Innovative Production Machines and Systems Conference

Dear Eldukhri,

Thank you for your question. As you may already be aware that many corporations tend to explore international division of labour strategies in order to lower manufacturing resource costs and most importantly to gain a competitive edge, it is, therefore, vital to acknowledge and extensively understand the complexities that are presented by the drivers—domestic labour shortages, uncertainty in the exchange rate, diminishing returns, inflation, saturated domestic markets, flexible manufacturing, market expansion, surviving fierce competition, etc.,—for global manufacturing launch. Social and cultural challenges, for example, are some of the major problems multinational manufacturing corporations face. The challenges in the global manufacturing domain tend to increase the number of states in manufacturing operations or variables, and this consequently increases manufacturing complexity. The structure of the theoretical model hints that the more variability a manufacturing system exhibits, the higher the complexity. The dynamics of manufacturing challenges threaten existing conventional manufacturing operations, expecting the latter to act as complex adaptive systems in order to be able to adapt to the changing requirements in the global manufacturing environment. To survive global competitiveness, a multinational manufacturing corporation must be able to measure the underlying complexity in global manufacturing operations in order to obtain the average amount of information required to understand a system. As such, multinational manufacturing corporations may be able to:

1. Formulate reliable theories that can predict complex global manufacturing phenomena;

2. Derive tools that can deal with global manufacturing complexity issues; and

3. Stay competitive.

Thanks for your time.

Flowers

Zuriah,

In my opinion Idle time is an important and unavoidable aspect of manufacturing planning. Yes, ideally we would like to have no idle periods but there are positives that can be had from having idle periods in the system in realistic measures. The idle periods can be a form of realigning the system (or in other words breather) after a period of chaos and in lean factories, idle time can be used as a training session to further improve the process in general. Idle time is also used on the shop floor for vital maintenance work on a machine.

Really it depends on the definition of the measurement. I agree with Zuriah about identifying the potential idle states but will go further to determine the type of idle time it is.

What is your opinion Authors?

Taufiq

Dear Taufiq,

Thank you for your interesting questions. I wish to address you first question in the following context:

One of the major challenges in translating the difficulties in developing a coherent global manufacturing operational strategy into opportunities depends on a knowledge and measurement of how the various components of a manufacturing system interact in the global domain and the contribution each operational source makes to the manufacturing complexity. In address the above, we may ask ourselves the following:

1. What is the complexity in a manufacturing process designed for the manufacture of parts for Airbus in China, India and Eastern Europe?

2. What is the complexity of designing for global manufacturing a Dell computer that has 75 functional requirements?

3. What is the uncertainty in the transfer of a manufacturing management resource for the production of Rolls Royce in Mexico?

Central to our questions above is “what is it that we want to achieve?”

In order to attempt the above questions, we observe that complex systems generally present information. The variability a system exhibits, the higher the complexity and subsequently the more information the system presents. This brings us to identifying an information-based theory that offers a unique, unambiguous criterion for the measurement of complexity or uncertainty or ENTROPY in a system. This is how we arrived at the selected entropic measure of complexity. The entropy of a random variable is defined in terms of its probability distribution and can be shown as a good measure of randomness or uncertainty.

Regarding your second question, recall that the global manufacturing phenomena take into consideration several interrelated manufacturing and management activities that may be referred to as dependent components, subsystems or states. Defining a state in order to factor it in the theoretical model depends on a multinational manufacturing corporation’s (MNMC’s) goals. If a MNMC’s main goal is to successfully transfer manufacturing resources to Mexico for the production of Rolls Royce, then the MNMC is challenged to identify those challenges the value chain of activities (supply chain, etc.) present and what that requirements (functional requirements) must be achieved in order to achieve success. For example, the factors of logistical challenges may be defined as states that can be factored into the theoretical model in order to evolve reliable models for the improvement of the supply chain management component of a value chain of interest. Material control, production, stockpile inventory and distribution may be defined as systems, subsystems, value chain, etc., that form a distribution network in a complex integrated manufacturing distribution system. The interacting elements or components within each value chain of activity can be divided into states or substates in order to redefine the terms in the theoretical model and adapt it to a complexity measurement of interest.

Please forgive me for the late response.

Flowers

Dear Zuhriah,

Thanks for your questions. In addition to asking you to kindly refer to my response to Taufiq’s first question above, global manufacturing functional requirements are the “things” we must achieve in order to gain a competitive edge and achieve success in the global manufacturing environment. For example, a corporation that plans to enhance trade-offs between longer lead times at reduced manufacturing costs, may consider exploring global and just-in-time sourcing concurrently. Here, we ask the question: “What functional requirements must a corporation achieve in order to enhance trade-offs between longer lead times at reduced manufacturing costs?” The answer may simply be “exploring global manufacturing and JIT sourcing concurrently.

So in short, functional requirements depends on what a multinational manufacturing corporation’s specific goals and what the associated requirements are.

Please refer to Taufiq’s response on “idle states” as it presents a good answer to your question.

Thanks for your time and contribution.

