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INTRODUCTION
CBF is a small company that is located in California that manufactures circuit boards. The company supplies its manufactured circuit boards to the computer companies such as the Hewlett-Packard and the Apple computer company that uses them to manufacture their products such as computers.
ISSUES OF THE CASE STUDY
The CBF Company has plant that was designed in order to run 1000 boards within a single day in order to meet the market demand. The plant is supposed to run five days within a week and shift of about one eighth of an hour within each day. However, the plant has not managed to produce up to this set target and its production capacity is below the required numbers of circuit boards per day. So far the company is manufacturing about 700 circuit boards per day which is far less than the set target. The company is therefore seeking consultancy service in order to help solve the current situation and attain the target of 1000 circuit boards within each day. In order to attain this target, the plant had also set other specifications which include the following; average size of the job is 60 boards, production hours of 7.5 per day and five working days within each weak. Unfortunately these set targets are not achieved and that is why the target of 1000 boards per day is not achieved.
DISCUSSION
Though the CBF. Inc has attained some level of success; it is yet to achieve its target of manufacturing 1000 circuit boards within one day. From the analysis of the flow process used by the CBF, the company seems to be using batch shop structure process flow. The structure used to manufacture circuit board is based on the average size of the job that is done. Using this process flow, the circuit boards are manufactured in batches in order to ensure that the numbers of circuit boards set are met at the end of the day. However, the company has to ensure that the numbers of circuit boards that are manufactured at the end day are more that the set target in order to cater for the faulty products.
From the analysis of the set target, several problems might have risen in the current structure of the flow process which may have made the company not to meet its target. First, though the company has automated most of its processes, it is still using a large proportion of manual labor in its total labor force. For instance, in the final inspection process, the company is using six machine operators who are taking a lot of time than they should. The use of large portion of manual labor in the flow process increases the possibility of human error in the processes. Use of human labor will increase chances of inefficiency in the whole process which at the end of it will minimize the number of final products that are finished at the end of the day. Many products that are defective are manufactured which will lower the number of finished products that could have been produced at the end of the day. The error in the production has the effect of increasing losses of the products at the early and final testing processes. About 15 percent of the products are rejected in the testing stage which reduces the number of finished products that are ready for sale. The targeted production hours per day is 7.5 hours which is not achieved with the current production rate due to inefficiency within the system. More time is spent in different processes than it is supposed to be sent thus ending up not meeting the set time of production. According to Doucette (1999), increased automation will reduce the number of hours spent in each process.
SOLUTION
In order for the company to achieve the set target of manufacturing 1000 circuit boards within a day, several measures need to be taken. First the process that is used to manufacture circuit boards by the company seems to have many deficiencies which are leading to the production of many defective final products. The per cent of manual labor used may be minimized in order to reduce the level of human errors in the production process. The amount of hours that are spent in each process should also be minimized in order to increase the rate of manufacturing. This can be achieved through the use of more effective manufacturing techniques that will require short time to finish the task.
CONTIGENCY PLANS AND FOLLOW UP
The company may purchase more efficient production machines that may replace manual labor in the manufacturing process. This could also reduce human errors thus reducing the number of faulty products. This technique has been used in many other manufacturing companies and has high chances of being successful. Good supervision of work is important in those stages that are taking more time than required to finish their work. This can be done through increasing the number of supervising managers.
CONCLUSION
The flow process that is used by the company requires some improvement in order to meet the production target. Good supervision of work will also help to improve the efficiency of the process.
REFERENCES
Doucette, N. (1999).It’s about time! Rough Notes. Vol. 142, Iss. 8; p. 32 (4 pages)
