Boss Chen made a bed_x000D_

"If Toyota can assemble a car in 24 hours, and Dell can assemble a computer in 4 hours, why do you need 40 hours to assemble a bed? Do you think a bed is more complicated than a car?"

A simple question left Mr. Chen struggling with confusion and excitement.

Encountered "cash shortage" and "labor shortage"

Mr. Chen has a factory with more than 100 people in the Pearl River Delta region, producing an adjustable bed. He has always been very confident in the product. The domestic market price of the product is very high, but the orders are still flooding in and overwhelmed, and the market prospect is gratifying. However, the plant had to stop taking new orders a few months ago. There are two reasons: one is the prolonged payment period for domestic customers, which leads to the failure of capital turnover and no money to buy raw materials; the other is that the production capacity is difficult to keep up with due to the limited workshop and the loss of skilled workers in large numbers.

After analyzing the situation of the factory, Mr. Chen himself believes that seeking overseas investors can solve his immediate needs, because, in this way, a large amount of investment capital is injected into the company, and the liquidity can be increased immediately, and no matter how many orders are received, there is no fear of taking more orders. ;Explore overseas markets through more channels, and have the opportunity to attract high-quality overseas buyers with shorter payment terms; There are sufficient capital conditions to expand factories, thereby increasing production capacity and establishing a good corporate image, attracting more talents to grow the company together be stronger.

However, the actual financing operation was not smooth sailing, and the critical eyes of overseas investors made it difficult to meet the financing needs in the short term. This left Boss Chen at a loss for a while.

When many domestic private enterprise owners encounter similar situations, they all hold the same idea: if I have more capital at my disposal, all the problems will be solved easily. But is this really the single best way to solve the problem?

Start with increasing productivity

Dr. Tang Weiguo, Managing Director and Chief Consultant of Hong Kong Quality Management Consultants, believes that a more realistic solution to these problems should start with a substantial increase in productivity. After the initial diagnosis of Mr. Chen's factory, Dr. Tang prescribed a prescription: break through traditional thinking, introduce an advanced management model of lean production, improve the design of the entire production process, and cultivate the overall development concept of the company at the decision-making and management levels.

According to Dr. Tang's analysis, the whole process of feeding, producing, leaving the factory, and selling a bed consumes more than 40 hours of more than 100 employees in the whole factory, and the efficiency is extremely low. If the production process is initially improved Some links in the production process can completely shorten the time; if the lean production is fully implemented, the possibility of controlling it to 10 hours or even less is very high. The doubling of the production process means that the pressure on cash flow will be greatly relieved. Further increasing the production capacity by 4 times can save a lot of money originally used for the expansion of the factory, and at the same time, the labor shortage and other thorny problems can be solved. Assuming that once it is established, Boss Chen does not need to seek foreign investment so urgently.

But Lean Manufacturing is not just talking about it casually. How can a company have a complete set of effective production processes and train its employees to cultivate the concept of "doing things right from the beginning"? Mr. Chen still has doubts: "I have been in this industry for several years, and I can be called an expert in this field. I am very familiar with the production process. How can the production capacity of the factory have room for improvement? Let alone It has increased by 2-4 times at once. How much can a few words from a layman make a difference?"

Dr. Tang responded to various doubts with actions. He inspected the entire workshop and discussed the following with Mr. Chen. Discussion:

Process is the key to increasing productivity

Tang (Dr. Tang, the same below): "The entire assembly line is full of jingling noises, why does your worker have to use a hammer during the assembly process? Come knock on this bed?"

Chen (Mr. Chen, the same below): "Because in the previous process, the specifications of the screw parts on the splicing part were deviated, and the screws could not be fully tightened during installation, and workers needed a hammer to knock the screws completely. Go in."

Don: "Does Toyota workers use hammers when assembling auto parts? Could it be easier to make a car than a bed? Absolutely not. Toyota workers don't need hammers because Their focus is on the design of the entire production process. The design of the initial process has fully avoided all kinds of problems for the workers in the installation lines. Therefore, the assembly and assembly of various parts of the car are fast and smooth, which greatly reduces the rework rate and makes the entire assembly line operate very smoothly. Smoothly, it can produce a car in 24 hours.

"The internal assembly of Dell's computers also does not require any screws, which is one of the secrets that they can complete the installation of a computer in just 4 hours. If Dell's workers had to use a hammer to adjust every part of the computer, would they still be so productive? Therefore, consider a few more steps in the process design at the beginning, and then you will take a lot less detours. Just as you did the whole process of designing this bed, the hammer would have done its job if the drill position was strictly controlled before. "

Use the right person from the beginning

Chen: "That's what a big company can do. My small factory is not that strong, and the workers I invite are generally more educated than others. Low, they can't compare with the workers of Toyota and Dell. We have always been troubled by the shortage of talents!"

Tang: "Currently, top companies such as Toyota and Dell, which are known for their super production capacity, are to varying degrees. Implement lean production. Dell's employees don't use hammers and screws because they are not good, but because the people who design the process can't tolerate rework during the assembly process, so each process will take into account the coordination of all parties.

"Your workers use hammers because you tolerate their high rework rates. As the decision-making level and the management level, we should always implement one purpose in the formulation of the system and the issuance of orders: do things right from the beginning. If Toyota can produce a car in 24 hours, we are absolutely confident that we can greatly improve the existing production efficiency and complete the production of a bed in 20 hours or less. Unless you think the production process of this bed is more complicated than the car.

"At present, the education level of workers in the entire Pearl River Delta and even the whole country is generally low. After all, skilled senior technicians are rare, so this is a common problem faced by all enterprises, and there will not be much change for a while. , leading other peers, the employment strategy is the key.

"The management should communicate more with the front-line employees to understand the specific situation of the workers. Which workers have reached the stage of marriage and childbirth? Which workers are more likely to quit? What kinds of workers are temporarily indispensable? and many more. Arrange training according to different situations, strengthen training for employees with high loyalty, and implement incentive mechanism. Reward employees who are willing to use their brains to improve productivity, increase bonus income for employees who actively cooperate to improve production efficiency, and reserve a small number of manpower in important production lines. Prevent the 'shock' effect caused by the departure of skilled hands.

"In addition, it is necessary to improve the working environment of workers, strictly implement the safety work indicators, and convey a message that the company cares about the health of every front-line employee. Arouse employees' sense of responsibility from all aspects and strengthen employees' sense of belonging. Optimizing the allocation of human resources and using the right people from the very beginning is also the concept emphasized by lean production.

"Lean production is a production thinking mode, which requires enterprises to be alert to the 'excess fat' generated in the production process and reduce unnecessary In the production process, the pursuit is to greatly improve the production efficiency and improve the production capacity of the space. More importantly, when producing a product, it requires a business to keep in mind that producing a product that creates higher value for customers is more important than just producing a good product.

After listening to Dr. Tang's comments, Mr. Chen fell into constant contemplation. He has begun to realize that implementing the lean production model will greatly improve the production capacity of the factory. The only way to develop in stages is to think about it carefully. Instead of rushing to seek foreign partners who don’t know the details, it is better to focus on improving existing production capacity and enhancing one’s own strength.

This article is a contribution sent by the author. The author works for Hong Kong Quality Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (www.tqm.com.hk). Dr. Tang Weiguo mentioned in the article is the Managing Director and Chief Consultant of Hong Kong Quality Management Consulting Co., Ltd., and Vice Chairman of the Manufacturing Engineering Branch of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers , Six Sigma Black Belt Trainer, Doctor of Management. To communicate with Dr. Tang, please email awktong@tqm.com.hk.