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World Class Manufacturing

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Introduction to World-Class Manufacturing

Very few industries are unaffected by global competition. With higher levels of competitiveness, it follows that con­sumers will ultimately decide upon the products which meet their needs in the areas of product features, depend­ability, availability and overall value. No business can afford to stand still. If a company is successful today, it can be certain there is someone who is preparing to take all or part of the marketplace in the future.

In today's business environment, it is no longer good enough to be better than the competition down the street or local marketplace. Each company must strive to meet and beat the best from anywhere in the world. A business enterprise can no longer think that failure to make it in world markets will not affect business in local markets. The very opportunity to compete in world markets carries with it the explicit threat that the same opposition experi­enced overseas can indeed knock the company out of its local markets.

The response to this challenge of global competition is through the ideal of World-Class Manufacturing. World-Class Manufacturing is the term used to describe the very best manufacturers in the world. These World-Class com­panies recognize the importance of manufacturing as a strategic weapon. Manufacturing plays a fundamental role in developing and sustaining customer satisfaction through the elements of quality, cost, flexibility, reliability and innovation.

World-Class Manufacturing is being worked on by many companies today under many names. Some of the names include Just In Time (JIT), Total Employee Involvement (TEI), Value-Added Manufacturing (VAM), Continuous Improvement (CI), Activity Based Management (ABM), Total Quality Management (TQM) and Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II). Each is an improvement vehicle which, when utilized properly, can yield significant improvements to the business.

In the past several years World-Class Manufacturing has been the subject of several books and executive seminars which have begun to spring up in an attempt to pull the best practices and experiences together into a cohesive package. In the 1990's World-Class Manufacturing is the descriptor of the emerging globally competitive manufacturer.

The term World-Class Manufacturing is used to describe the highest level of manufacturing performance. Some of the concepts of World-Class Manufacturing go all the way back to Henry Ford's River Rouge plant in 1914. Achieving World-Class Manufacturing comes only when the improve­ment effort is integrated across all functions in the com­pany. The real strength for a manufacturer lies in its ability to add value in its manufacturing processes.

It is important to note that all types of businesses—banks, hospitals, insurance companies and distribution compa­nies—are utilizing World-Class principles. What business is not working to improve flexibility, responsiveness, time­liness, exactness, precision and repeatability to delight the customer? Manufacturing companies today are where the premier examples of improved quality, lead time reduction and shorter product introduction cycles can be seen.

World-Class Manufacturing benefits the major stakehold­ers in the business—management, employees, sharehold­ers and the community. Management is in control of a continuously improving business; employees develop their skills, knowledge and productive abilities; shareholders receive a higher than normal rate of return on their investment; and the community benefits by having a busi­ness entity that creates jobs and produces product with an absolute minimum of waste..

To be Continued