englishpod_E0047dg

Elementary ‐ Advanced ‐ Just In Time Strategy
(E0047)
A: I called this meeting today in order to discuss our
manufacturing plan. As I’m sure you’re all aware, with the
credit crunch, and the global financial crisis, we’re
obligated to look for more cost efficient ways of producing
our goods. We don’t want to have to be looking at
redundancies. So, we’ve outlined a brief plan to implement
the just-in-time philosophy.
B: We have two basic points that we want to focus on.
First of all, we want to reduce our lead time.
C: Why would want to do that? I think this is not an area
that really needs to be worked on.

B: Well, we want to reduce production and delivery lead
timesfor better overall efficiency.
A: Right, production lead times can be reduced by moving
work stations closer together, reducing queue length, like
for example, reducing the number of jobs waiting to be
processed at a given machine, and improving the
coordination  and  cooperation  between  successive
processes. Delivery lead times can be reduced through
close cooperation with suppliers, possibly by inducing
suppliers to locate closer to the factory or working with a
faster shipping company.
C: I see& That makes sense.
B: The second point is that we want to require supplier
quality assurance and implement a zero defects quality
program. We currently have far too many errors that lead
to defective items and therefore, they must be eliminated.
A quality control at the source program must be
implemented to give workers the personal responsibility
for the quality of the work they do, and the authority to
stop production when something goes wrong.
C: I’m with you on this one. Its essential that we reduce
these errors; we’ve got to force our suppliers to reduce
their mistakes.
A: Exactly. Well, let’s look at how we’re going to put this
plan into action. First...(fade out)