Effect of Using Incomplete Kit

Assignment:

Please identify the different ways that working with incomplete kits can impact productivity.

Answer: Complete kit is a management tool which includes all components needed for the effective and efficient completion of a task or the goal of an organization. For example, a health care facility before booking a patient would ensure that all resources needed for the successful completion of the procedure is available before booking the patient for the allotted time a situation where both human and material resources need to complete the task are not made available and are anticipated is using an incomplete kit, which would result in the following:

• Weakening in staff morale and motivation, loss of faith in the management and the sense of having to perform needless tasks.
• Higher operating costs. The increase of rework, waiting and other inefficiencies result in greater operating costs. Schonberger (1986), states that any operation does not add value to the process is a waste.
• Reduced productivity. In a work process the inefficiency factor of incomplete kits is considered 80 percent. Meaning that a process that takes 1.0 person hours with a complete kit can increase to 1.8 person hours when working with an incomplete kit, which results in waste of resources.
• Longer Response times. There is a direct relationship between the number of works in process and longer response times. More WIP lead to increase response times
• Increase in the number of Works in Process, one cannot complete task with missing or incomplete information.
• Poor Quality and greater rework. Increased WIP result in poor performance and quality. There also is a resulting need to double check work in an attempt to avoid mistakes
• Variance between quoted and planned response times. Deming (1986) States that variance in response time is the number one enemy of production.
• Decline in throughput. Waiting for all relevant information which are not readily available leads to delays and increases in throughput.

References

Deming, W. E, (1986) Out of crisis (Cambridge, MA, MIT,(IAS)

Schonberger R. J (1982) Japanese Manufacturing Techniques (New York: Free Press)