Oakhills Faciities

TIMOTHY C WELLSOAK HILLS FACILITYOCTOBER 10, 2010 CASE STUDY WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC QUALITY PROBLEMS OAK HILLS IS FACING AND HOW WILL THEY INFLUENCE THE COMPANY'S ABILITY TO CONVERT TO A LEAN SYSTEM. a. In there batch flow system if there is a machine or suppler failure it increases customer lead times and reduces inefficiency. b. BlackDome, is often late on deliveries placed by E;E. This is due to rush orders being placed. There is a communication problem E;E and Oak Hills. Oak Hill has no information on new projects from E;E.They are used to an environment of lets place a rush order and this is a problem because this requires Oak Hills to have a lot of raw materials in inventory. There is no way for them to rush foreign odes due to stringent U. S. Paperwork. Also this will only work with US orders. For this to work they need better communication and need to make E;R responsible for there forecast of demand to reduce rush orders. WHAT CHANGES IN THE MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT NEED TO BE UNDERTAKEN TO CONVERT THE CURRENT SYSTM TO A LEAN SYSTEM? THINK ABOUT THIS FROM BOTH A SHORT TERM AND A LONG TERM PERSPECTIVE. a.The communications must be improved. Employees do not know what is going on and this causes them to be upset about the stability of their positions. The constant rush orders is also an issue, because of the strain it puts on the employee. b. They need to reduce the inventory to free up space. Oak Hill must also plan to change their layout of their building to implement a lean strategy. HOW WILL THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A LEAN SYSTEM IMPACT EMPLOYEES, AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO SMOOTH THE TRANSITION? a. An improved lean system will allow employees to work together and get bonuses based on what the team produces.Right now employees run around like chickens with their heads cut off or are doing nothing. A lean system will improve production and allow it to flow better. Employees state of mind will also change, because there will be less stress in the workplace. AT WHAT STAGE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SUPPLY CHAIN IS OAK HILLS AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE THE SUPPLY CHAIN? a. They need to do more work on researching what #;E is ordering to lessen the lead time of rush orders. The batch flow system does not work well. This is very little communication between the departments and this needs to change to improve the supply chain.Oak Hills is trying to go from a system of mass production to a custom-ed product. FOR OAK HILLS, WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN DEMAND MANAGEMENT AND THE SUPPLY CHAIN? a. Restructuring the plant to a lean system will allow for more available span which could be used to introduce and line of products. I think that controlling the demand is the most important aspect of Oak Hills successful lean strategy. It will allow them to reduce their lead time and have no buildup of WIP inventory. The sensor boards were packed to prevent damage, but , because of the limited space on a few could be held in the area.With more space, Oak Hills can store more boards and be held in the area, making for a more efficient process,. WHAT SHOULD OAK HILLS DO? WHAT PROBLEMS MIGHT OCCUR IN IMPLEMENTING YOU RECOMMENDATIONS AND HOW CAN THES PROBLEMS BE AVOIDED OR NEUTRALIZED? a. I feel that they should implement the lean strategy. As I said above. This will improve efficiency and employee morale. I feel they will have a major issue in trying to implement this strategy with the foreign orders processing. Foreign orders are the bulk for Oak Hills, and I feel that there are to many constraints with the U. S. Paperwork.