Flowers

Dear Taufiq,

Suppose the manufacturing scenario of manufacturing two products, Prod-1 and Prod-2, are achievable through a manufacturing system that is composed of manufacturing Operation-1 at workstation W-1 and both Operation-2 and Operation-3 at W-2. Product Prod-1 is run only on W-1, implying W-1 requires a one-time set-up. The production of Prod-2 requires W-2 to be set-up alternatively on weekly basis. In this case we find the “Idle time” to be:

Idle Time in hours = Available Time (No. of weeks in the year X working hours per week) — Total Set-Up time of workstations — Total Make Time (Make in hours X Net demand)

For an interest in the Idle Time we need to place emphasis on the set-up hours. A reduction in set-up hours could maximise productivity.

I thank you for your contribution.

Flowers

Dear Flowers,

Thank you for the lengthy replies to the discussion points, it is very much appreciated.

In you measurement how would a global manufacturing model differ from a (how can I say it..??) local manufacturing model? What would be the main difference in the model or assumptions?

Sorry to bombard you with so many questions, just a sign of interest.

Taufiq :)

Dear Taufiq,

Thank you for the question. The changing requirements in the global manufacturing environment expect manufacturing systems to act as complex adaptive systems (CAS). This is a necessary and sufficient condition for manufacturing systems to adapt to the dynamics of the manufacturing challenges. The translation of those challenges into new opportunities is not limited to the global manufacturing domain. Domestic manufacturing corporations also face local challenges that require them to adapt their manufacturing systems to the changing requirements. Some of the challenges that can affect domestic manufacturing are the uncertainty in the exchange rate, labour shortages, domestic competitiveness, etc. In either at the global domain or domestic level, the theoretical model remains mathematically the same. For example, at the domestic manufacturing level one can use the static or structural complexity model to measure the complexity of the state of a manufacturing operation or structure of the process, etc. One can also use the dynamic complexity model for a multi system scenario such as studying the behaviour of queues at three, four, five or more manufacturing facilities or locations. The same theoretical model can be used for a complexity measure in the global scenario by redefining the terms in the governing model. In short, one can achieve this by adapting the model to global scenarios.

I hope my attempt to respond to your question meets your expectation satisfactorily. Otherwise please let me know in further clarification, if I have deviated from the main point.

I am very interested in your questions, so please keep posting them. It presents a geniune platform for both of us to share information and learn. I find your questions very effective.

Flowers

Dear Joseph,

Thanks for the question. Global manufacturing may be defined as the transfer of domestic manufacturing management resources by multinational enterprises to low wage rate foreign countries via economies of network. The growing globalization of economic and social enterprises, facilitated by the reduction of tariffs and removal of trade barriers within regions has been the major driver for global manufacturing. While the move toward a global economy may depend on a multinational corporation’s particular situation and objectives—such as, saturated domestic markets, devaluation in local currency rates or uncertainty in the exchange rates, inflation, diminishing returns, etc.,—the urge to lower manufacturing resource costs and to gain a competitive advantage remain one of the major motivational factors. For instance, the China and India shopfloors offer a lower manufacturing cost and a very large clientele or customer base. Siemens AG, whose competency and manufacturing competitiveness can be measured by the more than 50 core technologies it has developed throughout its 150 years of existence, has 450 manufacturing locations around the world. It can be inferred that Siemens’ move to expand its global presence is based mainly on the size of the market.

The conception of global manufacturing is in the context of maximizing returns on investment (ROI) and minimizing manufacturing resource management expenditure. Global manufacturing phenomena provide a platform for overhead cost-, maintenance- and or production-sharing. This can lead to a focus on increasing revenue by reducing manufacturing resource management costs. The factors of global manufacturing are many and varying. For example, the fall of the Soviet Union and centralized planning in the 1990s was subsequently followed by a rush to free markets due to the removal of boundary conditions. The elimination of many barriers to trade introduced the world as a huge single market rather than an aggregation of regions. Transferring global manufacturing resource management outside of one’s country provides the incentive of lowering cost for centralized training and personnel functions, for instance. The trend of globalization promises:

1. more trade;

2. flexible manufacturing which makes manufacturing location less relevant;

3. creation of new jobs; and

4. betterment of living standards for the economically deprived; etc.

Exploring international division of labour strategies in developing countries can promise a new market entry or launch strategy, and can subsequently lead to an increment in customer-base. Such benefits extend to a reduction in logistics for supply chain management. The US-Mexico industrialization program can be seen as a two-way economic traffic in that both nations benefit. The US multinational corporations benefit by improving their competitiveness, while Mexico gets to reduce unemployment within its borders.

The challenging dictates by today’s demanding customers in the context of expecting to pay less for high quality products have forced many manufacturers to adapt by matching customers to production capacity and capabilities. China and India, for example, can be seen as the world’s largest shopfloor that provide multinational corporations with low wage labour for the production of desired quality goods reasonably priced for the customer.

Other stimulants of global manufacturing include:

1. modest capital investment; solution to domestic labour shortages;

2. expansion of market presence—a platform for international market launch;

3. gain in competitive advantage;

4. export complexity, and,

5. gain manufacturing and technological economies of scale.

Local manufacturing, as the terminology implies, is basically managing manufacturing resources at the domestic level.

Thank you for your time.

Flowers

Mr Flowers, thank u for your answer, i'm satisfied