Method, apparatus and program storage device for providing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of a manufactured product

A method, apparatus and program storage device for providing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of a manufactured product is disclosed. A cascading timeline, or waterfall chart, is updated and distributed weekly to provide week-to-week analysis for supply increase activities, week to week analysis for excess inventory solutions and consolidation of supply issue factor by product by week.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This disclosure relates in general to a manufacturing processes, and more particularly to a method, apparatus and program storage device for providing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of a manufactured product.

BACKGROUND

In today's competitive marketplace, companies exert great focus and effort in improving leadership, quality, customer satisfaction and other factors that can provide an edge over the competition. One area of focus involves the production planning for a manufacturing line. Conventional production planning for a manufacturing line, including the planning for the input/delivery quantities into/from a plurality of manufacturing areas, is usually made on the basis of past records, e.g., average term of works, average operation rate, average number of lots processed per equipment, etc. However, if a future product mix, supply, demand, component deliver or the like is altered, the existing forecasting is no longer valid and must be reassessed. Therefore, in order to provide an accurate forecast, the planning and updating of all aspects of production is needed.

Manufacturing line resource planning is a tool that is used to resolve scheduling conflicts before they occur. With the right tools, dramatic improvements in productivity are possible. Various methods for making production plans have been conventionally developed, as a production management system. For example, computerized MRP systems give manufacturers tremendous advantages by minimizing inventory and reducing material shortages. In addition to materials management, capacity on the manufacturing line is also important to monitor. Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP) helps managers make the right scheduling decisions before problems reach the manufacturing line. By performing capacity planning, over-loading or under-scheduling critical resources may be avoided.

Typically, capacity planning subsystems provide convenient reports to help managers make the right scheduling decision before problems reach the manufacturing line. Capacity planning often considers forecasts, customer orders, and firm planned orders for each time period in the planning horizon. Load details may be accumulated in standard hours and the total loads are compared to each capacity choke-point. Projected surplus or shortfalls provide the basis for taking corrective action.

Capacity planning reports are synchronized with the latest manufacturing resource planning, which helps assure coordination between materials and resources. This enables the identification of potential conflict s in sufficient time to reschedule work orders, manage manpower, select or develop alternate routings, modify subcontracting plans, or take a host of other corrective actions without costly interruptions to work on the manufacturing line.

Input/output planning is used to identify short-term problems. Desired levels of planned input are generated, and reports are generated that highlight variances from the desired levels. Further, historic information allows improved control of manufacturing operations through variance reports of input, output, and queues.

The monitoring of activity control helps handle the details of work order flow. This allows managers to track manufacturing line processes in numerous ways; by monitoring work order movement and managing manufacturing priorities. The cycle time for each step in the production process must be monitored and managed to plan and control manufacturing operations more effectively. Once all operations are scheduled and material has been delivered to the appropriate manufacturing areas, work order and work center status tracking may be performed.

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is widely recognized as one of the most important management tools a manufacturing management can have. MRP translates management, marketing, and productions planning goals into detailed and coordinated schedules for purchasing and production. MRP is used to translate management, marketing, and production planning goals into detailed and coordinated schedules for purchasing and production. In addition to monitoring all of the above parameters, accurate records of parts on-hand and material flow through the stockroom are valuable to manage inventory availability. Accurate inventory records are crucial to the success of the planning effort.

Thus, the fundamental objective of a manufacturing system is to support the factory's ability to produce a finished product by ensuring the availability of the right material in the right quantity at the right time. Such accurate, complete, and timely information help achieve business objectives more effectively, even as changes occur in markets and production schedules. Knowing how well production continues to match demand, as weeks and months go by, allows management to smooth production, lower costs, shorten lead times and speed shipments.

However, the customer needs completed products that meet their requirements at a hub or warehouse close to the manufacturing site for the pull production. A manufacturer is requested to deliver the completed product to the hub. Nevertheless, the delivery is determined according to supply commitment from the manufacturing. The monitoring processes provide monthly indications of demand and supply commitment processes. However, reporting supply commitment is not reliably communicated timely and/or to the proper responsible party thereby preventing action from being taken when achievement of the commitment is not possible.

