What Really Makes Factories Flexible free essay sample

Introduction: In this literature, What really makes factories flexible? the writer brought out the topic for factory flexibility, which defines as a production  facility  organized  to  respond to customer orders quickly in order to provide  a  full  and varied range  of  operations  or  services, across many  product lines with very short  changeover times and may introduce new products of similar range fairly easy. For example, most modern  automobile plants  are designed as  flexible  factories to build various models. Having acknowledged the importance of flexibility, how would manufacturing managers in a broad array of industries find pathways to improve the process? What are the difficulties of defining flexibility of a plant and how do they measure flexibility in terms of plant productivity? What measurements are needed to show improvement of the process? The author performed a research in a study of sixty-one factories in North America that manufacture fine paper to find out the answer. We will write a custom essay sample on What Really Makes Factories Flexible? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page essay writing service free Define the problem: Unlike most other industries in which different plants make different products, the paper industrys products are more comparable across plants since paper are produced by very similar process. There are a few characteristics for the paper industries to be the right candidate. In paper industry, the qualities of products by grades are straightforward numbers which can be able to be measured by the author. These numbers enabled the author to develop both the range of paper a plant could produce and how much time it needed for a plant to switch from making one kind of paper to making another. By using these numbers the author was be able to define the operational flexibility for manufacturing plants needed to measure and find the ways to improve the processes. Defining the problem is the first thing needed by each manager. What is flexibility? Managers are having hard times to define as the term may mean very different for different people. At plant level, it is about the ability to change over or adapt new system, however, specifying and characterizing this ability is not an easy task. As one manager may talk about the flexibility to produce the types of production from up and down depending on what the market needs; another manager may talks about the flexibility to change over from making one type of paper to another with less time and money. In the authors point of view, flexibility should be emphasized in determining by its competitive environment. The measurement of flexibility can be based on a) product range in different things as a plant can have the ability to produce a small number of products that are very different from one another b) mobility for a plant to change over from making one product to another and c) uniformity of performance as a flexible plant can perform comparably well to make any product within a specified range. Once managers have defined the different kinds of flexibility they are trying to develop, another set of issues had come up as how to measure the flexibility and improvement of flexibility. Also it is often unclear in which general features of a plant must be changed in order to make its operations flexible. The depth and wisdom of experience managers have to be carefully assessing their strategies to define what kind of flexibility they are looking for before embarking on a flexibility program, or otherwise the results can be disastrous. Implication and analysis to select best alternatives: By collecting production data, the author was able to measure the breadth of paper grades that each plant was capable of producing and the changeover time that each plant required to switch between grades. There were additional measurements of flexibility such as workforce by length of service, the level of computer integration (CIM), the change and break frequency, etc. Each plant may emphasize in a whole range of factors from different quality and types of flexibility based on the managers, so end up there are large differences across plants. One major issue covered in this literature is that the degree of computer integration (CIM) does not really help on plant flexibility by increasing range of products produced or improving change over time even though large money was invested in it. Managers often have difficulty justifying CIM projects on the basis of cost savings or quality improvements therefore justify them on basis of improved flexibility CIM will provide. In this