ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the issue of outside operations and show that through creative rethinking there are many ways of solving this difficult issue. It uses examples to illustrate application of these principles and this way of thinking to create successful cells. The underlying approaches to challenging the conventional way of doing things are to combine operations, eliminate operations, or bring these operations into a cell. In its efforts to drastically reduce lead time for aftermarket parts, Beloit Corporation found an effective way to eliminate the casting operation for many of these parts. At Beloit, castings typically had a long lead time, often several weeks, while customers for aftermarket parts wanted delivery in days since usually a machine was down at their plant. For decades it was assumed that mass-produced bread, made in large ovens, would eventually replace all the neighborhood bakeries.
