Eastern Gear
Case: Eastern Gear, Inc.
Q1. (Major problems) * Gears in most orders are small. The exact same gear is rarely ordered more than once. * Some deliveries of small orders are too late because of it took a long time before they were being produced. * Production sometimes has to be stopped because raw materials are not available or the design has still have to be clarified. (orders are not clear enough) * Production time is pretty high and therefore it is difficult to get the orders out on time. (´´one week the bottleneck may be in one machine center, and the next week it is another´´ every production sector is not well organized)
Related to this Production time is on average 4 weeks. ) 90% of the time the order is waiting in line for a machine to become available.
* The company is booming while the production structure is not well organized enough. At this moment 20% of the orders have rush tags on them. When the demand for products is increasing, this will probably become worse in the future. * Many things are returned because of the fact that the production process has not been done very well. * The layout of the firm is too complicated (there is a ´´jumbled flow of products to the shop´´)
So the major problems are in fact in the production area. Many orders are too late or do not have the required quality. This is because the company is not producing every time the same gear. Every single order is different, so there has to be made a different design and other raw materials are needed. Because of the booming business the case is getting worse.
Q2. (Actions to solve the problems)
The production process should obviously be restructured because of the fact that many orders are too late or not good enough. We think this can be done by: * Separating the small and the big orders. (In the text is stated that all orders are produced together. This is however not efficient) * The design of the product should already been
Q1. (Major problems) * Gears in most orders are small. The exact same gear is rarely ordered more than once. * Some deliveries of small orders are too late because of it took a long time before they were being produced. * Production sometimes has to be stopped because raw materials are not available or the design has still have to be clarified. (orders are not clear enough) * Production time is pretty high and therefore it is difficult to get the orders out on time. (´´one week the bottleneck may be in one machine center, and the next week it is another´´ every production sector is not well organized)
Related to this Production time is on average 4 weeks. ) 90% of the time the order is waiting in line for a machine to become available.
* The company is booming while the production structure is not well organized enough. At this moment 20% of the orders have rush tags on them. When the demand for products is increasing, this will probably become worse in the future. * Many things are returned because of the fact that the production process has not been done very well. * The layout of the firm is too complicated (there is a ´´jumbled flow of products to the shop´´)
So the major problems are in fact in the production area. Many orders are too late or do not have the required quality. This is because the company is not producing every time the same gear. Every single order is different, so there has to be made a different design and other raw materials are needed. Because of the booming business the case is getting worse.
Q2. (Actions to solve the problems)
The production process should obviously be restructured because of the fact that many orders are too late or not good enough. We think this can be done by: * Separating the small and the big orders. (In the text is stated that all orders are produced together. This is however not efficient) * The design of the product should already been