The Issues

World Class Manufacturing is a process-driven approach to improving manufacturing operations. It is often confused to mean standards of quality and image such as Rolls-Royce or Rolex.

It is in direct conflict with traditional capacity-driven manufacturing mentality found in western culture. The implementation will often surface resistance to change and "we've alway done it this way" arguments. The worse resistance is usually found in lower and middle management, but can also can be found in the mindset of workers as well. A case for change has to be created along with high employee involvement.

Capitalization is also a major issue when new equipment is required for quick changeover, faster cycle times, and flexibility in operations. Executives may take a piecemeal approach to save on investment costs as an alternative and find themselves disappointed with the lesser results.

Just like anything else, World Class Manufacturing is no panacea, nor should it be embraced as a religion. It is an operational strategy that, if implemented properly, will provide a new dimension to competing: quickly introducing new customerized high quality products and delivering them with unprecedented lead times, swift decisions, and manufacturing products with high velocity.

Pragmatic Applications

World Class Manufacturing techniques have been proven over and over, time and time again and offer alternatives to the traditional capacity-driven approaches of mass production and economic order quantities. Most WCM techniques can be applied in most process and discrete product manufacturing companies in both the factory and office. Benefits can be substantial depending upon the starting point. The best way to approach WCM is through rationalization of operations and identification of opportunities. Most of the time, payback periods tend to be 2 years or less.