Every manufacturer wants to grow the business. From the smallest component part to the largest vehicles, searching for greater productivity, cost management and uptime are essential to preserving capital and delivering efficient quality.
Those qualities don’t just happen, however. Chad Champine, the industrial client leader for the southeast region at BHDP Architecture, points out that planning for success is essential to actually achieving it. In a recent article at IndustryWeek, a Machine Design partner site, Champine notes that the planning phase often gets overlooked .
“Manufacturers commonly overspend on capital investment by proceeding with facility expansions or new facility construction before they conduct a thorough due diligence assessment,” Champine writes. “They attempt to safeguard the business by ordering excess inventory instead of properly right-sizing their inventory and operations. This practice is intensified during periods of increased supply chain turmoil or global financial instability.”
Champine’s article lays out five specific needs for manufacturers looking to execute an effective growth strategy. They are:
- Define the current state of the organization.
- Measure the facility’s performance.
- Analyze the facility’s processes.
- Improve process performance.
- Control the improved manufacturing process.
“Without properly identifying the root cause, manufacturers in many cases can become increasingly unable to fulfill their customer orders and frantically chase a backlogged pipeline, attempting to remedy the situation,” Champine adds. “Temporary solutions can lead to hasty decisions involving increased capital assets, short-term facility expansion efforts and construction of additional manufacturing facilities.”
The full story from IndustryWeek can be found at this link.
