David Mann wrote: >On Apr 20, 2016, at 1:28 PM, John Coyle <jco...@iinet.net.au> wrote: > >> I once worked for a company on a remote island where JIT stock control was >> impossible - ships only >> every three months, and no airport. So you ordered what you thought you >> would need for at least six >> months in advance. > >I remember many moons ago when the lead-time for the flash-memory chips used >by one of our products was 2 years. Which also happened to be the time it >took to build a new fab to make them :) Current production was 100% committed >so if you wanted more you had to wait for the new plant to be built. > >Thinking back to those times I'm surprised I didn't turn to alcohol... I >should hang up my Six Sigma Lean Design Black Belt plaque. Might make a good >dart board.
I once saw an operation that made fantastic use of JIT stock control and the Japanese "Kanban" system. It was the Dunlop tire factory near Buffalo, NY (this was just a few years after Dunlop was bought by the Japanese). Every production line was set up to be able to quickly switch between different tires and the orders for tire and quantity were posted at the start of the line. Every different component/ingredient was listed and orders were placed (and received, for the most part) on an "as required" basis. But that's a situation where this kind of system can work: You're making a relatively uncomplicated product (tires, rather than a DSLR) and the materials required to make the product are commodities like rubber, rather than extremely technical manufactured goods like 24x36 CMOS sensors. -- Mark Roberts - Photography & Multimedia www.robertstech.com --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
