Manufacturing heads back to USA (reshoring) - USATODAY.com

This article in the USAToday on reshoring manufacturing back to the US is interesting and not at all surprising. Regarding this part of the article: "Products that are labor-intensive and churned out in high volumes, such as apparel, textiles and TVs, will likely continue to be made overseas. So will those that are relatively inexpensive to ship but high-priced, such as laptops and cellphones, Ellis says. Goods are increasingly being made near customers, a trend that's driving U.S. makers to build factories in fast-growing China." I did an RMTMA (Rocky Mountion Tooling and Machining Association) dinner presentation several years ago titled "China, India, Tawain ... Oh My!" and my contention then was (and still is) that the more flexible and custom you are as a manufacturer the more likely your work will stay here. The faster you can get highly custom work through your shop -- the more secure your future is. I suggest taking a look at the work you hate to do -- and figure out a way to make it easier, start loving it, and go get more of it because your competition hates it too! The shops participating in our Velocity Scheduling System program are seeing their lead-times cut by more than 50%. If they can have something ready to ship while everyone else is still complaining about it -- they are going to be extremely successful in the long run.

http://velocityschedulingsystem.wordpress.com/?p=461

R&D Tax Credit to Improve Job Shop Scheduling

The Tax Extenders Package signed by President Obama on December 17th, 2010 calls for a two year extension, retroactive to 1/1/10 and through 12/31/11 for the R&D Tax Credit. The definition of Research and Development (R&D) is much broader than people realize.  Activities and costs associated with developing and/or improving a product or process can potentially generate R&D Tax Credits. This means that your tuition for the Velocity Scheduling System Coaching Program may be covered -- check with your accountant. So learn a new way to run and schedule your shop, get on-time, get happy customers, get more customers --- and then get a tax credit!  How cool is that! And even if, for some reason, it doesn't apply to you.  Velocity Scheduing System Coaching Program is so reasonably priced it may not be worth the effort to look for a writeoff or funding. Now, the only other question you may have is --- Yes, but will Velocity Scheduling System work for me?  Will it work in my my shop with our unique situations and challenges? I don't know, because even though over a hundred highly custom job shops have had fantastic success, that doesn't mean you will.  But I'm willing to investigate it with you.  So if you'd like a private strategy session to discuss your company, your unique scheduling challenges and how/if our scheduling solution will work for you, you can sign up here, there's no charge:

https://www.VelocitySchedulingSystem.com/private

You'll need to enter your name and phone number so that we can call you to schedule a time to talk.  I am personally doing these sessions and we will be going deep into YOUR scheduling challenges.  I will hold nothing back and give you my best advice, even if it is that you should NOT sign up for VSS.  Time slots are limited SO SIGN UP NOW! Dr Lisa President, Science of Business

P.S. Sign up for the no charge strategy session here:  www.VelocitySchedulingSystem.com/private  This is your first step to getting on-time in 2011 and then to getting a tax credit!

P.P.S.  And some states have their own R&D Tax Credit too.  I know Ohio has one, so check with your accountant on that too.  But don't spend too much time, VSS typically pays back in a couple weeks.  It's based on the Theory of Constraints Simplified Drum Buffer Rope, and it works FAST!

http://velocityschedulingsystem.wordpress.com/?p=504

Reshoring U.S. Manufacturing -- a 3 part article series

The final part in a 3 part series on reshoring has just been published. Part 1 is titled Velocity Manufacturing and is authored by Dr Lisa Lang . Part 2 is titled Total Cost of Ownership Calculation and is authored by Harry Moser. Then Part 3 was co-written by the two and is titled Reshoring Manufacturing Can Increase Your Competitiveness. June: http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=70112&p=46 -- Part 1 August: http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=77825&p=56 -- Part 2 October: http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=82790&p=28 -- Part 3 This 3 part series was brought to you by Fastener Technology International. If you have questions or comments for Harry Moser or Dr Lisa -- please leave them below.

http://www.velocityschedulingsystem.com/?p=1177

Manufacturing Expert Dr Lisa Lang is featured in MoldMaking Technology Magazine

The Secret to Getting On Time and Reducing Leadtimes

Create a competitive advantage by refocusing your job scheduling strategy.