In addition, when supply is short against demand, management is directed to chase the shortage. However, reporting is of supply and demand mismatches are not sufficient to adjust manufacturing operations to compensate for such mismatches. Most of demand changes cause management to chase component and set up capacity at manufacturing to resolve the issues. These efforts, i.e., chase and setting up, are not coordinated to allow sharing of the latest status of component parts and capacity. Still further, immediate erosion of demand can cause extra inventory for the manufacturer. To solve the excess manufacturing inventory, an action plan for absorbing the extra inventory must be implemented as soon as the excess is detected.

Accordingly, existing systems do not provide timely analysis of supply increase activities or excess inventory. There is also no consolidation of supply issue factors according to product that would enable appropriate management action to be initiated.

It can be seen then that there is a need for a method, apparatus and program storage device for providing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of a manufactured product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses a method, apparatus and program storage device for providing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of a manufactured product.

The present invention solves the above-described problems by updating weekly and distributing a cascading timeline, or waterfall chart, to provide week to week analysis for supply increase activities, week to week analysis for excess inventory solutions and consolidation of supply issue factor by product by week.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for providing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of a manufactured product is provided. The method includes centrally gathering data related to demand of a product, supply commitment associated with the product and current product inventory and producing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events based upon the centrally gathered data related to demand of a product, supply commitment associated with the product and current product inventory.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of a manufactured product is provided. The cascading timeline includes a product forecast having weekly elements for predicting capacity and yield information and monthly component gating, the monthly component gating allowing comparison of component capacity to product quantity by month.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a system for producing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of manufactured product is provided. The system includes a database of information relating to demand of a product, supply commitment associated with the product and current product inventory and a management tool for producing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of manufactured product based upon information retrieved from the database, the cascading timeline updated weekly by the management tool.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a program storage device having program instructions executable by a processing device to perform operations for producing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of manufactured product is provided. The operations provided by the program storage device includes centrally gathering data related to demand of a product, supply commitment associated with the product and current product inventory and producing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events based upon the centrally gathered data related to demand of a product, supply commitment associated with the product and current product inventory.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method, apparatus and program storage device for providing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of a manufactured product. The cascading timeline, or waterfall chart, is used to provide week-to-week analysis for supply increase activities, week-to-week analysis for excess inventory solutions and consolidation of supply issue factor by product by week. Data related to demand of a product, supply commitment associated with the product and current product inventory is centrally gathered. A cascading timeline of manufacturing events is produced based upon the centrally gathered data related to demand of a product, supply commitment associated with the product and current product inventory. The produced cascading timeline is updated weekly and distributed to a product volume planner, to manufacturing central and to a manufacturing site manufacturing the product.

FIG. 1illustrates a system100for producing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of manufactured product according to an embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 1, data112from units110, such as operation and production units, is provided to a central database120. A management system140uses the data from the database120to process supply commitments, product demand, e.g., through sales orders, capacity and allocations. Allocations may be made using an allocation tool142. Once the data from the database120is processed by the management system140, a waterfall chart160of manufacturing events leading to completion of a manufactured product is produced. The centrally gathered data112related to demand of a product permits identification of erosion of demand to allow excess inventory to be absorbed. The cascading timeline/waterfall chart160is updated and distributed weekly. Thus, capacity issues, excess inventory conditions, etc. may be communicated to the proper personnel where the situation may be addressed in a timely manner to ensure appropriate production of the product.

FIG. 2illustrates a database200having a plurality of data sets for use in producing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of manufactured product according to an embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 2, records in the database include product Ids210, component routing214, sales orders218, WIP data222, workcenter capacity226, bill of materials used for production of the product230, man power projections234, component inventory238, end product inventory242, demand forecasts246, priorities250, job scheduling254, resource calendaring258, inventory calendaring262and engineering change control266. While fifteen data sets210-266are shown in the database200ofFIG. 2, those skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention is not meant to be limited to the data sets210-266shown inFIG. 2. Rather, the present invention may include fewer or additional data sets. Moreover, the type of data sets may differ from the data sets210-266illustrated inFIG. 2.

FIG. 3illustrates a cascading timeline of manufacturing events300leading to completion of manufactured product according to an embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 3, demand/supply numbers310associated with a product312are displayed. The demand/supply numbers310are displayed monthly314and with quarterly totals316. Further, the demand/supply numbers310are provided based upon weekly forecasts320and actual available numbers322. The product forecast320are based upon weekly numbers that allow prediction of capacity and yield information.

