Lean Critical Thinking Exercise

This is a project on Classic Cable Company (hereafter referred to as CCC.) The company manufactures custom wire and cable assemblies for medical, aerospace and other low volume, high complexity applications. The owner of the company heard about "Lean Manufacturing" at an executive networking meeting and has decided that CCC will implement these techniques. Since she knows nothing about "Lean Manufacturing" she has hired you as a consultant. Your recommendations to her are to be turned in to me via Email no later than 6pm on 12/09/15. Submissions received after 6pm on 12/09 will automatically have 10 percent deducted from the possible earned points. No submissions will be accepted after 6pm Friday 12/11/15.

Case Background:

CCC is located in a 50 year old building in a small Southern California industrial park. The manufacturing area is approximately 220,000 square feet, and there is no room for expansion. Reorganization of the work cells is possible but would be very expensive. Three years ago the company laid off 30 percent of its workforce, so there are no "extra people" in any department. Annual sales for the company have been at the breakeven point every year since the layoff. A salary freeze is in effect. Capital expenditures have continued but are closely monitored and sometimes delayed or reduced in scope due to conflicting needs for financial resources.

The vast majority of CCC customers place an order only after they get an order from their customer. As a result, no forecast information is available to CCC planning department, despite the fact some customers order the exact same item in the exact same quantity month after month. This causes significant frustration! Another source of frustration is that for every 10 quote requests answered CCC gets only 3 or 4 actual orders, and the leadtime in which the customer wants the product is almost always shorter than CCC's leadtime.

The owner grew up in this business, so she knows CCC's leadtime is comprised of the following basic steps:

1. Response to quote request
a. Engineering (0.5 to 3 days)
b. Technical sales (0.5 to 2 days)
2. Response to customer purchase order
a. Sales administrator (0.5 to 2 days)
b. Technical sales (0.5 to 2 days)
3. Sales order entry
a. Planning department (same day to 0.5 day)
4. Work order entry and release to stockroom
a. Planning department (same day to 0.5 day)
5. Material kitting and staging on the production floor
a. Inventory control clerk (same day to 0.5 day)
6. Manufacturing time
7. Final inspection and test report generation (same day or 0.5 day after receipt)
8. Packing and shipment (same day after passing final inspection)

All leadtimes listed assume:

(1) all required personnel are available (not sick or on vacation)
(2) each department has provided all required information to its customer department
(3) there are no surprises (for example some inventory has gotten wet and cannot be used)

Attachment:- lean_exercise.rar