High-Mix Low-Volume Manufacturing (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books)
High-Mix Low Volume Manufacturing by Micheal Mahoney ISBN# 013255688XKarl M. Kapp, Ed.D., CFPIM, CIRM, an assistant professor at BloomsburgUniversity, is an avid reader, writer, and speaker on the convergence oflearning, manufacturing, and technology. He can be reached at kkapp@bloomu.edufor comment or if you have a book you'd like to have reviewed. High-Mix, Low-Volume Manufacturing"When building a competitive advantage, the principal underlying concern is toavoid doing the same thing on the same battlefield as your competition." R. Michael MahoneyIn his first book, "High-Mix, Low-Volume Manufacturing," R. Michael Mahoneycarefully details a variety of manufacturing issues and topics that directlyimpact competitors in the high-mix, low-volume manufacturing arena. Thiscomprehensive book summarizes critical competitive strategies, manufacturingfundamentals, multiple constraint synchronization techniques, and performancemeasurement strategies. Although it focuses on high-mix, low-volumemanufacturing, the book describes techniques and tools that can be used by alltypes of manufacturing companies. The author, R. Michael Mahoney, is an engineer with over 19 years of experienceworking in a high-mix, low-volume environment at Hewlett-Packard. His years ofexperience and training as an engineer are evident throughout the work. Thebook is written in a straightforward style. Material is presentedmatter-of-factly with explanations provided in the form of charts, graphs,tables, Venn diagrams, and mathematical equations. The beginning of the book hasa reference list so the reader can gain quick access to over one hundreddiagrams. "High-Mix, Low-Volume Manufacturing" is not a casual read. It is meant to becarefully analyzed and studied in order to gain the insights described withinthe text. Mahoney carefully details concepts and ideas in order to help thereader understand the techniques and tools needed in order to successfullyoperate a high-mix, low-volume manufacturing operation. The best approach tothe work is to read it in stages or sections. This allows the reader to fullygrasp and understand the topics being discussed prior to reading to anothersection. The work is well positioned as a reference book. You can findinformation related to almost any business or manufacturing topic containedwithin the 200 or so pages. Mahoney sprinkles the book with a variety of references to different subjectareas including Heuristics, Fredrick Taylor, the economic theory concept of pareto optimum, and Management By Objective (MBO). These references help engagethe reader in the topics and add dimension to the manufacturing theoriesdiscussed. The inclusion of a variety of business topics puts the manufacturingexplanations into the greater business context. Mahoney has even developed a Web page for anyone who wants to keep current withthe latest developments in the high-mix, low-volume manufacturing environment. The address is http://www.hmlv.com. The site provides information on the topicof high-mix, low-volume manufacturing and offers an opportunity to purchase thebook. The content of the book covers a wide-range of manufacturing topics. Mahoneydiscusses Strategic Degrees of Freedom, Kan Ban cards, the evolution ofhigh-mix, low-volume manufacturing, the Theory of Constraints, ManufacturingResource Planning, Lot Sizing, Balancing Capacity, Multiple ConstraintSynchronization, Performance Measurement, and achieving World Class status. Let's look at the Performance Measurement chapter. In this chapter, Mahoneytakes the topic of performance measurement and divides it into severalsubtopics. The subtopics include change paradigms, education, relevance,metrics, inventory turnover, productivity, operations performance, and worldclass. All topics covered in the book are of extreme interest to APICS readers. The subtopic of performance measurement discusses various methods oforganizational transformations. Mahoney lists four strategies fororganizational change. The first strategy is Continuos Improvement. The second strategy, Restructuring, is discussed in detail. Mahoney describeshow traditional restructuring is a reactive strategy that can result indecreased employee morale and a gap between management and employees. He statesthat "..cost cutting reduces the net worth of a company in order to achieve ahigher return on investment." The second approach to restructuring described is a strategy-driven approach. Mahoney states that this approach focuses on process redesign where value-addingactivities are maximized at the expense of non-value-adding activities. In thisapproach, employees are strategically redeployed to positions in which they canadd value. During this process, Mahoney asserts that, "...competitive advantagecannot be achieved without incurring costs." Next the concept of reengineering is detailed. This section describes howreengineering is a socio-technological approach to organizational restructuringbased on a rapid and radical redesign of strategic value-adding businessprocesses. Reengineering seeks to "...attain a long-term competitiveness basedon a particular customer value proposition (e.g., cost, quality, delivery,responsiveness, service, technology)." Mahoney labels reengineering as defensivecorporate strategy because it is simply a method of extending known competenciesand not a method of creating innovative leaps in competitiveness. The final strategy Mahoney discusses is reinventing. He positions reinventingas being about innovation and working in uncertainty. In fact, Mahoney statesthat "predictability during the process of reinvention is virtuallynon-existent." And that "winning organizations invest in innovation and areseeking to achieve advantage as opposed to simply being competitive...They failforward." This book is especially relevant to APICS members since they mustconstantly consider how to help their organizations achieve greater results byfailing forward. It is an interesting and intriguing concept. As a player in the manufacturing arena, having "High-Mix, Low-VolumeManufacturing" on your bookshelf provides you with a high quality referencesource. It will answer questions you have about high-mix, low-volumemanufacturing as well as almost any other issue manufacturers contend with on adaily basis.