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Cross-Functional Team (CFT) Organization The cross-functional team concept for a focus factory provides for a self-contained management team with total product family focus and full ownership and management of the focus factory. A cross-functional team may consist of members from various disciplines required to assume the total operation's responsibilities. The extent of full representation depends upon the economics and utilization factors. Each CFT also functions as a quality improvement team and is led by a CFT leader who focuses on the network of processes from the beginning to the end in satisfying customer orders instead of individual functional areas. Various cross-functions within the CFT interface with the company's core support organizations, such as engineering, quality assurance, sales, materials, and cost accounting, for technical expertise and for ensuring the operations perform day-to-day activities within the realm of the company's standard operating practices. The interactions between CFT members and the core support organization aim at resolving production issues and ensuring compliance to quality standards and customer requirements and specifications. Each CFT assumes the full ownership of the operations management functions, namely, material planning, manufacturing engineering, quality engineering, production, inspection, labor and cycle time tracking, and meeting customer commitments and financial performance of the focus factory. The ERP/JIT system provides the rate schedules to work teams to plan their work load and personnel assignments. Each team tracks its daily actual production to plan. Any problems relating to the schedules, personnel, tools, materials, or work orders are resolved by the CFT. The performance measurements for rates, customer commitments, and kanban inventory are tracked and corrective actions are taken by the CFT. This approach transfers the production control responsibilities from the centralized production control to local responsibility and control with major focus on the customer requirements. BENEFITS A total approach of designing the factory for synchronized flow manufacturing and integrating ERP, JIT, and QM initiatives provides a powerful tool for a company to take advantage of the synergetic benefits of these initiatives and their direct impact on improving quality and productivity, reducing cycle times and costs, and thereby providing an immediate and ongoing competitive advantage. In particular, the integrated approach can lead to as much as a 60 to 70 percent reduction in material planning, kitting, material handling, and expediting activities and a 30 to 40 percent reduction in stores and manufacturing space. The streamlining of material flow from the suppliers through production along with the availability of parts for first use reduces obsolescence, reduces work-in-process inventory by 50 to 70 percent, and improves inventory turns by many folds.
The virtually linear production and material flow eliminates redundant operations like inspection and material handling. The streamlined flow managed by work teams can provide initial results of a 40 to 60 percent reduction in the manufacturing cycle time, 20 to 30 percent improvement in productivity and throughput and 50 to 60 percent reduction in scrap and rework. While actual results will vary from company to company, the integrated approach will definitely provide an opportunity for considerable improvements in quality, price, delivery, flexibility for product varieties, and customer satisfaction, and hence a sustained competitive advantage. CONCLUSIONS The proposed integration framework consists of synchronized flow lines and a reliable and well-disciplined planning system like ERP integrated with JIT manufacturing that are developed, managed, and continuously improved by the work teams trained on quality improvement techniques. It provides a method to leverage the synergy among the described technologies to bring about radical changes and provide connections between marketing and manufacturing strategies. In addition, this approach provides the opportunity for creating and internalizing a world-class culture and creating an environment for being highly responsive to ever-changing customer needs. The proposed focused factory framework provides a methodology for integrating and synchronizing people, products, processes, and systems with the principles of flow manufacturing, QM, JIT, and ERP, and enables companies to manufacture at lower costs a variety of products customized to specific customer demand and deliver them in very short delivery cycle times. STAY CONNECTED To stay current on Lean Management Basics and Best Practices, subscribe to our weekly MBBP Bulletin... and we'll send you our PowerPoint presentation "How to Survive in an Entirely New Economy." All at no cost of course. Your personal information will never be disclosed to any third party. privacy policy
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