The Realco Breadmaster - Research Paper Example

Data: Introduction Case study 15 is d The Realco Breadmaster and case 16 A Bumpy Road for Toyota. In case 15 Johnny Chang who was the owner of Realco Company designed a new bread maker which achieved a great success across the U.S because of its improved features and pricing. The main issue revolving in around this case is the product had no formal planning. In case 15 the issue goes around the Toyota Company has an ambitious growth agenda that is high and that stresses the technical and human resources in addition to undercutting quality. Other problems include: the language barriers and time deficiency which have lead to manufacturing problems. An evaluation of the two cases and reactions to particular questions is provided below. Question 1 A master production schedule is defined as a strategy or a plan that is developed by an organization for staffing, production, inventory and many other variables. Some of the data details integrated as input in a master production schedule includes: production cost, inventory cost, forecast demand and many other costs. There is also the output that presents details of production quantities and even levels of staffing for a particular time period. The technique is cost driven, which indicates that it aims at meeting particular requirements at the least cost possible. A master production schedule for the bread-maker will be presented as below: Realco Company should update the production figures since from the available figures; it is obvious that what the bread-makers created are far much greater than the requirement expected. The every week production is 40, 000 while the assumed requirement every week is about 20,000 bread-makers. The production figures could be adjusted to about 25,000 bread-makers. This is owed to the point that the highest present purchase according to Port Jackson is 23, 500. Question 2 The core of the requirement fulfillment procedure is purchase appealing, whose goal is to make reliable guarantees for the client orders. The transaction appealing procedure excellent quality is calculated by the distribution performance and the promptly distribution. The transaction appealing strategy used by Port Jackson is the batch order promising. Under this strategy, client purchases are incorporated into the product sales transaction program, and a promise is not generated. The transaction appealing is triggered at certain periods, and in his situation, it is once per 7 days. Hence, Port has joined the client purchase information for the variety of shipments promised on every week basis. One advantage of this strategy is that it is affordable. This is due to the point that it is much cheaper to produce a whole set of a given item compared to production of each single purchase. One disadvantage that is important to note is that, the strategy may outcome to overhead production, whereby the development may exceed the real requirement. Moreover, this strategy may cause to loss of clients and business due to failure to meet individual tastes and preferences (Bundy, 1999). Formal master scheduling would enhance the procedure by keeping control and being accountable to the entire production and shipment appealing. Furthermore, it can help in protecting lead time and booking future deliveries. The routine controls the production procedure and not the client requirement. One of the company’s changes that would be necessary in the adoption of an official master scheduling is managerial changes whereby the organization has to hire an expert scheduler to be in charge of the procedure. Technological changes such as installing master scheduling software are also important. Question 3 Accepting an order and then being unable to provide is worse than refusing a client's order advance because of unavailability of units. Masters scheduling plays the role of controlling the production procedure rather than the client requirement. This implies that purchases would only be accepted following availability of units. Master scheduling enables an organization to know the amount of units or items available on the industry to be offered for sale. Information of the available units of items guides the transaction placement and approval procedure. Thus, it is appropriate to refuse a client's advance order in situations where models are not available. Furthermore, accepting an order and then which the company is unable to deliver may result to loss of consumer base or business due to false guarantees. Customers usually depend on companies that are trustworthy. Hence, failure to deliver an order may break the trust and rapport between a client and a business. Question 4 Inventory refers to the components and products that an organization can offer for sale. This level is especially crucial for enterprises that depend on the selling of components and products. When average stock levels are too low, a business may run out of a given item and reduce possible sales. On the other hand, if the levels are too excellent, a business may encounter depreciation, spoiling and even storage problems (Cox and Blackstone, 2002). Production of 20,000 bread-makers every week by Realco would bring about low average stock. What this indicates is that Realco Breadmaster Company could run out of bread-makers and reduce prospective clients or product sales. For example, the present purchases for 7 days one amount are 23,500. An every week production of 20, 000 bred-makers indicates that there would be 3, 500 bread-makers less. Realco Company would therefore reduce three thousand five hundred prospective product sales by reducing the every week production to 20,000. Word cited Bundy, W “Miller SQA: Leveraging Technology for Rate and Reliability. Supply Chain control Review, 3(2), 62-69. 1999. Cox, J. F., & Blackstone J. H., eds, APICS Dictionary (10th Ed).Falls Church, VA: APICS, 2002. Case 16: A Bumpy Road for Toyota Question 1 Lean philosophy provides a basically different production procedure. It is however evident that there are certain behavioral actions aspects of Toyota Production system, that makes this Lean’s philosophy incomplete. A truly Lean philosophy focuses on doing away with waste, as experienced in Toyota Company. One aspect that is usually forgotten under the aspect of reducing waste is the essence of comprehending the aim of a procedure before defining and prioritizing reduction of waste. Mismanagement of the enhancement procedure is the other problem which may bring about creation of cynicism towards production initiative hence, hindering improvement. Toyota’s strategy is enhancing everything all time, which at most times normally, exceeds the available resources with regards to support from management potentiality and present staffing. Hence problems usually arise with priorities simply because there is an attempt to enhance everything at once (Womack and Jackson 2003). It is an extreme challenge for a firm to