Overview

Adopting Demand Flow manufacturing technology is not an optional course for a company committed to becoming a world-class manufacturer. Demand Flow is a technology that, once adopted, must cross all organizational boundaries and receive management's full support. It is a company-wide program in which management must seek out and win over any pockets of resistance.

In the 1990s, many companies came to understand that they had to make the change to flow-manufacturing mentality. Faster response to customer demand and increased speed in all management activities characterize the Demand Flow business strategy. Adopting this strategy provides significant benefits that are not obtainable by using tools and methods of the past. The Demand Flow manufacturing methodology focuses on the two major elements of product costs: material and overhead. Demand Flow manufacturing techniques create powerful production process that rely on pull systems, with in-process quality as the primary objective. Achieving the elite goal of world-class manufacturing requires the pursuit of nontraditional goals and the implementation of nontraditional process-management methods.

Several different tools assist in managing the Demand Flow process, including the following: Total product cycle time (TP c/t), flow rate, linearity-index measurement, team passes for non-quality items, the number of line stops or time per problem, in-process kanbans, inventory turns, and employee involvement.

Management must be committed to and supportive of Demand Flow manufacturing technology. The path is difficult, complicated by mindsets that believe "we're unique" and "it can't work here"; but the tremendous benefits are essential for significant growth and to...