What Manufacturing Control Systems do you need?

If you answer the following questions and email to us we will provide a free and confidential review of your manufacturing and supply chain control system needs using our expert systems. It will also indicate where you are not world class, indicating a development need.

More links to best practice articles and training below

Because the underpinning research for these expert systems was funded by the UK Government, this service is available free to UK manufacturing businesses only. It is not available to consultants.

Guide to answering

  1. Answer: "Yes" or "no" only. If in doubt describe your dilemma to us.
  2. If you do not know the answer this will limit our ability to advise you fully but our response may still provide you with useful information? In this case it is acceptable to estimate to the extent that you perceive the issue to be significant to your business or not. But you should be aware that these measures have been derived from best practice models so even if you do not perceive things to be a problem you may be significantly worse than World Class (or your competitors).
  3. It is possible in some businesses that two answers may be necessary for different parts of the business. In this case fill in two questionnaires and identify the different areas, so that we can advise you separately for each.
  4. It is possible to answer the questionnaire in the past, present, or future tense. For example if you have unreliable suppliers today, but will solve the problem shortly, answer in the future tense and we will assume it is not an issue to be considered.
  5. The questionnaire is split into 4 sections and can be copied and preferably pasted into an "HTML", or "rich text", email for return. If pasting into a "plain text", email, formatting will be lost but is still acceptable. (Please do not send as an email attachment):
  1. Heading
  2. Complexity (of your business)
  3. Uncertainty
  4. Flexibility

 1. Heading

Company name:  
Address:  
Business Telephone Number:  
Business (Type of business, main aims of business, part of business):  
Tense (Past, present, future):  
Industry:  
No. of employees:  
Turnover p.a.  
Name of Senior Executive responsible for manufacturing:  
Which of the following manufacturing strategies most closely describes your business (if more than one type indicate proportions of each type as approximate percentage of turnover):
  1. Engineer to order (Design and manufacture as one-off or small batch)
  2. Make to order (manufacture or sub-contracting customer's design)
  3. Assemble to order (standard components or sub assemblies assembled in a wide variety of configurations)
  4. Make standard items for stock (demand is forecast and orders received on short lead times)
  5. Continuous processes
  
Typical range of manufacturing lead times:  
Typical range of purchased items lead times:  
Longest purchased item lead-time:  

2. Complexity

No Aspects of your complexity Y N
C1. Are more than 20% of the new products, requiring major process planning activity, introduced every year?    
C2. Are more than 10% of products manufactured only occasionally?    
C3. Do more than 10% of products have a cyclic or seasonal demand pattern?    
C4. Is the time taken to manufacture and/ or assemble typical products longer than the customers are normally prepared to wait?    
C5. Is material traceability essential?    
C6. Are more than 10% of raw materials, components, and/or sub-assemblies, valued at more than £10?    
C7. Is there need to control more than 1000 made in components (which go into higher level products)?    
C8. Are there more than 3 levels in a typical bill of material? (3 levels in a bill of material would be typified by an assembly made from a number of subassemblies, and subassemblies made from bought out components or raw materials).    
C9. Can more than 50% of products be categorised into product families?    
C10. Is there a need to control more than 1000 different bought out components (which go into higher level assemblies)?    
C11. Are there more than 1000 different bought out components which have a value of less than £1?    
C12. Are more than 7 manufacturing operations, requiring set ups needed to produce a typical component?    
C13. Are there more than 500 different work orders in progress on the shop floor at any time?    
C14. Is more than one manufacturing operation performed on a works order during a week?    
C15. Can the demand be met by using flow production techniques?    
C16. Are more than 3 resources being loaded to more than 60% of their available capacity?    
C17. Do the majority of the machines satisfy all of the following criteria?
  • Loaded to more than 60% of the available capacity.
  • Used to make components and / sub-assemblies contained in more than 5 products.
  • Operate in an unpredictable environment.
    