case, only the engineers or a few trained employees understand how the system works; most of the plant operators are not trained to operate which create problems. Operators instead decide to perform manual-change over, which in a surprising findings the best manual change system operate much faster than computer. This result shows the serious problem from operators as they have no interest to adapt the change to operate CIM. It hit hard on the managers with thoughts being reluctant that they are doing something right, but actually they are wrong. Implement decision to change the system: For successful manager to figure out the issues of CIM before implementing it in a plant, they should consider building up skills for their operators. As the author denoted, â€Å"Plants become more flexible when managers stress to workers the importance of flexibility. For example, a plant that wants to excel at customizing products will need to develop the capabilities to carry out large range of jobs in the plant. Managers then need to determine what type of workforce or equipment (ex CIM) needs to enhance flexibility. After that managers need to figure out different ways to measure the type of flexibility sought and emphasize the importance of the measures to the employees. Trainings should be added in th e process to build up experienced workforce and eventually to see improvement in flexibility. For example, continuous learning problem such as operational excellence may help management team in different level to control and maintain a flexible manufacturing plant. Evaluate the outcome: By integrating the appropriate steps to a) defining the problem of flexibility, b) implication and analysis to select best alternatives and c) implement decision to change the system, the next step is to evaluate the outcome to see if there is any improvement or if not, further alterations will need to be made. Outcomes that need to be evaluated are not limited to employee training in different level. Employees training based on experience are critical for a manufacturing plant to increase flexibility. More experience workers are not willing to adapting the new systems such as CIM comparing to less experience workers who are more willing to change. Conclusion: A good manufacturing management team designs what is best way for its plant to run, and plants that are flexible in terms of mobility (in terms of change over time) and range (in terms of various productivity) tended to have a clear measures of what flexibility should be developed. Managers have to decide what benefits the plant, how the plant operate, what kind of flexibility they are looking for, select the right decision making tools such as CIM, training for the employees based on different levels of experience, analyzing the data and provide surveys for customers. Managers should provide people the support needed in order to achieve the goal for lower the cost, decreasing change over time, increasing throughput and eventually make more money. Manager should never put too much faith in depending on CIM to complete the tasks in ease. CIM provides critical advantages to improve factory flexibility only if it can be implemented in the right way to fit the system. CIM generally needs experienced operators to control so trainings are critical for employees in different level. CIM could only be one of the alternative tools for managers to use. The flexibility of a plant depends much more on people (manager, field-supervisors, engineers and operators) than on any technical factor (automation, CIM). Managers should never only embraced in CIM as the solution to the growing need to forge new capabilities, instead managers should put more faith in the day to day management of people. Extended Research: I read two other articles which were written within the last three years. It is obvious that both articles talk about how computer integration both software and hardware can help to improve process flow and flexibility of a plant. This is because a more mature CIM system has been established through studies from field experts and universities. In general, employees nowadays understand that continuous learning is the keys to maintain competitiveness in the job market. This doesn’t mean that managers’ job are easier to do, but flexibilities in all level from a plant, a team, or just individual are critical in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Reference: 1. Manufacturing Flexibility Synchronizing the Shop Floor and Supply Chain by Aberdeen Group 2. Improving Plant Performance and Flexibility in Batch Process Manufacturing: With an Example from the Food and Beverage Industry by Filippo Focacci

