Alternative Improvement Plan

4 Alternative Improvement Plan

Operations management theories, tools and techniques are used to analyse the data in the case study and identify any potential solutions to the mills problems. On the basis of this analysis, an improvement plan is developed which is divided into short and medium term actions to address the mills problems. The approach taken is to firstly give an overview of the general performance of the mill and to then narrow the focus down to specific problems before digging down further to find their specific causes. Once the causes are identified, solutions are developed in the form of short and medium term actions.

4.1 General improvement strategy

The approach taken is to identify a general improvement strategy that is suitable for the operation being considered and to then seek specific solutions to the problems faced by the operation in a way that agrees with the strategy suggested.

This will ensure that the mill not only improves in the short term, but continues to improve in the longer term as well, by building on the short term improvements and seeking further improvements in the future. This will be achieved by implementing improvement models, some of which will be based on recognized approaches to improvement.

Firstly the type of improvement that the process is trying to achieve must be defined in general terms.

There are two broad approaches to improvement that a company can take: breakthrough improvement and continuous improvement. Breakthrough improvement is a philosophy that focuses on intermittent, major and dramatic changes to the way a process works. The effect is normally abrupt and short term, and the investment is normally large. The proposed computer programme represents a breakthrough improvement. However, this carries significant risks due to both the large capital investment and the probability of reduced morale amongst the workforce. Continuous improvement, however, does not carry such significant risks as it represents a focus on expending lower effort and investment on regular but small, incremental steps in order to bring about longer term changes.

The general approach of the mill up to this point, apart from the investment in the #5 and #6 machines in 1967, has been to focus on continuous improvements, mostly in the form of incremental improvements to the machinery.

Nominally the focus of this section of the report is to provide an alternative to the proposed computer system, but this is interpreted as an alternative to the large investment and high risks associated with it. The elements of improvement adopted will therefore be those suited to facilitate an improvement on the mills current approach to continuous improvement. Not only will this aim to reduce cost and risk but, crucially, this will necessitate the involvement of the workforce and should quell the undercurrent of apprehension about job security that is being brought about by the proposed new computer system.

One widely used model that is a suitable guide for continuous improvement is the DMAIC cycle illustrated in figure 1. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control. This cycle defines the improvement process as one of defining the problem, measuring the extent of the improvement needed, analysing the problem to establish the causes and potential solutions, implementing the solutions, and finally controlling and monitoring the process to ensure the improvement is sustained. After this point follows the most crucial aspect of implementing DMAIC; the cycle is repeated to ensure further continued improvement.

In chapter 4 of this report, the first three stages of the DMAIC cycle are applied to the mill before recommendations are given in chapter 5 to aid the mill with the implementation and control stages and also to help direct the collection of further data to allow the cycle to be repeated.

4.2 Performance objectives

To give further direction to the improvement process, an overview of the current performance of the mill as a whole compared with the desired performance is given using a polar diagram. The polar diagram can be seen as an aid to the first two stages of the DMAIC cycle in that it defines the directions in which the operation as a whole needs to improve and gives an intuitive measure of how far it needs to improve in any one direction. It will therefore help with prioritizing which problems to tackle, developing appropriate solutions, and will provide a check to see if the mill is improving in general terms.

A polar diagram is a tool used to measure and visually represent the performance of an operation in terms of selected general performance objectives/measures.

The 'five basic performance objectives' that 'apply to all types of operation' and 'form the backdrop to operations decision- making' are 'quality', 'speed', 'dependability', 'flexibility', and 'cost' (Slack et al P 39 - 40). An estimated overview of the current performance and the desired performance of the mill against these objectives are shown in the polar diagram in Figure 1, followed by justification for the structure of the diagram.

The decisions of how well the mills operations are performing against the objectives in the polar diagram are based on the ranked list of issues the mill is facing given in section one of this report. The two most important issues are the bottleneck at the machines and the inefficiencies in the scheduling process. Both of these have a major impact on flexibility and cost as the mill is incapable of rescheduling manufacturing objectives in order to meet last minute customer orders and cannot produce a wide range of options without wasting large amounts of stock and time during grade changing which results in increased cost. These factors also significantly impact on the speed of the operation as they are the major contributors to the overall production capabilities of the plant meaning longer waiting times for customer orders to be met.

It is notable that there is a great deal of interdependence between objectives, with flexibility, quality and speed all having a significant impact on the cost of the operation. The suggested improvements to the operations are therefore aimed at increasing the performance in these areas based on the assumption that costs will decrease as a result.

This will produce a plan that has the advantages of the computerized system but without the large capital investment leading