Article From: MoldMaking Technology, Dr. Lisa Lang, President from Science of Business Job scheduling plays a big role in our on-time delivery performance and leadtime, which determines our competitive position within our industry. This is particularly true as competition has gotten more fierce in recent years. Only the best shops have survived. And those shops have very good quality and lead the pack in expertise. This means that scheduling is where and how you can really stand out. But there’s no question that scheduling has its challenges; and, every time we encounter a challenge our schedule is out of date and requires an update. We spend a lot of time updating the schedule. Following are just a few of the common scheduling challenges that cause us to continually update the schedule:

• Clients change their mind
• Vendors aren’t always reliable
• Mix can vary wildly and so our constraint moves
• Employees do not always have the right skill and their discipline is lacking
• Processes are not reliable
• Machines and tools break
• Quality is not near perfect
• Data is not readily available nor accurate nor communicated
• Communication between silos is difficult

Mold shops usually don’t have the luxury of making the same parts over and over again. The mix of work and amount of repair/emergency work a shop has can change so dramatically week to week that their bottlenecks can move, making on-time delivery a real challenge. Most shops have tried a number of strategies to improve their on-time delivery and reduce leadtimes—e.g., updated ERP or scheduling software, used some lean techniques or hired an expeditor—but, the results are usually not substantial. And, that’s because typical solutions address the various symptoms, but don’t address the root cause. So how do you address the root cause? How can you dramatically improve your scheduling?

The Secret Solution

The secret is to stop focusing on efficiency. When you are willing to do that, and put a more effective scheduling system in place, you create a buffer to better absorb all those sources of variability listed above. If you are willing to give this strategy a try and your competitors continue to cling to efficiency, you can create an incredible competitive advantage. So, what does it mean to be efficient? The definition from Dictionary.com is “performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort.” Money and cost should be added to that definition. One of the ways we typically apply efficiency in a shop is by keeping all our equipment and/or people busy so that we don’t waste any capacity and have the highest possible utilization. But to keep our key resources busy they all must have a job to work on, and to increase the likelihood that all resources have work, we typically make all jobs in house available to be worked on. “Available to be worked on” means included in our work-in-process. This max’s out your work-in-process and increases the pile of work at every work center. That way all key resources have a very high probability of having something to work on. This is particularly relevant in shops where the mix of work can change from week to week. That’s one of the things we do in the name of efficiency. According to Little’s Law there is a direct correlation between the amount of work-in-process we have and our leadtime. The higher our work-in-process, the longer our leadtimes. Figure 1 is an illustration showing the relationship between work-in-process and leadtime.

The more jobs that wait for their turn, the longer the average queuing time, leading to longer production leadtimes. Example 1 has the most work-in-process and longest leadtime. And, conversely, Example 3 has the least work-in-process and the shortest leadtime. So, as you increase work-in-process, you are also increasing your leadtime—not to mention the amount of cash you have tied up in raw materials. But wait, there’s more—on-time delivery decreases. The diagram does not include the effect of variability. But if it did, it would show that the variability of production leadtime is increased as the queue grows. So the effect of high work-in-process just gets more dramatic the more variability you have. This directly reduces the on-time delivery because it is more difficult to predict the exact production leadtime and to confirm orders accordingly. High work-in-process can also have an impact on quality. Many production failures occur early in the routing, but are detected much later in the production process (usually at final inspection). If work-in-process is high, the average leadtime is also high, causing a long lag time between the production steps and the final inspection. That means the final inspection step occurs a long time after the step that caused the failure. And because so much time has passed, it can be difficult to determine and correct the root cause of the quality problem, making improvement very difficult. Thus, the higher the work-in-process, the harder it is to detect and correct quality problems. All of this leads to why you should stop focusing on efficiency. As you stop focusing on efficiency and reduce work-in-process, here’s what happens: Queue time reduces Leadtime reduces Leadtime predictability increases On-time delivery increases Quality increases Cash flow increases As a result of these improvements, your production leadtime becomes much shorter (if you do it right) than your quoted leadtime. This difference can be used in two ways. First, it creates a buffer allowing you to absorb a fair amount of variability and further enhancing your on-time delivery performance. And secondly, the difference is so big that you can also afford to reduce the quoted leadtime to customers.

 Summary

The combination of a shorter quoted leadtime and 99-percent + due date performance creates a competitive advantage. Understanding that all of this is easier said than done, but it’s not physically hard to do, it is just mentally challenging because we don’t have intuition around this approach. Take some time to digest the negative effects an efficiency focus can have on your shop scheduling. LearnMore: Check out Dr Lisa’s 47 minute webinar How to Get More Jobs Done Faster at www.velocitySchedulingSystem.com/webinar. Contributor:  “Dr. Lisa” Lang is one of the foremost Theory of Constraints experts in the world and a sought after manufacturing expert having been named the 2012 Manufacturing Trendsetter in the USA Today for her inexpensive and guaranteed Velocity Scheduling System Coaching Program that has dramatically improved performance of well over 100 highly custom job shops and machine shops.  She has also appeared in CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, Finance.com, About.com, NY Daily News, CNBC, The Boston Globe, The Miami Herald, and others. She is active in helping reshore manufacturing back to the U.S.  and in the NTMA, PMA, and AMT communities having helped member companies to reduce their lead-times and improve due date performance. She worked with Dr. Goldratt who is the father of Theory of Constraints and author of the bestselling book, The Goal. Dr Lisa is the President of the Science of Business specializing in increasing profits of highly custom manufacturers by applying Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma to operations with Velocity Scheduling System and to engineering/design with Project Velocity System and to marketing with her Mafia Offer Boot Camp. Here's the link to the article in MoldMaking Technology Magazine:  http://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/the-secret-to-getting-on-time-and-reducing-leadtimes.

