ABSTRACT
I’ve always thought that this metric, more than any other, reflects how well synchronized and managed the operation is overall. Think about it: If the plant is not performing well on any of the 12 manufacturing principles, the chances of consistently delivering on time to customers are nil. I remember all the excuses from my early days as a schedule supervisor. We could have carried around a list in our pocket and just referred customers to a number for the explanation (i.e., excuse) we were giving them. “It would have been on time except…”
• There was excessive scrap and the order came up short. • Part of the order had to be reworked so the rest will be shipped
next week. • The machine operator tripped over a pallet and broke his ankle, and I
don’t have anyone trained on that machine until the weekend shift. • Two of the ten reels were lost somewhere in work-in-process inventory,
and we didn’t find it until it was too late to make this week’s schedule. • The final operation couldn’t be run because the machine had a cata-
s trophic bearing failure in the main drive shaft. • The engineers couldn’t figure out how to make the plastic extruder
run up to rated speed.
