General Carl von Clausewitz defined friction as "…the
force that makes the apparently easy so difficult," and "countless
minor incidents… combine to lower the general level of performance, so that one
always falls short of the intended goal." Friction is why, in civilian
occupations, organizational performance often falls short of plans, and for no
obvious reason. Variation is a form of friction that, among other things,
generates huge piles of inventory in plants with nominally adequate capacity
and long lines of irate customers in service activities that also seem to have
adequate capacity. The reason is similar to why traffic jams appear out of
nowhere during rush hour. This webinar will show clearly how to identify this
kind of variation so organizations can address it to improve bottom line
performance and customer satisfaction.
Why Should You Attend
Quality professionals are most familiar with variation in
product dimensions as a reason why parts might not meet specifications, but
variation makes its presence known in other forms as well. Goldratt's and Cox's
The Goal illustrates the effect of variation on operations management, where
inventory can back up in factories with nominally adequate capacity. The reason
is that favorable variation does not offset unfavorable variation, and time
lost at a capacity constraining operation is lost forever. The same principle
carries over into project management where unfavorable variation can even turn
a nominally non-critical path into a critical one, and service activities in
which lines of irate customers can back up at service desks with nominally
adequate capacity. There are fortunately, however, simple ways to deal with
much of this variation to improve performance.
Objectives of the Presentation
» Traditional
role of variation in product quality
» Gage
capability (variation in measurements), the subject of measurement systems
analysis
» Role
of variation in production control and service activities; why lines often back
up when the service is below capacity.
» Effect
of variation in activity times on project management (and production planning)
» Overall
takeaway; variation impacts almost every business activity, but is often taken
for granted. There are however things we can do about it.
Areas
Covered in the Session
» Friction,
which was originally a military concept, is equally applicable to business
activities. It consists not of major and obvious disasters such as product
recalls or widespread customer dissatisfaction, but rather of seemingly minor
inefficiencies whose cumulative effect can be devastating.
» Variation
in product dimensions or other quality characteristics is the most familiar
context, and it is why parts are sometimes out of specification even when the
process is centered on the nominal measurement. Process capability and process
performance indices are associated with this application.
» Variation
in measurements (gage reproducibility and repeatability) means that gages and
instruments may return, on average, the correct measurement but "on
average" is of little comfort if they sometimes reject conforming items
and accept nonconforming ones. This is the context of measurement systems
analysis (MSA).
» Variation
in processing and material transfer times is why inventory can accumulate even
in a factory with nominally adequate capacity. Time lost at a
capacity-constraining resource is lost forever, and favorable variation does
not offset unfavorable variation.
1. Henry Ford identified this issue almost 100 years ago and his
synchronized production system eliminated most if not all of the variation.
2. Goldratt's and Cox's drum-buffer-rope (DBR) production control system
addresses the symptoms of the variation but does not actually eliminate it.
3. Single-unit flow, standard work, automation, and subdivision of labor,
on the other hand, address and remove the variation itself, and are essentially
prerequisites for successful kanban (pull production control) systems.
» Variation
in task completion times can cause projects to finish late, and even cause
non-critical paths to become critical ones in extreme cases. This is again
because favorable variation on one path does not offset unfavorable variation
on another.
» Variation
is why traffic jams appear out of nowhere, especially during rush hour. Ford
used staggered work shifts, with people starting and stopping at 30-minute
intervals, to eliminate rush hour. (Staggered shifts are also now being used to
reduce the number of people present at a factory as a countermeasure for
Covid-19.)
Who Will Benefit
» All quality practitioners and operations managers
To Register (or) for more details please click on this
below link:
https://bit.ly/2Q4mQKT
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