Manufacturing Operations at NoodleTool Spa
Considering that NoodleTool Spa is a reputable producer of pasta-making machines, the forecasted demand for its products in the coming year will be supposedly higher. As such, the company needs to up its efforts to ensure that it meets these demands. At the current state, the company has almost saturated the possible products channeled towards the artisan pasta factories. In this regard, it has decided to invest in a new market whereby its products will target the industrial pasta factories. This way, they will have a new customer base, and the new investment will help meet the production demands of 2019. Below is my assessment of the prototype that Noodle Spa has developed with the aim of determining its effectiveness in the attempt to meet 2019 demands.
Currently, this plant produces artisan type products which only requires production machines which are simple to use, flexible, and small. On the other hand, industrial products require the use of high-end machines which can easily automate the production process. As such, to achieve the target 100 industrial product in 2019 will require massive investment from the company and if the process isn’t successful, this can easily bring the company on its knees. Notably, considering that the new automated high-end machines require a different set of skills compared to the current production machines, the company’s workers will need to undergo training to competently operate these new machines (Brengman & Stephens, 2014). Also, some changes in the manufacturing operations should be made to ensure the effectiveness of both the artisan and industrial products.
Currently, the raw materials unit uses a “last in first out” policy which is a very daring approach. In the current technological era, the quality of raw materials is improving by the day, and the quality of products should improve with the same ration. Markedly the “last in first out” policy hinders this because some raw materials can stay in the counters for a very long time without being utilized. As such, when they are finally used to make products, they might be already outdated making the product uncompetitive against other similar products in the market (Huang & Merolla, 2016). On the other hand, this policy can also cause losses since the outdated products can prove useless hence the only option would be to do away with them, an action which is not financially feasible.
The machine tools department is not efficient since every time a machine is to be substituted, it has to be stopped be first. This leads to delays, and there can be a backlog of raw materials in the warehouse due to these delays. As such, the employees can be tempted to skip the maintenance procedures in order to keep up with the schedule. In so doing, there will be a high possibility of machine failures which can have devastating effects on the company. The maintenance procedures are even more important if the company starts manufacturing industrial pasta products which require the use of complex manufacturing equipment.
Raw Material Warehouse
This is an important department since it determines the longevity of the products. When the products are properly treated, there is little risk of corrosion, and there is also a guarantee that the pasta made using these products will not be contaminated by corroded elements. As such, the consumer’s health is guaranteed which should, in fact, be the number one priority. The current material treatment department is not well equipped to handle industrial products which are part of the 2019 demands. The industrial product will have additional parts which will need painting to protect them from rust. As such, four painting boxes will not be adequate. Additionally, considering that industrial products need to be hardy and reliable, extreme heat treatment is required hence the need for additional furnaces.
The assembling department needs to increase the number of operators to ensure that it meets the 2019 production demands. The current number of operators isn’t enough to assemble 500 artisan products and 100 industrial products. Additionally, the number of assembling departments should be increased to avoid overcrowding of workers and also increase productivity (Mella, 2014).
The heat treatment duration is a random variable with a uniform distribution centered at its mean. This is because heat treatment depends on humidity and temperature at the location that the company is based. It also varies depending on the time of the year. This can be prevented by ensuring that the heat treatment unit has its own ideal temperature throughout the year. This ideal temperature should not be allowed to fluctuate to ensure a constant heat treatment duration. Additionally, there should be constant humidity levels which means that these chambers should have its own unique atmosphere. As for the assembly time, the number of hours depends on the variability of human operations meaning that if the workers are slow and inexperienced, the process will take longer. There are numerous reasons why workers can decide to be slow on their job including poor salaries, long hours of work, poor health, and lack of supervision. To rectify this, the company should ensure that the needs of workers are addressed. Also, the recruitment process should be based on merit to ensure that only the best employees get the job (Brengman & Stephens, 2014).
Considering that investing in industrial pasta production requires a huge amount of capital, the company might struggle to do it in one phase. Also, there are great risks involved in the process backfires hence the company should proceed with caution. Notably, new investment is often a gamble and might not always work as expected. In most occasions, the company will not have the manpower to handle the new tasks associated with new investments hence the products might end-up being sub-standard. Such products may ruin the market of the previous products that the company might have been producing since people tend to be judgmental based on the failure of a single product. To ensure that this does not happen, NoodleTool Spa can implement the system in phases and outsource some of the initial complex operations. The good thing is that piston, gear, and motor installation tasks are common in both artisan and industrial product assembling (O’Connor, 2016). As such, the company can use the already existing equipment to handle these tasks and then outsource the rest of the processes. With time, the company will no longer need to outsource the services since they will have gained the needed experience.
Machine Tools Department
To ensure that lean production approach is implemented effectively, I would ensure that all the workers are properly educated on how to handle the production equipment. This way, there will be no wastage of time as the worker’s struggle to operate the machine (Von Hippel, 2018). In most scenarios, companies end up wasting a lot of resources in terms of worker compensation and in the end, there is nothing to show for it. With such wastages, it is hard for a business to grow and on most occasions, it will either record losses or stagnate. NoodleTool Spa is not different since it is a company targeting to attain the 2019 demands which are higher than those of previous years. By meeting these demands, it will be a positive indicator that the company is growing and it will also attract new customer’s investors and stakeholders. Another strategy that can help in the implementation of a lean production approach is ensuring that the workers are constantly engaged in regards to the importance of a continuous improvement process. In so doing, they will have a mentality of setting individual goals and every time they meet such goals, it will be an achievement for the company as a whole. Also, they can be motivated by ensuring that they are properly compensated and ensuring that their efforts and achievements never go unnoticed. This way, they will have the zeal of handling their tasks efficiently.
The operations of a company depend on how the top management handles the company’s affairs. A managerial team which is rigid and bossy will discourage and demoralize the employees creating a tense working environment. A case example is when a manager insults a junior employee simply because of simple disagreement. Such an employee will find it hard to work under the insensitive manager and more often than not, their productivity will go down. In every working environment, respect is of paramount importance. As such I would encourage the managers to be open to new ideas and production approaches without judging those who make such proposals based on their rank. On the side of the company, it would be very beneficial if all its employees are highly trained to ensure that everything is done perfectly. A professionally trained team will not need to be pushed around since everyone knows the roles they are supposed to play. Such a team ensures that there is a smooth flow starting from the raw materials department all the way to the assembling department (Nof et al., 2013). On the other hand, an incompetent workforce will constantly require the intervention of the managers to ensure that things are done in the right way.
Conclusion
NoodleTool Spa has a brilliant idea of introducing a prototype of the industrial pasta production before embarking on the project. This way, they have an opportunity of weighing all the possibilities without incurring a loss. I believe that the above suggestions will help the company meet the 2019 demands in terms of artisan and industrial products assembling.
References
Brengman, K. C., & Stephens, F. D. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 5,103,722. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Huang, D. P., & Merolla, T. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 5,296,247. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Mella, M. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 4,269,582. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Nof, S. Y., Wilhelm, W. E., & Warnecke, H. (2013). Industrial assembly. Springer Science & Business Media.
O’Connor, F. A. (2016). Transnational factors and artisan diversity. Anthropological Quarterly, 27-36.
Von Hippel, E. (2018). Successful industrial products from customer ideas. The Journal of Marketing, 39-49.
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