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MANUFACTURING SOFTWARE

R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
That is OK if you don't have several hundered, to a thousand
different jobs in process at one time.

How could anyone possibly have several hundred to a thousand different
jobs in process at one time?

It's all I can do to do one.

Thanks,
Rich
 
M

Michael A. Terrell

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
No problem. We had a chat about that and the individual managers agreed
to keep foot traffic lean by urging their folks not to go all at once.
Typically only 2-3 people from each department would actually show up in
the stock room. I had a talk with the stock room clerks to see how they
liked the new pulling scheme. "A lot", they said, citing mostly the
absence of huge carts during a major kitting session.


That never really happened. Parts were pulled as the work orders came
out of the stockroom printer, with the worst lag being one working day.
Top level work orders had the days required to complete each job, and
the MRP system generated each days run of lower level work orders. The
work orders were printed by stock number, so one person could fill all
the similar orders at once. On the rare occasion they got behind, one
of the people in incoming inspection would help for a couple hours. All
the carts were lined up in the order they were needed, and only a couple
hours work at a time. Then someone from planning would take a couple
empty carts and trade them for ones loaded with work orders that were
ready for Assembly. We had about 200 carts and 25 "Mules" which would
clamp to a 19" rackmount chassis and could be rotated 180 degrees to
work anywhere on the four sides. the only time I remember seeing a
logjam of carts was the end of one quarter, and I turned in 14 carts
full of tested PC boards in a very long evening of working overtime by
myself. I cherry picked the boards, and completed 75 boards that
evening. It let us claim a half million dollar early delivery bonus
that was offered at the last minute. It took QC two days to process all
my work, and they didn't want to talk to me for months. They were VERY
upset that they couldn't even get to their desks because the isles were
blocked with a dozen carts that were there when they left, plus the 14 I
added that night. i was told I could take the next day off if I wanted
to, but I couldn't resist seeing their faces when they came in the next
morning. :)

That's exactly one thing we wanted to become able to do. If a set of
circuit breakers was missing because it was on back order they could now
begin to assemble the system anyhow. No more waiting because a kit was
incomplete, meaning we had less of that typical quarter-end ship crunch.
Which also meant less overtime. Which meant less cost and a happy CFO.


Most of our work involved building PC boards, and assembling them into
working modules. Our lead time was six months, so an out of stock part
was rare. When we had problems, we would qualify a ne part, only on the
condition that the vendor could supply what we needed from existing
stock. The circuit breaker you mentioned would have been no problem,
because it would have been a plug in component, but it would still have
to be in the chassis before the unit could go to final test and
calibration. You would have to see one of these telemetry systems.
Modular tuners, for the customers requirement, up to 12 IF bandwidths
internal, and 12 more were an option in an external chassis. 12
different video bandwidths, and seven different time constants for the
system AGC. The video combiner was able to track to .01 dB.
Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside the plant. I have some
older product I picked up surplus, so I'll try to get some pictures. I'm
not sure if I'm well enough to drag it off the shelf right now.


... It
We could even do that after someone had pulled such a critical item
because the MRP knew where it went. A quick decision among the managers
and a part was pulled back from area 1 and brought to area 2, and the
MRP was updated accordingly.


The only advantage I saw was that anybody who lasted through the 30
day probation had already learned how everything worked. I'm not
arguing with you, just point out that both systems CAN work well, when
used properly.

That is sad. Happened to the manager of our tool and die shop as well,
he suffered a major stroke and did not recover. I still miss him.


Chuck didn't wake up one morning. The other tech went to his house
to find his van in the driveway. When he didn't answer the door for 10
minutes he called for help. The landlord unlocked the place for the
rescue squad, but he'd been dead for hours. He was a cantankerous old
fart, but I know what you mean.



--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Michael said:
That never really happened. Parts were pulled as the work orders came
out of the stockroom printer, with the worst lag being one working day.


One day can be way too long in medical electronics. With the new pulling
system they'd take a few chassis weldments, transformers and miscellanea
and a few of the guys would start assembling ten minutes after the order
was there.

