Designing a System of Control in the Denver Plant - Essay Example

The plant should introduce “advance notice” procedures and indicate the exact time of arrival for each truck. (b) Also, it is possible to focus on activity scheduling, which is concerned only with activities directly related to the function: for instance, time of arrival, loading, lab reports, etc. The timing of such activities may have a significant impact on resource utilization and customer service (Chase, Jacobs 2003).
Quality Control Laboratory
The main problem of the Quality Control Laboratory is a slow report procedure and work overload. The Quality Control Laboratory can be divided into several sub-units responsible for certain reports. It can increase costs, but it will reduce time and improve the service provided. For instance, the laboratory can have the following units: (a) for incoming raw materials to verify the identification and specifications are correct, (b) for WIP and any special request from any production department, and (c) for outgoing shipment. If there is not much work to do, one of the groups could help another one with analyses for outgoing shipments. Again, if the time is stipulated, the trucks will not wait for a long time to test results.
Production Units and Operational Departments
The main problems of this level involve (1) product shortage caused by inefficient production facilities and (2) lack of coordination. The cost and quality of inputs into the production process are critical aspects of effective and efficient management. (a) The assessment of the nature and level of demand for products and services must be accurate if economic resources are not to be missed. (b) The department should find out, as accurately as possible, present and future customers' requirements. (c) Records must be up to date and quickly accessible, particularly where demand fluctuates rapidly. (d) Facility decisions are concerned with how many warehouses and plants Denver should have, and with where they should be located to optimize the customer service/cost equation. For the majority of companies, it is necessary to take the location of existing facilities as given in the short term. Thus, managers can consider the inventory management problem to be a part of a wider operations scheduling problem. (e) Capacity management decisions will provide a con¬text within which inventories and activities are both planned and controlled. They will to some extent reflect operating policy decisions, while inventory and scheduling problems might be considered as more tactical issues (Vonderembse, White 2003).
Production units and operational departments should be better coordinated according to their functions and performance. It is the task of the department manager and plant manager to coordinate and control production procedures. For instance, an employee on a golf cart can help to coordinate activities on all shifts informing various operators about current changes and procedures.
Product Loading Facilities and Operations
Poor time management leads to queues and incorrect loading facilities. Primarily,
the right levels of stock must be fixed. Most firms carry too high levels of stock and any firm which is attempting to reduce stocks must note the factor dealt with under stock or inventory problems. For managers, (a) time and cost data should be available, enabling management to identify activity groups contributing to overruns of time or cost. Incorrect loading facility is caused by poor scheduling and order-control systems. (b) Strict control should involve establishing standards and measures, the measurement of results, the comparison of results with standards, and taking corrective action where necessary. (c) A new truck scale will help to provide better service to customers and improve operational facilities. (d) The fact that members of organizations make mistakes and that managers must delegate authority are the main factors that make control necessary.
Product Loading of Polyols
The problems on this level include product shortage, queues, and poor safety measures. The plant management should provide (a) information to enable a manufac¬turer to design a product by customers' preferences, to manu¬facture it in quantities that can be sold, to pack it suitably, make appropriate arrangements for effective distribution. In this ideal case, overproduction and losses in tying up unsaleable stocks will not occur. (b) The ordering system (or advance notice) will help to mix basic polyol products before the arrival of the truck (Naylor 2002).
In sum, the establishment of these service goals is a prerequisite for the development of appropriate logis¬tics strategies and structures. Understanding customers' service preferences are the starting point for re-engineering logistics processes to ensure greater cost-effectiveness; thus customers' service preferences should be the point for the development of logistics and supply chain strategies. There is now widespread acceptance that customer service requirements can only be determined accurately through research and competitive benchmarking. Tailoring customer service strategies to meet the precise needs of customers can be a powerful means of differentiation leading to enduring quality service. Read More