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Competing in today's marketplace requires organizations to adopt the concept of a global economy. The challenges of global competition and rapidly changing technology encourage management to obtain a better understanding of the total manufacturing process. The synchronous manufacturing concept discussed in this paper presents a state-of-the-art manufacturing control system that focuses primarily on the key constraints and control points in the plant. The objective of this system is to maximize throughput while minimizing inventory and controlling operating expenses. The purposes of this paper are to:
* examine the synchronous manufacturing concept as a process for ongoing improvement of manufacturing operations; and
* provide guidelines for the proper implementation of the concept.
SYNCHRONOUS MANUFACTURING CONCEPT
The global competition and high degree of automation in new production processes change the way products are manufactured and, accordingly, change the inventory and production control system. Synchronous manufacturing embodies several managerial concepts from Just-In-Time and Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) production management to employee participation, group technology, flexible manufacturing systems, total quality control, and computer-integrated-manufacturing. The synchronous manufacturing concept is based on the premise that a company is in business to "make money." The objective is to simultaneously increase throughput while reducing cost of production and inventory. It enables management to examine the link between decisions, actions, and bottom-line profitability. Synchronous manufacturing ties inventories to production scheduling on the basis of planned outputs by reducing inventory, increasing production capacity, improving quality of service, decreasing processing time, and increasing output. Management should consider the entire manufacturing plant as a single unified and synchronized system.
THE THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS
MRP and JIT systems, with their focus on production, give little consideration to management of capacity. Synchronous manufacturing is based upon the management of capacity concept and the theory of constraints. This theory shifts management attention from controlling costs to identifying and managing operating constraints in an attempt to achieve ongoing improvement in all operations. Synchronous manufacturing defines constraints as "any element that prevents the system from achieving the goal of making more money." These constraints can be classified into market, material, capacity, logistical, managerial or behavioral, cultural, and political constraints. Since any system or organization has a set of constraints, management should concentrate more on constraints that limit the performance of the system.