The History of Cable Cars and Electric Streetcars

The History of Cable Cars and Electric Streetcars San Franciscan Andrew Smith Hallidie patented the first cable car on January 17, 1861, sparing many horses the excruciating work of moving people up the citys steep roadways. Using metal ropes he had patented, Hallidie devised a mechanism by which cars were drawn by an endless cable running in a slot between the rails which passed over a steam-driven shaft in the powerhouse. The First Cable Railway After gathering financial backing, Hallidie and his associates constructed the first cable railway. The track ran from the intersection of Clay and Kearny Streets along 2,800 feet of track to the crest of a hill 307 feet above the starting point. At 5:00 on the morning of August 1, 1873, a few nervous men climbed aboard the cable car as it stood on the hilltop. With Hallidie at the controls, the car descended and arrived safely at the bottom. Given San Franciscos steep terrain, the cable car came to define the city. Writing in 1888, Harriet Harper declared: If anyone should ask me what I consider the most distinctive, progressive feature of California, I should answer promptly: its cable car system. And it is not alone its system which seems to have reached a point of perfection, but the amazing length of the ride that is given you for the chink of a nickel. I have circled this city of San Francisco, I have gone the length of three separate cable lines (by means of the proper transfers) for this smallest of Southern coins. The success of the San Francisco line led to the expansion of that system and the introduction of street railways in many other cities. Most U.S. municipalities had abandoned horse-drawn cars for electrically powered cars by the 1920s. The Omnibus The first mass transportation vehicle in America was an omnibus. It looked like a stagecoach and was pulled by horses. The first omnibus to operate in America began running up and down Broadway in New York City in 1827. It was owned by Abraham Brower, who also helped organize the first fire department in New York. There had long been horse-drawn carriages in America to take people where they wanted to go. What was new and different about the omnibus was that it ran along a certain designated route and charged a very low fare. People who wanted to get on would wave their hands in the air. The driver sat on a bench on top of the omnibus at the front, like a stagecoach driver. When people who were riding inside wanted to get off the omnibus, they pulled on a little leather strap. The leather strap was connected to the ankle of the person who was driving the omnibus. Horse-drawn omnibuses ran in America cities from 1826 until about 1905. The Streetcar The streetcar was the first important improvement over the omnibus. The first streetcars were also pulled by horses, but the streetcars rolled along special steel rails that were placed in the middle of the roadway instead of traveling along regular streets. The wheels of the streetcar were also made of steel, carefully manufactured in such a way so they would not roll off the rails. A horse-drawn streetcar was much more comfortable than an omnibus, and a single horse could pull a streetcar that was larger and carried more passengers. The first streetcar began service in 1832 and ran along Bowery Street in New York. It was owned John Mason, a wealthy banker, and built by John Stephenson, an Irishman.  Stephensons New York company would become the largest and most famous builder of horse-drawn streetcars. New Orleans became the second American city to offer streetcars in 1835. The typical American streetcar was operated by two crew members. One man, a driver, rode up front. His job was to drive the horse, controlled by a set of reigns. The driver also had a brake handle that he could use to stop the streetcar. When streetcars got bigger, sometimes two and three horses would be used to haul a single car. The second crew member was the conductor, who rode at the back of the car. His job was to help passengers get on and off the streetcar and to collect their fares. He gave the driver a signal when everyone was on board and it was safe to proceed, pulling on a rope that was attached to a bell that the driver could hear at the other end of the car.   Hallidie’s Cable Car The first major attempt to develop a machine that could replace horses on Americas streetcar lines was the cable car in 1873. Converting streetcar lines from horse cars to cable cars required digging a ditch between the rails and building a chamber under the track from one end of the line to the other. This chamber was called a vault. When the vault was finished, a small opening was left at the top. A long cable was placed inside the vault. The cable ran under city streets from one end of  the streetcar line to the other. The cable was spliced into a big loop and was kept moving by a huge steam engine with massive wheels and pulleys located in a powerhouse at the side of the street. The cable cars themselves were equipped with a device that extended down below the car into the vault and allowed the operator of the car to latch onto the moving cable when he wanted the car to go. He could release the cable when he wanted the car to stop. There were many pulleys and wheels inside the vault to make sure the cable was able to go around corners, as well as up and down hills. Although the first cable cars ran in San Francisco, the largest and busiest fleet of cable cars was in Chicago. Most large American cities had one or more cable car lines by 1890. Trolley Cars Frank Sprague  installed a complete system of electric streetcars in Richmond, Virginia, in 1888. This was the first large-scale and successful use of electricity to run a citys entire system of streetcars. Sprague was born in Connecticut in 1857. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1878 and began a career as a naval officer. He resigned from the navy in 1883 and went to work for Thomas Edison. Many cities turned to electric-powered streetcars after 1888. To get electricity to the streetcars from the powerhouse where it was generated, an overhead wire was installed over streets. A streetcar would touch this electric wire with a long pole on its roof. Back at the powerhouse, big steam engines would turn huge generators to produce the electricity needed to operate the streetcars. A new name was soon developed for streetcars powered by electricity: trolley cars.

Today's Downsizing Teachers in the America Case Study

Today's Downsizing Teachers in the America - Case Study Example The search results also showed some personal opinions of common people and some officials, some of whom supported the downsizing while some reported that firing of teachers was not appropriate. As far as academic literature is concerned, I searched the Google books but could not find actual information in satisfactory quantity regarding teacher downsizing in America. Authors have written books on general downsizing in America with a little bit consideration to teacher downsizing. However, I was able to find some good research papers in which the researchers considered the causes and problems caused by teacher downsizing and discussed the solutions. But again, there were very few researchers who pointed out this specific topic and most of them discussed downsizing in general. In short, I was able to find easily on the internet some good news reports, websites and photos regarding teacher downsizing in America. 2) First source that I studied was a website that contained an article by A ndrea Peters. In her article, she talked about the layoff notices that were being sent to thousands of teachers in America.