I'm fit to embark on the world class manufacturing (WCM) journey

Many industries' survival in the eyes of the consumer is not guaranteed today, either the cost of their products doesn't fit in their wallets, the quality of their products compromise the consumers' experience, or product doesn't reach the consumer when expected, in the right quantity, & place. So, most manufacturing industries have politically embarked on a journey they call WCM but do they understand what it takes to reach their destination?

Briefly in a layman's definition; 

 WCM is the art of deploying capabilities to improve manufacturing operations and processes. In other words, our ability as a company to have competitive advantage over our peers in the same or close to business portfolio through reduced operational costs reduced lead times, speed to the market, high quality products, exciting the customer at all times with our products (exceeding customer expectations).

All the above being driven by people’s ways of working, using the process technologies to its best capability and never being satisfied with the present but hungry for what the future can bring.

It's important to remember very basic principles when setting foot for this endeavor; visualize this scenario: You're driving your car on a Saturday at 3:30 am in the night from your favorite night club going home for a rest. The only clear visible distance which you've got control over is only as far as your car headlights can flush, the rest of the journey & destination is a figment of your imagination of blurred dimensions.

To get home you've done several countless engagements with your car, put on full lights frequently, accelerated at higher speeds at some point, negotiated corners/bends, engaged gear 1,2, 3 up to what your car can offer and finally you are in your bed.

Yes, this should be the vision and tactics to apply when you decide to survive this volatile/harsh market conditions full of unsatisfied customers whose expectations change at a glint of lightening. Commitment by management to get rid of obsolete technologies ( be expecting to swallow the bullet of capital investment), building people capabilities to use engineering facilitated problem solving tools & TPM enablers, harnessing the possibilities of enterprise resources available in the market etc. You will be home enjoying the benefits of the WCM destination.

Competitiveness

This is a measure of how well the company performs relative to others offering same products/services. This measure could be; Growth, Market share or Profitability.
One should understand the parameters on which companies compete. these include; Price, product differentiation, Quality, Reliability, Flexibility, New product development and so on. Therefore its a matter of becoming a niche on any of the above that you ca do best and capitalize to gain competitiveness in the market.

It is most likely that companies fall out of business because they fail to:
- Capitalize on their strengths
- Recognize threats
- identify their distinctive competencies
- develop appropriate strategies to gain competitive measures.
The strategic planning model below could make a difference.try it

Productivity, Competitiveness, & Strategy

Three separate but related words extremely important to business success.
Productivity: One of the primary responsibilities of an industrial Engineer is to achieve productive use of a organization resources i.e. labor, facilities, money, equipments etc. Therefore, productivity is a measure of output based on input. Thus, Productivity(P) = Output/Input

Productivity measure can be of single factor; Take the following example: Develop a productivity measure for 4 workers who produce 720 pieces in 8hrs. Solution: P=Output pieces/Labor Hours, P=720/(4*8)=22.5 pieces/hrs.
It can also be multi-factor; Develop a productivity measure for the combined input of labor, machine time using the following data. Output: 7040 units, Input: Labor-$1000, Materials-$520, Overhead-$2000. Solution: P=output/(Labor + materials + overhead); 7040/(1000 + 520 + 2000);P=7040/3520; P=2 units/Input$
Why Productivity measures?
- Indicate where improvement should be made
- Are critical in the planning process
- are performance scorecards for departments
- Track performance overtime
Note: Productivity improvements are important to remain competitive.
How to improve productivity
- Develop productivity measures for each department
- Define critical operations by looking at the system as a whole to see how interrelationships/ bottlenecks affect productivity
- Develop methods for soliciting improvement ideas such as benchmarking competition
- establish reasonable goals for improvement
- Make it clear that management supports improvement ideas and develop incentives for contributors
- Publicize productivity measures ad make sure they are understood
- Don't confuse Efficiency with Productivity
Efficiency deals with the best way to do a job with current tools while Productivity deals with the best way to do a job and may require operational changes and retraining.

Industrial Eng&mgt

In view of the new world order,there is great need to equip technicians and Engineers with management skills. This is to improve on the management, design, and installation of integrated systems of human resource, materials, equipment, energy, finance and environment.
To meet the increasing industrial growth and applied technologies to reduce business operating costs in a view to reducing operational costs, improvement of profitability and promotion of the national strategy; an Industrial Engineer has personnel abilities to control and operate industrial costs effectively by managing the integrated systems in an engineering setup.