ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2, I showed you how to structure your organization in order to reduce your MCT. This new structure using QRM Cells is critical to QRM implementation; however, it alone will not necessarily ensure success. This structure needs to be supported by several other pillars of QRM, which will be discussed in this and the next chapter. To illustrate the need for these additional supporting structures, let me give you a few examples of companies that approached me seeking help with their ineffective implementations of cells:
A manufacturer of specialized transmissions converted its entire • operation to cells-several fabrication cells for components, and multiple final-assembly cells for various types of transmissions-and yet the company’s quoted lead time to customers was 4 to 6 months. Furthermore, even with these long lead times it was still unable to achieve better than 40% on-time delivery! Engineers at a fabricator of aircraft engine parts put in a cell for a • particular line of parts. Based on their cell design and their calculations, they expected a lead time of under 5 days for those parts. Instead, the lead time after the cell became operational was over 35 days. A manufacturer of medical devices had installed cells for most of its • product lines, and the cells had dedicated equipment and operators. Yet the typical touch time within a cell was around 1% of the cell’s lead time, and these lead times stretched to over a month even for cells making small and relatively simple devices.
