Manufacturing management—a world model?

Abstract

Looking for a world model for the manufacturing information flow diagram has brought us to the conclusion that it is impossible to build an all-encompassing, all-inclusive system. The redundancy and overlap would make the system excessively complex and ineffective. The best way to generalize a model of this type is to simplify. The result is that we eliminate nearly the entire production control mechanism that is found in the labour intensive MRP system (Fig. 1). We come up with a system that is much closer to the material intensive JIT system (Fig. 2). The conclusion is that effective production control requires that you choose which resource you wish to optimize, and then select a system that controls the plant around the selected resource base. This is the function of books like International Management and Production. A second conclusion would be that complexity (MRP—Fig. 1) gains very little over simplicity (JIT—Fig. 2 or World Model—Fig. 4) in productivity or efficiency. As Shozo Hibino says in his book Breakthrough Thinking, we need to run our plants smarter, not harder.

Notes

GERHARD PLENERT, Ph.D. CPIM, spent 15 years working in management in private industry. His specialty was in MIS (Management Information Systems) and POM (Production/Operations Management). He travelled throughout the world in this capacity and recently returned to school to earn his Ph.D. at the Colorado School of Mines. He spent the last 4 years teaching and doing research at California State University, Chico. He joined Brigham Young University in the Institute of Business Management. He was the Director of the California Productivity and Quality Center at CSUC and is now the director of the Productivity and Quality Research Group at BYU. His research specialty is in International Industrial Management with an emphasis on Developing Countries. He recently published a book titled International Management and Production—Survival Techniques for Corporate America.