Never Rest on Manufacturing Achievements 

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MANUFACTURING BASICS & BEST PRACTICES BULLETIN

Now serving over 12,155 subscribers

Competitive Knowledge for Manufacturing People 

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August 7, 2006

Hi [[firstname]], 

When it comes to manufacturing performance there is no 
"Status Quo"... if you\'re now winning... you're 
loosing. 

A demonstration of practicing what I preach is evident
By the growth in our subscriber's list. I work very 
hard at keeping our MBBP subscriber list on a growth 
curve and with your help, since our first issue 
(3-years ago)we have yet to see a decrease in our 
number of readers. Thanks again for your help. 

I wrote this week's article, "NEVER, NEVER REST ON 
YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS," years ago but it is still valid 
today and worth your time investment.

Have a nice day, keep the faith, and stay connected.

Bill Gaw
Business Basics, LLC
Bg@bbasicsllc.com
760-945-5596


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MANUFACTURING BASICS & BEST PRACTICES BULLETIN

Now serving over 12,202 subscribers

Competitive Knowledge for Manufacturing People 

=====================================

NEVER, NEVER REST ON YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS 

The following scenario is not uncommon in industry 
today:

"I don't care how you do it or what it takes, just 
make sure that these damned products are on a truck 
and on their way to the customer by the end of the 
month!" screamed the general manager. 

It's six days from the end of the month and the 
production manager has 75% of the scheduled months 
shipments in final assembly with a parts shortage list 
that reads like a horror story. Units are being sent 
to test with slave components and it will take another 
miracle to make the month's financial forecast. 

It's now time to pull out all the stops...to hell with 
the procedures and process controls...it's time for a 
few "knights in shining armor" to once again salvage 
the most out of a terrible situation, (usually self-
inflicted).

During my early years in manufacturing, I had the 
opportunity to perform as a "knight in shining armor" 
and I must admit that I enjoyed the challenge, the 
power struggle...and the politics of making difficult 
things happen in a tumultuous manufacturing environment. 
In some ways, it was fun but in others it was very 
stressful and unrewarding. Deep down, I always thought, 
"There must be a better way."

Well, as my career progressed, I was fortunate in 
joining a team of professional manufacturing people at 
Johnson Controls in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Glenn Jonas 
had pulled together this dynamic team for the purpose 
of turning around this marginally profitable company 
through the design and implementation of a state-of-
the art computerized manufacturing control system, 
Materials Requirements Planning (MRP). 

Over a two year period, I participated in Johnson 
Control's remarkable turnaround success story. 
Customer service performance up from 62% to 96%...
on time deliveries up from 78% to 97%...inventory 
turnover up from 1.6 to 6.3...company growth up from
an annual rate of 15% to 60%...and most important, 
after tax profits up from 3% to 14%. Today Johnson 
Control is a mega company. 

While all these gains were impressive, none was more 
welcomed than the dramatic change in the day-to-day 
operating environment---from shop floor pandemonium 
to a sense of controlled excitement. Everyone felt a 
degree of participation and contribution---it was a 
great rewarding experience.

Little did I know at that time that MRP was best 
employed as a materials and capacity planning system 
and that shop floor control was a misapplication of 
the MRP/ERP technology. 

As director of operations at Palomar Systems, 
Escondido, California, I embraced the lean 
manufacturing and kaizen teachings of Schonberger – 
Costanza - Imai and pulled together a lean 
manufacturing team of people that eventually 
became self-directed and achieved manufacturing 
performance far greater than what was originally 
achieved at Johnson Controls. Customer service 
performance up from 58% to 99%...on time deliveries 
up from 61% to 99%...inventory turnover up from 1.2 
to 8.3...company growth up from an annual rate of 5% 
to 120%...and most important, profit margin was 
increased from 32% to 54%.

So what's my experience got to do with you and your 
company? First, never think that your achievements are 
the end of the challenge---your competition is always 
learning new ways to outperform you. 

Second, you have an opportunity to share in a similar 
experience---over the past years, I have been writing 
to you about the competitive advantages of Kaizen 
Based Lean Manufacturing---now is a good time to 
combine this methodology with MRP/ERP! It will help 
you lower factory stress levels, end shop floor chaos 
and eliminate the "end-of-the-month" crunch. Finally, 
take positive action, if you haven't explored the 
benefits of Kaizen Based Lean Manufacturing... here's
a reason to check it out today... you'll be able to
get your e-Tutorial for a special MBBP discount of 
48%. Just click on the below link: 

http://bbasicsllc.com/kblm-ar.htm

Even if your company is in the process of implementing 
flow technology and/or lean manufacturing, this is your 
opportunity to gain exposure to some practical basics 
and techniques that could boost your development and 
implementation efforts to a higher level. If, on the 
other hand, you are still struggling with a shop order 
"launch and expedite" system, KBLM will optimize your 
manufacturing performance and help your company 
identify and pursue their full growth and profit 
potential.

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You are welcomed to print and share this bulletin with 
your manufacturing teams, peers and upper management... 
better yet, have them signup for their own copy at:

http://bbasicsllc.com 

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Manufacturing Knowledge you'll not find in the books 
at Amazon.com... neither in the APICS library 
nor in the Harvard Business School Press

Lean Manufacturing - Balanced Scorecard 
ISO 9000:2000 - Strategic Planning - Supply Chain 
Management - MRP Vs Lean Exercises - Kaizen Blitz 
Lean Six Sigma - Value Stream Mapping

All at one Website: http://bbasicsllc.com 

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This will help guarantee that your bulletin is never deleted unexpectedly.

Manufacturing Knowledge you’ll not find at offsite 
seminars nor in the books at Amazon.com

Lean Manufacturing - Balanced Scorecard 
ISO 9000:2000 - Strategic Planning - Supply Chain 
Management - MRP Vs Lean Exercises - Kaizen Blitz 
Lean Six Sigma - Value Stream Mapping

All at one Website: Good Manufacturing Practices

 Manufacturing Cost Reduction for Winners

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