Have you ever tried putting a puzzle together, only to find that
you don’t have all the right pieces? Depending on how much time
you’ve put into the process, the ordeal can certainly prove frustrating — even more so when many people have contributed.
That was the case for Mike Watts Jr., who, as president of Astro
Manufacturing & Design, saw business constrained by erratic
inventory management.
When producing a patient couch support for Philips Medical
Systems’ CT scanners, for example, Astro’s employees engaged
in a complex manufacturing system that included 38 separate
parts. Managing the inventory of so many parts can prove difficult in its own right, but this particular task was made especially difficult because most were manufactured by more than
25 outside suppliers.
With so much to coordinate, production routinely sputtered to a halt when a necessary piece or part went out of
stock. This problem was only exacerbated in a fluctuating
customer forecast that changed on a literal day-to-day basis.
To combat this problem and make sure employees had all the
pieces of the puzzle to work with from the onset, Watts implemented a replenishment system using color-coded tags to track
inventory on a real-time basis.
The new process was implemented by stocking inventory in a three-bin system, with each bin designated as green, yellow or red. Stock is first pulled from the green bin, then yellow and so forth. The color-coding provides an easy way to
track inventory consumption and signal when new stock
should be purchased.
The green bins, for example, denote a comfortable amount
of inventory. When employees start pulling from the yellow
bin, production is tracked more carefully and plans for future
purchases are put in place. When inventory is taken from the
red bin, the appropriate amount of inventory is purchased
based on the plan that was devised a step earlier.
When properly balanced, Astro maintains the right amount
of inventory and consistently finishes every “puzzle” with
100 percent on-time delivery.
HOW TO REACH: Astro Manufacturing & Design, (888) 215-1746 or www.astromfg.com