Nextway Technologies's Solution in Time strategy has helped the firm's relative performance in following areas :
- Response Time.
- Cycle Time.
- On Time Delivery.
- Just in Time Inventory.
- Real Time.
- Mapping
The main objectives of mapping are to identify physical flows, stocks, and activities as well as information flows, decision points, and communication patterns
Mapping is achieved by conducting interviews to capture the perspectives of various organizational levels
It involves creating flow charts of the system, and recording actual (not designed) behavior
Problems are diagnosed by looking for :
- Activities and policies that cancel each other
- Duplicated efforts
- Weak links between information flows and physical tasks
- lack of flexibility in operations, decisions, training and financing
- lack of accountability, ownership or monitoring
- Questions to be asked include: How does it happen? Why this way?
- Who set the process, when and why? Have the conditions changed?
- Results should be communicated to all those involved
- Measuring
Using time as the metric for measurement demonstrates where the biggest opportunities for reducing total cycle time lie, and reveals where time is spent, where errors are created, where and why delays occur, and where work-in-process inventory is held. Items to be measured include :
All relevant time-related dimensions (i.e., cycle time, time to break-even, response time to customer), including ranges, sources and causes for each dimension
Whatever is of value to the customer, as well as how well the company 11 delivers that value
- All activities that consume time, including travel, inventory buffers, approvals,revisions, rework, errors, design changes, decision making, setups, analysis, personnel changes
- Results should be communicated to all those involved.
- Modifying
Solution in time involves an iterative process of testing results, and modifying the master plan, by designing a new process, and implementing changes.
Design entails determining the changes that are necessary to achieve the time-based goals, developing a model that reflects the actual complexity of the organization,comparing the model to competitive benchmarks, evaluating the feasibility of the recommendations, and assessing the value of the changes to customers. Resources should be committed to put the new model into practice, and no compromises should be made.
Implementation entails understanding how people feel about the new model, and adapting the organization, structure, and expectations to the requirements of the model.Early success should be strived for, and specific time-line milestones should be developed in advance. Resistance should be anticipated, and plans should be made to overcome it.
