Cycle Time

The ICMR is actively driving a number of projects in the area of Manufacturing Cycle Time Reduction.  These include the development of sustainable model based decision support systems and cycle time variability analysis and quantification.

It is expected that these will enable our partner companies to increase their consumer responsiveness by reducing the time between order and delivery, while minimizing inventory, and also clearly identify those elements of the manufacturing process that contribute most to the cycle time and inventory levels of a manufacturing facility.

 

Sustainable Model Based Decision Support Systems – This will enable each company to rapidly develop and deploy validated models of their manufacturing processes, and enable the engineers to complete hypothesis testing and predict the impact of proposed improvements prior to implementing them in the actual manufacturing environment. Expected outcomes include:-

  • Reduced modelling specialization and increased knowledge sharing across manufacturing teams.
  • Improved decision effectiveness through the validation of alternatives prior to deployment in the manufacturing environment.
  • Optimization and hypothesis testing within a controlled and repeatable environment.
  • Deeper understand of increased complexity within the manufacturing process.

Variability Quantification and Reduction - The project has a special emphasis on the understanding of variability in the manufacturing process. This is widely recognized as having a detrimental impact on the production cycle times and inventory levels of a factory. The purpose of the project will be to quantifying variability, identify its sources, and establish methodologies to address and reduce variability, thus reducing production cycle times.

  • Quantify and compare the impact of variability across manufacturing processes and production lines.
  • Identify the underlying sources of variability for resolution by the engineering team.
  • Determine the impact of process changes to the base level variability of manufacturing systems and the cycle time consequences.