The Focus Factory

1. Viewing objectives in terms of how shall we compete not raise productivity 2. Seeing the problem as encompassing the entire prodycr cost not just direct labor 3. Focus on a few manageable set of products and get very good at them 4. structure and align policies so that they focus on explicit mfg tasks and not conflicting implicit tasks.

Points 1. There are many ways to compete other than low cost 2. A company can not succeed on every yardstick 3. Simplicity and repetition build competence

Mfg policies should be determined based upon 1. Size, capacity and location of plant 2. Plant layout 3. PT 4. Wage system 5. Use of inventories

Reasons for failure 1. Goals were not congruent 2. mfg taks subtly changed over time but depts didnt change 3. mfg task was never made explicit

Steps 1. Draft corprate objectives 2. Decide waht thus means for mfg 3.Caraefully examone each element of production system 4. Reoriganise elements so they become congruent 5