information. Such information has limited e ffe c t­ iveness in helping managers improve their competence by learning from the past or in helping them identify where reductions in complexity / uncertainty would increase performance.

We have seen that the traditional paradigm leads to information systems which:

(a) failed to report on a number of strategically important dimensions of manufacturing performance

(b) were slower than the information needs of the users

( c ) were heavily oriented to transactions and with little emphasis on analysis I showed that the way in which manufacturing could compete in the revised model required consideration of different dimensions of performance, and thus, information.

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6.231 Information needs at the operational level

The revised paradigm requires more information and a more rapid provision of that information. However, it does not automatically require that that informat­ ion is formally processed through a corporate MIS. The rapid movement of work through modern manufacturing systems is frequently too fast to be accommodated by the conventional staff based MIS. In addition if the new data was gathered and processed by staff, as distinct from production managers / workers, it would lose much of its impact, as well as become expensive to produce.

Some o f the additional information necessary to enable high co-ordination between operations is achieved by KANBAN cards, while other information is provided by the 1ANDONS1 lights (score boards), Hall (1983), Schonberger (1982 & 1986). Neither system incurs s ta ff time to compile records of transactions or summarise data for routine reports. Furthermore, the information is both more rapidly available and, because i t is produced on the shopfloor, is more easily understood by other shopfloor workers.

The scoreboards are located so that they are visible to the maximum number of workers in the production area. Some boards use coloured lights to indicate the a c tiv ity status of the work centres. Under this system it is normal to record the hourly output compared with the scheduled. This enables tight control of the short term over this important dimension of performance, while still ensuring both that a high level of co-ordination is attained and tha t problems are clearly highlighted for improvement.

The yellow warning lights a re used in some plants to fine tune the balance between work stations. Traditionally this has been done by industrial engineers, but now w ith the information available to the shop floor workers, they can take e ffe ctive control over this component of the system. The solution is likely to be

b e tte r than that from the industrial engineers, who have to rely on concepts of the average (qualified) worker, rather than the set o f individuals who actually make up a real workforce.

The role of record keeping becomes critical in respect of the problems ident­ ified . These must be recorded, so that their relative occurrence is known and so tha t senior management is able to check that problems are not allowed to reoccur.

6.252 Data collection and analysis by shopfloor workers

Whereas the traditional paradigm of control is based on line management action (and often staff data collection / analysis), the revised paradigm is pre­ dicated on workers taking a more proactive role in data collection and analysis. The use of production workers in this way not only speeds the receipt of the information but also makes it more likely that they will react positively to shortfalls in performance.

Schonberger (1986) illustrates this with an example from H.P.Greeley, where delays occur in a small JIT based assembly unit. There workers record all delays on a white board and analyse them via a 20 minute daily meeting. The workers not only analyse, but also undertake other tasks previously only performed by managers or staff; line re-balancing as a consequence of their analyses.

6.253 Using coloured lights as controlling mechanisms

Although not w ritten information, the system of red and yellow lights on the assembly line has been a w ell documented form of providing data, Schonberger (1982 & 1986). The red light, informing of a worker controlled line stop, is considered valuable because it is anticipated that it w ill stimulate learning. Thus learning arises from a combination of line stops, bringing managers and engineers

1 8

)

down to the problem on the shopfloor and from the view that problems must be resolved, not just temporarily overcome. Compared with the predominant reaction in the traditional paradigm of shunting the problem o ff to a repair area or finding some temporary palliative, the Japanese approach leads to more problems being drawn to management's attention and being resolved.