A cumulative sum324is provided also to illustrate trends. For example, with reference to the June330demand/supply numbers, week 14332and week 15334numbers are115336and121338respectively. The actual numbers for June330based upon April 08 data342indicate a target of114344. Thus, the week 14 number332of115336is off by −1. The week 15 number334of121338is off by −7. These deltas are added to the week 14 cumulative numbers350and week 15 cumulative numbers352for May356, which are both −22354. Thus, the week 14 cumulative numbers350and week 15 cumulative numbers352for June330are −23360and −29362respectively.

FIG. 3also shows monthly component gating370that allows a comparison of component capacity to product quantity by month. The forecasts for the product312and monthly component gating370are updated weekly. Information associated with identified critical factors affecting satisfaction of supply commitment to demand372and information associated with unqualified products374are also provided. Weekly yield estimations376allow problems to be chased.

Accordingly, the cascading timeline300provides week-to-week analysis for supply increase activities, week-to-week analysis for excess inventory solutions and consolidation of supply issue factor by product by week. The cascading timeline300is published by product by manufacturing segment, i.e., site, to share demand supply status among product volume planners (PVP), manufacturing central and manufacturing sites. The data is centrally coordinated. The information is to form the cascading timeline300may include demand chronology on a month/quarterly basis, supply(Availability) chronology on a month/quarterly basis, component gating by HDD equivalent quantity on a monthly basis, yield information (when applicable), capacity information (when applicable) and weekly spread of supply commitment (Availability). Using the published cascading timeline300, weekly telephone conferences may be made by management to allow elaboration and direction.

For example, product capacity for April 08380is derived using 3000 units End ISO at Mar382with April product capacity of 60,000 units (not shown) to show the total product capacity forecast for April384. The 2Q/3Q improvement386reflects a delta between second quarter capacity and third quarter capacity. The capacities are based upon data in the database200described with reference toFIG. 2.

InFIG. 3, an example of product capacity results388, HDD capacity (WCH/2Q), is shown. With −22K shortage354in May356, 143K units are needed in June. Thus, the delta between 143K and the June capacity of 121K338was 22K354. However, since each cell in “HDD capacity” row was set to pick up previous month delta of HDD capacity itself and each previous month delta of other gatings, May HDD capacity was manually overwritten with 0390because of the capacity recovery at the end. The June capacity shortage, as a result, was shown only −14 (HGA of May)392−5 (HDD yield of May)396=−19.

InFIG. 3, an example of product yield results, HDD Yield (Risk), is shown. HDD yield impact of each month is shown as being −3/−5/−8 for a total −16398in the second quarter. This impact was (HDD capacity)*(Yield impact estimate) and approximately 3K End ISO at Mar/E for Apr. The small difference is a result of a rounding error as the waterfall chart does not show the number after the decimal point.

FIG. 4is a flow chart400of a method for producing a cascading timeline of manufacturing events leading to completion of manufactured product according to an embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 4, data related to demand of a product, supply commitment associated with the product and current product inventory are centrally gathered410. A cascading timeline of manufacturing events based upon the centrally gathered data related to demand of a product, supply commitment associated with the product and current product inventory is produced420. The centrally gathered data related to demand of a product permits identification of erosion of demand to allow excess inventory to be absorbed. The cascading timeline is distributed to a product volume planner, to manufacturing central and to a manufacturing site manufacturing the product430. The cascading timeline is updated and distributed weekly440.

The centrally gathered data related to supply commitment enables identification of a bottleneck in manufacturing the product, e.g., identifying production of a component of the product that does not allow supply commitment of the product to meet demand for the product, and adjustment of capacity for relieving the bottleneck. The adjustment of capacity for relieving the bottleneck may include increasing capacity for the component of the product identified as not allowing supply commitment of the product to meet demand for the product. The centrally gathered data may include demand chronology, supply chronology and component gating by product equivalent quantity. The centrally gathered data may also include yield information, capacity information and weekly spread of supply commitment. The product may be a hard disk drive.

FIG. 5illustrates a system500according to the present invention, wherein the process illustrated with reference toFIGS. 1-4may be tangibly embodied in a computer-readable medium or carrier, e.g. one or more of the fixed and/or removable data storage devices568illustrated inFIG. 5, or other data storage or data communications devices. A computer program590expressing the processes embodied on the removable data storage devices568may be loaded into the memory592or into the processor596to configure the system500ofFIG. 5for execution. The computer program590comprise instructions which, when read and executed by the system500ofFIG. 5, causes the system500to perform the steps necessary to execute the steps or elements of the present invention