How to Implement Quick Response Manufacturing

Cut Lead Times, Improve Profitability and Market Share

Manufacturers face a growing trend: customers increasingly request highly customized products at short lead times. Companies that have responded to this challenge have seen growth in profitability and market share. The key to this success: reducing lead times to eliminate waste such as expediting, excess inventories and high overhead.

Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) provides a time-tested set of principles and tools to reduce lead time throughout your extended enterprise and build a strong foundation for long term growth. QRM has helped companies reduce lead times by over 80%, reduce costs by 20-40%, and substantially increase market share.

If you manufacture low-volume, high-variety or custom-engineered products, join us for this virtual workshop and learn how Quick Response Manufacturing can give you a strong competitive advantage and put your company in a position to compete with low-wage countries.

You’ll learn how QRM helps you:

• Slash lead times in manufacturing and office operations by 80% or more
• Rapidly introduce new products
• Cut manufacturing costs
• Reduce overhead
• Manufacture higher-quality products
• Increase market share

The Power of Time

• The many hidden costs of long lead times and the power of short lead times
• Pitfalls of traditional methods and how QRM provides a new approach to lead time reduction
• Evaluating your organization(s) through short QRM quiz
• Discussion on waste due to long lead times

QRM in Production

• Defining product families and implementing cells for low-volume or customized production
• How to time-slice shared resources
• Discussion on ownership and cross-training for cell teams

QRM and Your Money

• QRM impact on bottom line; time-based project justification
• Accounting strategies

Material Planning Strategies and Tools for QRM

• Capacity planning: key relationships between utilization and lead time
• Impact of lot sizes on lead times
• High-level MRP scheduling
• Why standard kanban (pull) methods may not be effective for highly customized or low-volume products
• How POLCA, a card-based shop floor control system, speeds the flow of jobs in these situations

Applying QRM in the Office

• Defining product families for office operations
• How to create office cells to streamline cost estimating, order processing and product engineering

Conquering Obstacles to QRM

• Rethinking traditional efficiency and utilization measures
• Examining case studies and examples to see how it’s done
• Identifying obstacles to implementing QRM and how to overcome them

Implementing QRM

• Management mindset (cost-based versus time-based decisions)
• Performance measures to support QRM
• Steps to successful implementation

Charlene Yauch

Charlene A. Yauch, Ph.D., P.E., has been an engineering educator for over 20 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) and Oklahoma State University. Her notable honors include five teaching awards and a National Science Foundation Career grant. She has taught a wide variety of classes, including Manufacturing Systems Design & Analysis, Materials & Manufacturing Processes, Computer Numerical Control Machining, Automation Technologies, and Engineering Economy.

Her professional interests relate to the implementation of manufacturing system improvements, such as Quick Response, Lean, and Agile Manufacturing, with emphasis on the human, social, and organizational aspects. Prior to her doctoral degree, she worked in industry for six years, performing a wide variety of tasks for manufacturing firms, including simulation modeling, facility layout, and process improvement. She has also advised numerous student projects related to manufacturing system improvement.  Dr. Yauch has a multi-disciplinary educational background with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University, and graduate degrees in sociology (M.S.), manufacturing systems engineering (M.S.), and industrial engineering (Ph.D.) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.