Why performance improvement programs don’t meet expectations
Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 10/15/2007 7:00:00 AM
Virtually every manufacturing company has adopted at least one of these performance improvement initiatives: Lean, Total Quality, or the Real-Time Enterprise. Yet few manufacturers are getting the results they expected from these programs.
That was the conclusion of a recent study conducted by the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association, (MESA) International. The study also concluded that the manufacturers themselves are largely responsible for the lackluster results because they typically fail to adopt all elements of these programs.
“Only four specific practices [from all three performance improvement programs] are widely used by manufacturers,” MESA stated in a press release announcing the study results.
The widely used practices are:
• 5S workplace organization, a Lean principle;
• Standardized work or method sheets, also from Lean;
• Corrective action and preventive action (CAPA), from Total Quality; and
• Kaizen, a component of both Lean and Total Quality.
Lean is by far the most popular performance improvement initiative, adopted by 73 percent of manufacturers, according to the MESA study. But at least a third of companies with active Lean programs are not practicing what many consider to be basic Lean principles like value-stream mapping, in-plant kanban, just-in-time production, small lot sizes, or load-level scheduling.
The study’s conclusions were based on an online survey managed by analyst firm Industry Directions on MESA’s behalf this past summer. The survey drew responses from 133 professionals in manufacturing and distribution companies. MESA announced the study’s results at its annual conference, held in Orlando, in September. It also issued a
detailing the study’s results.
Forty percent of survey respondents identified themselves as working in plant or operations management; 30 percent were in IT management; and 30 percent line-of-business managers.
In addition to querying these managers on adoption of the three major performance improvement initiatives, the survey asked about the use of metrics to measure the effective of these programs, and the adoption of technology to support them.
Only three metrics currently being compiled were deemed effective by a majority of respondents. Those metrics are:
• On-time delivery to customer order date, a Lean metric;
• On-time to customer request, another Lean metric; and
• Defects, a Total Quality metric.
The survey found technology is widely used in support of Real-Time Enterprise initiatives, with 82 percent of respondents saying they use a database or spreadsheet for that purpose. Other types of technology used in support of Real-Time Enterprise programs are:
• Quality management systems (83 percent of respondents);
• Control system software (80 percent of respondents);
• ERP (76 percent of respondents); and
• MES (71 percent of respondents).
The most common forms of technology that manufacturers do not have but plan to install in support of Real-Time Enterprise programs are:
• Plant dashboards (29 percent);
• Business activity monitoring (29 percent);
• Data historians (20 percent);
• Portals (20 percent); and
• Other collaboration software (20 percent).
The complete report detailing results of the study can be seen
.