actually follow the Lean Philosophy without having a strong excellent quality concentrate. A truly Lean Philosophy normally incorporates complete excellent quality which is determined with regards to lifestyle and systems. Under lifestyle, it necessitates leadership with excellent passion for perfection aimed at developing attitudes that foster positive influences of the items. Moreover, Lean philosophy requires that, all employees be empowered so that they could give up cost of product output in exchange for excellent quality. Policies, control behavior and methods have to back up the mentioned lifestyle and not banner exhortations or slogans. There is an assumption that low quality is a critical loss, which should be enhanced to “close to perfect” through consistent improvement where there is empowering for employees to solve problems before production procedure. It is therefore obvious that Toyota concentrate on excellent quality is inconsistent with the Lean philosophy (Womack 2003). Question 2 The coordinators who have been referred to in this case study are midlevel Japanese individual managers who have the skills in the field of Toyota manufacturing techniques and philosophies, popularly generally known as the Toyota Production System. Through shunning classrooms, the coordinators train Managers of United states shop-floor as well as hourly associates through directly attacking problems. Due to the excellent knowledge and skills possessed by coordinators, it is so hard and quite challenging to replicate them. Moreover, they have up to two decades experience in the Toyota Production system. It is so difficult to find other individuals with a degree of experience as excellent as that pertaining to Japanese individual coordinators. These coordinators have provided significantly to the business's success by instilling knowledge and enabling individuals to explore the Toyota Production System. Consequently, this has lead to a committed workforce that is determined to make sure that Toyota outsmarts its market competitors. Question 3 According to Hajime Oba, Detroit managers utilize the Lean philosophy mainly with the aim of reducing stock. This implies that the managers are not impressive but only enthusiastic about enhancing production and profits realized. He notices that the managers are “only developing a Buddha picture while forgetting to inject soul in it”. What this indicates is that the managers are only enthusiastic about enhancing the business's image instead of enhancing the quality of items produced. Mr. Oba notices that a production company needs to put more emphases on enhancing excellent quality, and follow the real Lean philosophy of valuing complete excellent quality. For example, he witnessed that most of the leaders of shop-floor spent much of their time and efforts in their workplaces rather than training and guiding kaizen projects performed by assembly employees. He thinks that such kind of leaders needs to be inventive and impressive so that they can come up with novel projects to enhance the quality of the product. Based on my understanding of United States auto manufacturers, 1 agree with Hajime Oba. Majority of the United States automatic producers are only enthusiastic about outsmarting their market competitors through enhancing productivity as well as increasing the profits. They put least emphasis on the excellent high quality of items that they offer to clients. This is the primary purpose why there have been increasing situations of automobile accident due to defective style and low product quality. Many manufactures don't understand that their customers’ lives are endangered due to low product quality. There have been situations registered against leading automatic producers due to defective style. What this indicates is that the manufacturers concentrate on making huge profits rather than developing excellent quality products that are safe to clients. I am therefore of the same opinion as Oba’s view on the need to have innovative leaders who have the ability to invent novel, high-quality items and follow the true Lean philosophy and methods. According to this philosophy, a manufacturing organization should eliminate waste alongside producing high-quality items (Womack 2003). Question 4 “Haste makes waste”. This is a common saying which may be applicable to Georgetown plant. Assemblers are only enthusiastic about increment in the number of vehicles assembled per hour. They do so through improving the assembling speed and overlooking some methods. Due to ignorance of standardized work methods, the excellent high quality of products generated has significantly declined. The eventual outcome is that Georgetown place has lost some of its Lean-production masters to the market and age. For instance, a Toyota Production System expert known as Kazumi Nakada moved to General Motors Company in the season 1995, and this may be attributed to the quick nature of the assemblers as well as declining the product excellent quality in Toyota (Shirouzu and Moffett, 1997). Georgetown plant suffered the biggest blow for its product excellent quality in 2002. What this indicates is that the assemblers hurry in processing lead to low excellent quality items. The clients started comparing about the car’s poor-quality cup holders and spongy brakes. To deal with the problem of excellent quality, Toyota recruited Hajime Oba to help in the implementation of the Georgetown project. Oba was able to identify several problems that lowered the top excellent quality. One of the issues mentioned by Oba is that of managers dedicating most of their time to their workplaces rather than monitoring and directing projects performed by assembly workers. The lack of worker supervision partly provided to the quick set up procedure and neglecting of some standardized processes or methods. One of the actions taken by Mr. Oba and Mr. Convis was pulling approximately seventy million middle level managers through the projects situated at different Toyota parts suppliers. The purpose for this was to make them recognize their mistakes and discover more about the Toyota Production System (Shirouzu, 1997). Currently, Toyota is attempting to take Lean Philosophy and production to an entirely novel level. The level is expected to be so simple such that it can function with no need for coordinators who have two decades experience and more in the field of Lean manufacturing and production. It is hoped that the new stage will bring about production of products that are of high quality and high efficiency. In conclusion, it is apparent that the paper has analyzed the two scenarios studies through responding to specific questions. Word Cited Shirouzu, N., & Moffett S “As Chevy Closes in on GM. Quality Concerns also grow”. The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 1997. Womack, J., & Jackson D., Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updates. New York: Free Press, 2003. Read More