How Much Production Control Do You Have With Your Current Manufacturing Partner?
Ineffective production control can result in product quality concerns, defects and safety issues. Poor production management directly affects profitability, and can ultimately threaten the survival of a company.
This is why it’s crucial to have as much control as possible over your production processes. This level of control is easy to obtain when it’s your facility. But what if you outsource? Direct oversight at your supplier’s facility helps, but when your supplier’s factory is halfway around the world it isn’t so simple. When it comes to global manufacturing solutions, many OEMs find it difficult to maintain the level of product quality and cost they desire.
How Production Control Affects Your Business
Production control allows you to monitor the fabrication of your products to ensure that the correct plans are being executed throughout the manufacturing process. Sufficient control over production processes will allow you to react quickly if adjustments are needed to keep everything running smoothly. This affects nearly every area of a manufacturing business. For instance:
- Supply Chain: Proper management of the supply chain optimizes the cost and quality of your products. By evaluating different supply chain configurations, it’s possible to adapt quickly to changing conditions and make critical adjustments as needed.
- Competitive Strategy: Your manufacturing must support the competitive strategies of your company. For instance, if you are competing based on price, manufacturing must focus on cost reduction. Good manufacturing managers understand the implications of your marketing strategy for manufacturing operations and can implement standards and procedures accordingly.
- Technology: Adopting innovative technology can be a vital part of achieving company goals. Manufacturing systems can be complex: in-depth knowledge of the processes involved and how cutting edge technology can be applied is crucial to success.
- Organization: Product adjustments, changing market demands, and worker turnover all require flexibility within your organizational system in order to maintain performance. Therefore manufacturing management must continuously search for ways to adapt.
If you don’t have sufficient control over these areas of your manufacturing process, it will be difficult to maintain the level of efficiency and productivity that success in your industry requires.
Key Phases of Production Control
It is important to have sufficient control over each phase of your production process in order to maintain high product quality and a system that runs smoothly:
- Routing: Directing the precise route that products or materials take on the production line. This in turn affects what equipment and resources are used.
- Scheduling: Determining the time, resources, and machines necessary to complete each step of the manufacturing process.
- Loading: Checking the load at each of the routing points and at the start/end of the operation for resources, support and help needed. Individual work is then assigned. This phase is where efficiency is truly put to the test.
- Dispatching: Implementing the plans and beginning the manufacturing process. Production work orders are issued to fuel the onward movement of the production line.
- Follow Up: Evaluating the production process for bottlenecks—anything that could hinder the flow of production.
- Inspection: Ensuring all quality standards are met throughout the manufacturing process. Audits should be conducted regularly to ensure optimum product quality and process efficiency.
- Correction: Taking immediate corrective action on any problems detected during inspection. The goal of this phase is to continually improve future efficiencies.
As you can imagine, a lack of control throughout this process can have disastrous effects on product quality, process efficiency, and your bottom line.
The Benefits of Production Control
Having control over your production process is vital to maintaining optimal efficiency, costs, and quality in your operations. When you have a good handle on your production processes, you will experience:
- Higher Quality: You will be able to catch defects before they leave the factory, then analyze these defects to identify system errors that can lead to process improvement initiatives.
- Less Waste: Good control of production processes eliminates manufacturing inefficiencies, reduces waste and, in turn, improves production turnaround times and employee morale (efficient operations make job duties easier).
- Lower Operating Costs: You will lower the costs associated with poor quality and inefficient operations. This has the potential to result in improved profit and market share.
- Improved Decision Making: With better control over your production, you will be able to identify system deficiencies so they can be corrected, allowing for better operating decisions moving forward.
- Business Objectives Met: By efficiently producing products that meet the needs and expectations of your customers, you can increase customer satisfaction as well as your sales revenue and profitability.
And the opposite can be true as well—without proper controls you risk reduced product quality, excess waste, higher operating costs, impeded decision making, and, ultimately, missing the mark on your business goals.
How Does Your Current Manufacturing Partner Measure Up?
How much control do YOU currently have over the manufacturing processes of YOUR products? Does your manufacturing partner provide hands-on control at each production facility, including subcontractors? If you work factory-direct, how transparent are they? Do you have someone on site at the factory that can affect change—and place YOUR interests first? A good global manufacturing partner should have on-site supervision at each factory to ensure optimal product quality and process efficiency. If your partner isn’t on top of this for you, it may be time to make a change.
Macrotech Marketing Associates provides hands-on supervision of production and quality control at our supporting factories throughout Asia, giving you the level of production control you need to be successful. Our APAC offices in Taipei, Taiwan; Shenzhen, China; Penang, Malaysia; and Bangkok, Thailand provide direct factory supervision conducted by bilingual engineering and project management personnel. To discuss how we can meet your global manufacturing needs, call us at +1-408-395-5030 or email AProm@MacrotechMarketing.com.
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