C18. Do the majority of machines satisfy all of the following criteria?
  • Loaded to more than 60% of the available capacity.
  • Used for the manufacture of components and / sub-assemblies contained in more than 5 products
  • Operate in a predictable environment.
    
C19. Are more than half of the machines part of a product focused shop floor layout (as opposed to a functional or process layout)?    
C20. Is there a need to book more than 500 stock transactions per week?    
C21. Is there a need to book more than 500 purchasing transactions?    
C22. Is there a need to book more than 500 shop floor transactions per week?    
C23. Does more than 1 site contribute to the manufacture and / or assembly of a typical product?    
C24. Is there commonality of components going into higher level sub-assemblies?    
C25. Is there a need to book more than 30 discrete sales orders per week?    
C26. Do most customers provide updated schedules to identify the latest demand?    

3. Uncertainty

No Aspects of the uncertainties surrounding your business Y N
U1. Is it difficult to predict the length of life cycles for more than 50% of the products?    
U2. Are 50% of the products sold in at least 5 variations?    
U3. Is there a mismatch of more than 10% between actual consumption of components or raw materials and the dependent requirements generated by the bills of materials, due to factors other than yield losses (e.g. selective assembly)?    
U4. Is it possible to determine the cumulative demand for more than 70% of components, & raw materials by considering the demand for parent items?    
U5. Of a representative sample of current production drawings, is there an engineering change made to more than 50% of them within the last 12 months?    
U6. Do more than 98% of deliveries from suppliers or sub-contractors arrive on time?    
U7. Are more than 5000 parts per million, or 0.5 % of the components received from suppliers or sub-contractors rejected, or subject to concessions, because of poor quality?    
U8. Are bottleneck machines broken down for more than 5% of their available capacities?    
U9. Are the yield losses during production represented by either of the following criteria?

More than 2% yield loss.

OR

More than 5% variation in yield

    
U10. Are rework levels during production, represented by either of the following criteria?

More than 2% of production is reworked.

OR

More than 5% variation in the level of rework.

    
U11. Do spares represent more than 10% of the production load?    
U12. Is the shop floor absenteeism level more than 5% of the available hours?    
U13. Are there good stores accuracy/disciplines?    

4. Flexibility

No Aspects of your flexibility Y N
F1. Does the company have flexibility to cope with revisions in customer demand due to any of the following factors?
  • spare capacity
  • service from stock
  • flexible manufacturing facilities
  • highly responsive internal logistics and procedures.
    
F2. Are the products designed with the aim of making them as easy as possible to manufacture and /or assemble?    
F3. Do more than 10% of the products have alternative production methods or operation sequences?    
F4. Is the latest manufacturing technology used to increase the number of separate manufacturing operations that can be carried out at one set- up?    
F5. Can more than 20% of shop floor employees perform at least 4 different operations?    
F6. Can all bottleneck machines be set up in less than 30 minutes?    
F7. Has the manufacturing system been designed to make it appropriate to the needs of the business as a whole?    
F8. Is the number of levels in the organisational structure from the site general manager to machine operator, less than or equal to 4?    
F9. Do the unions view change positively and constructively, having either facilitated changes in the past, or, indicated that change could be negotiated in the future?    
F10. Are formal organisation mechanisms (such as to agree production plans, or to smooth the introduction of new products, or deal with engineering change) used to aid inter-departmental communication?    
F11. Has demonstrable change been facilitated by progressive attitudes and cultures due to willing co-operation between management and employees?    

Email your answers in strictest confidence. (See Contact us for details)

__________________________________________________________

This topic is covered by a number of workshops depending on the issues raised in completing the questionnaire, but workshops focused on control systems selection are:

SSC02: Material Control Systems Selection

M05 Simple Capacity Planning and Control

M11 Simple Ways to Maximise Output & Workflow

M23 Capacity Management

To discuss your consulting or training needs with one of our independent consultants or trainers please Contact Us.

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Ó SM Thacker & Associates (Consultancy and Training Specialists) April 2000 V2 August 2007