Machine shops are facing a stiffening competition due to technological advances and an overall global characteristic of the market. Shops no longer compete with only regional competitors, as customers increasingly look for supply chain solutions across the globe. In such environment, metrics can help business owners maintain competitive advantage. The usefulness of data can only be exploited if you know what you need to measure in order to streamline your processes. If not, you will be inundated with a lot of data that does not give you a direction that you need.
Key Takeaways:
- Mass production techniques when applied to smaller shops don’t typically pan out because the process is more complex than many think.
- Job shops have to deal with demand roller coasters meaning that they can overproduce products. They have to wait when demand is low until they know the next project exactly.
- Job shops don’t benefit from level-loading which means more effective costs over time due to a consistency in demand.
““Transfer managers” often underestimate the difficulties of managing a job shop, which is typically smaller than the mass production environments these managers came from.”
