Complacency in Manufacturing

There is no room for complacency in manufacturing. If you’re happy with what you’re doing relative to your subcon manufacturing, you’re happy! However, I would pose the question of what you’ve done in the form of an FMEA for your manufacturing model? If the answer is “been there, done that”, this post will do little but serve as a gentle reminder to keep up the good work.

On the other hand if you haven’t given it much thought because it seems to be working just fine, that’s what I pay the subcon for, or adopted the “aint’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, etc., you might be guilty of complacency. Complacency kills: It kills growth, it kills innovation and it can kill companies just when everything seems at its best. If this is you, you might consider reading further.

Ask yourself the question “Why do the most successful companies have a presence in their subcons? Coming from that background I can give you a leg up with some of the important answers:

·         Ensure their company has a voice in the factory
·         Work directly with the factory floor mgmt face to face to improve Delivery, CT, Quality, Cost, etc.
·         Quickly address engineering/production issues on the floor, face to face
·         Give and receive real time feedback/immediate responses
·         Develop highly responsive relationships to support manufacturing goals; sprint capacity, cost down, heightened attention to manufacturing issues/ indices
·         Improve manufacturing to a level it becomes a competitive tool in growing market share
·         And they know “When management focuses on the problems, the problems go away”

I’m here to tell you bad things can and do happen when we’re not focused on manufacturing, maybe not today but if we’re not managing it well we will surely be bitten down the road at some time.

The big guys have come to understand how to get the most out of their manufacturing. That's partly how they became big.