Top level work orders had the days required to complete each job, and
the MRP system generated each days run of lower level work orders. The
work orders were printed by stock number, so one person could fill all
the similar orders at once. On the rare occasion they got behind, one
of the people in incoming inspection would help for a couple hours. All
the carts were lined up in the order they were needed, and only a couple
hours work at a time. Then someone from planning would take a couple
empty carts and trade them for ones loaded with work orders that were
ready for Assembly. We had about 200 carts and 25 "Mules" which would
clamp to a 19" rackmount chassis and could be rotated 180 degrees to
work anywhere on the four sides. the only time I remember seeing a
logjam of carts was the end of one quarter, and I turned in 14 carts
full of tested PC boards in a very long evening of working overtime by
myself. I cherry picked the boards, and completed 75 boards that
evening. It let us claim a half million dollar early delivery bonus
that was offered at the last minute. It took QC two days to process all
my work, and they didn't want to talk to me for months. They were VERY
upset that they couldn't even get to their desks because the isles were
blocked with a dozen carts that were there when they left, plus the 14 I
added that night. i was told I could take the next day off if I wanted
to, but I couldn't resist seeing their faces when they came in the next
morning. :)


Well, that's how it looked at our place before switching from kitting to
pulling. Almost every quarter. The problem was that OT had to be paid
time-and-a-half so labor costs could really rocket up. I can't remember
even one serious quarter-end crunch after the switch.
Most of our work involved building PC boards, and assembling them into
working modules. Our lead time was six months, so an out of stock part
was rare. When we had problems, we would qualify a ne part, only on the
condition that the vendor could supply what we needed from existing
stock. The circuit breaker you mentioned would have been no problem,
because it would have been a plug in component, but it would still have
to be in the chassis before the unit could go to final test and
calibration. You would have to see one of these telemetry systems.
Modular tuners, for the customers requirement, up to 12 IF bandwidths
internal, and 12 more were an option in an external chassis. 12
different video bandwidths, and seven different time constants for the
system AGC. The video combiner was able to track to .01 dB.
Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside the plant. I have some
older product I picked up surplus, so I'll try to get some pictures. I'm
not sure if I'm well enough to drag it off the shelf right now.

Our leadtimes were between a few hours and a couple weeks, roughly.
Before it was one month fixed because that's when kitting time was.
... It




The only advantage I saw was that anybody who lasted through the 30
day probation had already learned how everything worked. I'm not
arguing with you, just point out that both systems CAN work well, when
used properly.

They can. But with kitting I've only found it to work well if you knew
the stock room and kitting folks well enough so they'd let you have some
of those transformers before finishing the kit. The occasional box of
chocolates did wonders. Pretty much like the relationship between
engineering and marketing which in my case resulted in marriage ;-)
Chuck didn't wake up one morning. The other tech went to his house
to find his van in the driveway. When he didn't answer the door for 10
minutes he called for help. The landlord unlocked the place for the
rescue squad, but he'd been dead for hours. He was a cantankerous old
fart, but I know what you mean.

It's no comfort now but at least he did not have to die a slow death in
a nursing home.
 
K

krw

Jan 1, 1970
0
In those cases we still did it but the stock remained at the contract
assembler. Later the contract assembler gradually took over purchasing,
further reducing our overhead costs.
I've done that with the common parts. Often they'll have them in
stock waiting. I usually had to design around availability though.
These I bought before the design was complete to insure I had a
buildable design. Sometimes I had a better supply (could apply a
firmer twist to the arm) than the contract manufacturer. I never had
more than a couple of designs and variations in the mill and
quantities were small.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
krw said:
I've done that with the common parts. Often they'll have them in
stock waiting. I usually had to design around availability though.
These I bought before the design was complete to insure I had a
buildable design. Sometimes I had a better supply (could apply a
firmer twist to the arm) than the contract manufacturer. I never had
more than a couple of designs and variations in the mill and
quantities were small.

On small qties that works ok. Somehow my consulting projects split into
the extremes. Not much in the middle. Some are parts of big machines
where only a few hundred a made per year. The other stuff is real mass
products where every penny needs to be turned around which actually is a
lot of fun during the design for me.
 
K

krw

Jan 1, 1970
0
On small qties that works ok. Somehow my consulting projects split into
the extremes. Not much in the middle. Some are parts of big machines
where only a few hundred a made per year. The other stuff is real mass
products where every penny needs to be turned around which actually is a
lot of fun during the design for me.

Well... Mine have been at two extremes too. Either a prototype or
test fixture, where only a few are made, or production, where I had
nothing to do with the manufacturing end (until something broke).
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
krw said:
Well... Mine have been at two extremes too. Either a prototype or
test fixture, where only a few are made, or production, where I had
nothing to do with the manufacturing end (until something broke).

Except for making sure that the design is optimized for production or in
MBA speak "DFM" my clients handle production. But also only until
something happens. Like that late night request from China after a part
went out of datasheet spec range and they needed another source right
now because they had a line stop situation.
 
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