http://www.velocityschedulingsystem.com/?p=1470

Michigan Precision Machine Shop Scheduling Success Story

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Manufacturing and Theory of Constraints Expert Dr. Lisa Lang Features a Michigan Precision Machine Shop Success Story

Robert Peuterbaugh, President of Joint Production Technology, shares his story of how the Velocity Scheduling System is helping his company to see increased production and profits. Green Valley, AZ – December 29, 2012 – “Dr. Lisa” Lang, President of the Science of Business and Theory of Constraints expert, is proud to share another client job shop scheduling success story.  Robert Peuterbaugh, president of Joint Production Technology (JPT) in Macomb, Michigan.  Robert has utilized Dr. Lisa’s Velocity Scheduling System to improve productivity at his facility. The Velocity Scheduling System is based on Theory of Constraints, but it has been adapted for highly custom job shops and machine shops whose constraint can move week-to-week or day-to-day. Robert Peuterbaugh’s case study and success story (written by Mike Touzeau) can be found at https://www.velocityschedulingsystem.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/VSS-success-1-v4.pdf Here is an excerpt:

Providing high tech innovations for precision cutting, boring, and other applicable manufacturing functions for such big outfits as GM, Ford, TRW, and many others here and abroad, Peuterbaugh knows his operation inside out. Battling the downturn like everyone else, this seasoned leader has always investigated long-term remedies rather than groping for gimmicks, so he began to search for solutions. “As things got worse, I looked at what would make things better,” he said.” I had followed Dr. Lisa’s emails for two years before signing up.” He knew it would be important to improve productivity, so having read much of what Dr. Lisa had written on Velocity Scheduling System (VSS), he took the plunge, knowing many others wouldn’t. “Sometimes you say that we’re good at what we do, so why change?” “When I saw all the reasons,” he put it, “it all fit. That’s what got me to talk to her.” JPT HAS SHOWN A 64 % INCREASE IN SHIPPED $. He estimates between a 25 and 35 percent profit increase “directly attributable,” he says, to the changes his team instituted after starting the VSS program in February. Once the process started working, he recalls, his team stood in awe at the seamless flow, shipping each day with customers getting something every day. “They just could not believe it.”

And another:

Robert Peuterbaugh’s story is probably not unlike your own. You worked hard to build a solid reputation with your customers. You want American manufacturing to be great, and though you’re a successful small or large operation, scheduling is still always an issue. VSS is a system that creates a continuous flow in your operation so all your employees share in knowing what needs to be done and when.

A member of many manufacturing organizations, Robert Peuterbaugh works with local schools to promote manufacturing career education, and serves on the Board of Directors for Tooling, Manufacturing & Technologies Association (TMTA). To learn specifically what Robert did to improve Joint Production Technology, watch a 47-minute webinar on “How to Get More Jobs Done Faster” at https://www.VelocitySchedulingSystem.com/webinar/  or read the “9 Challenges to Scheduling Your Job Shop” ebook at https://www.VelocitySchedulingSystem.com/ebook/.   “Dr. Lisa” Lang is one of the foremost Theory of Constraints experts in the world and a sought after manufacturing expert having been named the 2012 Manufacturing Trendsetter in the USA Today for her inexpensive and guaranteed Velocity Scheduling System Coaching Program that has dramatically improved performance of well over 100 highly custom job shops and machine shops.  She has also appeared in CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, Finance.com, About.com, Gear Technology, CNBC, MoldMaking Technology, The Fabricator, NTMA’s The Record and many others. She is active in helping the reshoring of  manufacturing back to the U.S. and in the NTMA, PMA, and AMT communities having helped member companies to reduce their lead-times and improve due date performance. She worked with Dr. Goldratt who is the father of Theory of Constraints and author of the bestselling book, The Goal. Dr Lisa is the President of the Science of Business specializing in increasing profits of highly custom manufacturers by applying Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma (TLS) to operations with Velocity Scheduling System and to engineering/design with Project Velocity System and to marketing with her Mafia Offer Boot Camp.   ### Contact: Dr Lisa Lang Science of Business, Inc DrLisa@ScienceofBusiness.com   keywords: Dr Lisa Lang, Dr Lisa, Theory of Constraints, Velocity Scheduling System, job shop scheduling, machine shop scheduling, Goldratt, reshoring manufacturing, Success Story, Case Study, TMTA, Michigan Manufacturer   Links: http://prlog.org/12050614 http://www.pressnewsroom.com/?p=18180 http://bit.ly/Wbxt5w

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