Manufacturer's Library

Manufacturing Strategy: How to Formulate and Implement a Winning Plan, by John Miltenburg, Productivity Press, 300 pages, $45, ISBN 1-56327-071-4

How do you create a strategy for manufacturing that's right for your particular company? Whether just starting up a new program, expanding or revamping your operations, your objective is to provide the best possible levels of quality, cost and delivery. You need a planning method that will guarantee the right mix for the right result.

This book offers a step-by-step method for creating a strategic manufacturing plan. The key element is a multi-dimensional worksheet. Part 1 of this book presents each matrix of the worksheet and illustrates how to link them to create an integrated strategy.

Part 2 reviews the techniques for improvement currently used in manufacturing - both the soft, people-oriented methods and the hard, machine-oriented improvement approaches. The strategic planning method detailed in Part 1 is used to focus on product life cycle management.

Part 3 focuses on the seven main production systems in detail: job shop production, batch flow production, flexible manufacturing, operator-paced line flow production, just-in-time production, equipment-paced line flow production, and continuous flow production. By identifying one of these process models appropriate for your business, you can determine what outputs to expect, how to improve outputs, and how to change to more optimal process models as your business needs change.

Miltenburg is with McMaster University in Canada, and has worked with General Motors.

Click here to return to Table of Contents for the Intelligent Manufacturing October issue.