The QRM Center is dedicated to the research and implementation of Quick Response Manufacturing principles. Many magazines have published case studies and articles on QRM implementations in industry.
by Paul D. Ericksen, Rajan Suri, Bash'shar El-Jawhari, Aaron J. Armstrong Published: APICS magazine, February 2005
For many OEMs, order fulfillment — being able to deliver product to market quickly and flexibly — has been dramatically affected by lean initiatives, global sourcing and asset reduction. OEMs no longer have nearby suppliers, and asset-reduction initiatives have led them to adopt build-to-demand strategies. Suppliers struggle to efficiently and quickly produce fluctuating quantities and the often broad mix of products required by today's OEMs. While global sourcing and asset reduction can lead to significant financial improvements, they also pose order fulfillment risk. How can manufacturers and suppliers fill the gap between operating lean and yet get the product to customers when they are ready to buy? Read this article to learn how MCT — Manufacturing Critical-path Time — and Quick Response Manufacturing are responding to this dilemma.
by Rajan Suri and Ananth Krishnamurthy Published: 2003
In today's marketplace, there is increasing demand for customized products, either through customers choosing from a large menu of options, or even through companies custom-engineering products for individual orders. Manufacturers that have to supply such high-variety or custom-engineered products are struggling to implement effective material-control strategies on the shop floor. These companies are finding that lean manufacturing concepts such as flow, takt time and pull/kanban systems are not meeting their needs. POLCA (Paired-cell Overlapping Loops of Cards with Authorization) is a material-control system designed with these situations in mind. It is a hybrid push-pull system that combines the best features of card-based pull (kanban) systems and push (MRP) systems. At the same time, POLCA gets around the limitations of pull systems in high-variety or custom-product environments as well as the drawbacks of standard MRP, which often results in long lead times and high WIP. POLCA was developed as part of the overall strategy of Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM), which focuses on lead time reduction throughout the enterprise. In partnership with its member companies, the Center for Quick Response Manufacturing has implemented POLCA at several factories in the United States and Canada. In this paper, we first give an overview of the POLCA system, explain how it works, and provide qualitative comparisons with pull/kanban systems. Then we present a step-by-step procedure for implementing POLCA in a factory. Using examples from the implementation of POLCA at several plants, we address practical issues such as computing the number of POLCA cards needed, determining the quantum of work a POLCA card represents, and addressing part shortages. We also discuss the manifold performance improvements that have resulted from these implementations, including reduction in lead time and
Keep work on the move: one shop's holistic approach to flow, from quoting to shipping
by Francisco Tubino and Rajan Suri Published: 2000 Quick Response Manufacturing Conference Proceedings
Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) is a companywide approach to lead time reduction proven successful at many manufacturing enterprises. Currently, there is detailed literature on QRM principles, on how to implement QRM, and on its potential benefits. However, this literature tends to be anecdotal and descriptive, and the link that ties and quantifies actual cost benefits achieved with specific lead time reduction targets has not been formally established. The purpose of this study is to obtain more empirical data and to develop rules to quantify the benefits of QRM. In this study, we gather detailed data from several company projects on lead time reduction. Then we use a recently developed methodology to quantify the benefits of QRM. In parallel to this, based on selected hypotheses, we derive a simple functional form for the impact of lead time reduction on costs. We refine this functional relationship via the empirical data. The result is a simple, quantitative “rule of thumb” that managers can use to set lead time reduction targets. The empirical data also clearly show a baseline link between lead time reduction and cost savings achieved. In addition, we present data on the impact of lead time reduction on several other performance measures including quality, labor productivity and on-time delivery. Although this is a preliminary study on these issues, we hope that the general approach and the simple rule of thumb will be of immediate use to both practitioners and researchers in this field.
