SOLVE THE 5 DIFFICULT PROBLEMS THE MANUFACTURING BUSINESS FACES WITH TPiCS

1. Achieving the production for short-term delivery and ready for whatever changes come along

TPiCS-X can be modified according to the situation even in the order release plan. In addition, TPiCS-X also includes the order release plan and calculates the material requirements.

Whether or not this production (order) will be realized based on the the order-released plan, TPiCS-X will calculate the material requirements planning while doing simulation.

Because TPiCS-X calculates MRP based on the current inventory as a starting point, as well as all incomplete plans for today and in the past, users can see whether today’s production corresponding to today’s order and tomorrow’s production are possible. TPiCS-X creates a production plan and arranges parts and materials while simulating.

On the other hand, the general MRP system calculates the material requirements by allocating inventory and lot sizing. After issuing the slip, because the system will not take care of it so it was necessary to hit the calculator and calculate whether the parts needed for tomorrow’s production were really enough.

With TPiCS-X, all production planning can be entrusted to the system. However, in order to entrust (calculate) to the system, the data to be calculated must be meaningful. In addition to the number of stocks and master data held by the system, it is also necessary to maintain the order release plan data held by the system correctly. We call this “plan management”, and we will realize short-term production while managing the plan.

In addition, there are “leveling problems,” “on-site instructions problems,” and “suppliers problems” in order to realize short-term production. Please see the booklet 〖Solve the five difficult problems the manufacturing business faces with TPiCS〗 about them.

2. Attempting to make the factory floor observable

“Observation” has two aspects.

①Observation through on-site improvement represented by 5S 

②Make it clear by looking at the screen of the system

Observation by the system will naturally become possible if the above “planning management” is carried out.

3. Solving the problem of delay

Although TPiCS-X cannot prevent delivery delays due to disasters such as earthquakes and lightning strikes, and major accidents, Production troubles caused by “Miss”, “Leak”, “Overlooked”, etc. in everyday work can be handled by the above “planning management” and creating a system that can foresee troubles.

4. Balancing inventory reduction

Inventory is classified into two categories according to the cause of occurrence. ①Defective inventory due to miss, miscalculations, design changes, etc. ②Further analysis of the causes of operational inventory defects that occur in daily production activities reveals that multiple factors often overlap in a complex way, and no simple countermeasures can be found. Regarding this problem, the answer will be “steady improvement”. TPiCS-X has a mechanism to accurately, quickly, and easily reflect design information into production information, including design changes. This can solve half the problem. Since the prediction accuracy is outside the scope of TPiCS-X, we will try to minimize the damage even if there is a miscalculation. For that reason, we will reduce the lot size and shorten the order lead time. However, each of these methods has its own problems, so please refer to the booklet 〖Solve the five difficult problems the manufacturing business faces with TPiCS〗. Operating inventory is also devided  into two categories.。 ②-1 The number of orders is adjusted based on “intuition and experience”, considering that the person in charge of arrangement will respond to changes, and the inventory resulting from that. ②-2 Inventory due to inventory order adjustment that inevitably occurs from entering the factory to exiting the factory, TPiCS-X can set a “buffer to respond to changes”, so inventory can be reduced by shifting from work that relies on “intuition and experience” to work that is managed by the system. Inventory from entry to exit can be controlled by “delivery lead days/manufacturing lead days” and “lot size”.  When “plan management” is realized, if these settings are made smaller, the critical point at which production cannot be carried out according to plan can be found. That is the bottleneck for inventory reduction, so we will improve it.

5. Handling short-term turnaround of new products, and engineering

The essence of the difficulty and hardly of production management lies in “change & alteration”. And the source is “changes in the number and timing of when expectations become actual demand” and “design changes”. TPiCS-X has a “structure information conversion option (mentioned in “Reduce inventory”)”, and in addition to the function of reflecting design changes in production information, it can directly compares with what has already been arranged and you can also issue you can also issue a cancellation slip or issue an additional slip.