Newsletter Masthead
 
October 2010
Product Systemization: One Method to Help Save American Manufacturing
 
Systemization is the process of defining what range of products will be made and what range of production processes will be employed.  Without product systemization, manufacturers will and have seen increases in operating costs especially for their made-to-order products.
 
Companies experience systemization issues in:
  1. Engineering: Slow delivery in design of deliverables
    (Many engineering hours in engineering different subcomponents)
  2. Engineering: Slow cycle time and inefficiency when engineering custom orders
  3. Sales and Marketing: Delays in turnaround on requests for proposals
  4. Manufacturing: Delays and inaccuracy in creating designs and drawings
  5. Corporate: Increased Operating Costs
  6. Corporate: Decreased Profitability
If your company is experiencing any of these issues, you might NEED to consider a systemization effort in order to achieve:
  • Operating cost reduction
  • Faster product delivery
  • Increased profitability.
As your organization considers product systemization, use this checklist below to help strategize and plan:
  1. Identify all components. Identify the part/part family or products/product family that currently exist. Identify how they are used and the feature and/or benefit of using the component.
  2. Justify the existence of all components.
  3. Identify all redundant components.
  4. Eliminate all redundant components. Rigorously drop all components that are duplicated.
  5. Justify the existence of all components using only one product family.
  6. Determine assemblies and sub-assemblies from justified parts.
  7. Eliminate or at least create a plan to eliminate assemblies/sub-assemblies with redundant functionality (if possible).
  8. Design engineering strategies.
  9. Determine price breaks from the product’s supplier. For example, identify quantity discounts if a large quantity of one part is ordered, versus many smaller orders for many separate components.
If you need help, feel free to read The Consumer’s Workshop: The Future of American Manufacturing or contact me to see if we can help you.
 
Thanks,
Ben Moore
Agent Technologies, Inc.
 
Continue to blog about this article at: http://xrpsystem.blogspot.com
 

 

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The Consumer's Workshop: the future of American manufacturing
 
The Consumer's Workshop: The Future of American Manufacturing is a hand book on how to setup the systems within your company and create the workforce you need to be successful now and in the future.  Written by authors that have worked at some of America's largest manufacturers, founded their own manufacturing organizations and helped numerous small manufacturers grow.
 
The Consumer's Workshop: The Future of American Manufacturing is a must read for today's business leaders.  It is insightful and provocative in its approach to where US manufacturing has been, how manufacturing got into the troubles it faces today and what we need to do to become the standard for world class once again.  If we want to know how to regain that competitive edge once again, the roadmap is certainly the pages of The Consumer Workshop.

-- Bruce Vaillancourt,Director, NIST MEP Program, TechSolve, Inc.

Book The Consumer's Workshop is an extremely timely review of how manufacturing strategy developed in the past
and how it will change in the future. The author team clearly demonstrates that companies have to change -- and provide plenty of advise how such a change should take place."
-- Frank Piller, PhD, International Manufacturing Consultant

As the authors make clear, eventually American manufacturing will become the workshop for direct production of consumer's own designs -- or it will be no more. Begin that path by following the steps outlined here."
-- B. Joseph Pine II, author, Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition

Investment: $12.99

 

 

 

 

In This Issue

Product Systemization

xRP: Free 30 Day Trial

Manufacturing Statistics October 2010

 

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Manufacturing Statistics 
 
1) Industrial production decreased 0.2 percent in September 2010 following a 0.2 percent decrease in August 2010.  Source: Federal Reserve Board

2) Total nonfarm payroll employment decreased by 95,000 in September.  The private sector added 64,000 jobs.  Manufacturing has added 134,000 jobs in the first five (5) months of 2010.  Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
 

3) Manufacturing Trade Deficit increased to $46.3 billion in August on exports of $153.9 billion and imports of $200.2 billion.  Sources: Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis
 

4) New orders for manufactured goods in August decreased $2.2 billion or 0.5 percent to $408.9.0 billion.  Source: Census Bureau 
 
 

5) Inventories of manufactured durable goods in August increased $0.7 billion or 0.1 percent to $526.4 billion.  Source: Census Bureau

 
   
 
 
 
 
Agent Technologies, Inc.
Phone:  513-942-9444
Fax:  513-942-9446
 
Founded in 1995, Agent Technologies, Inc. provides e-Commerce Solutions, Business Reporting Solutions, e-Business Strategy Development and Agent Based Systems. Try xRP - Our Online CRM/ERP Solution (xrpsystem.com).  FREE 30 Day Trial!
 
 
Agent Technologies, Inc. | 8216 Princeton-Glendale Road, Suite 191 | West Chester | OH | 45069