Optimizing Factory Performance: Cost-Effective Ways to Achieve Significant and Sustainable Improvement

TQM, Reengineering,Theory of Constraints, JIT,Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing . . .

These are just some of the methods that, overthe past five decades, have promised to transformany manufacturing firm into a lean, mean, moneymakingmachine. While each incorporates certainfundamental truths, strengths, and benefits, theyare not panaceas. Nor do they necessarily providemuch-needed insight into the science that underliesfactory performance.

James Ignizio, Ph.D., an internationally recognizedperformance optimization expert, believesthat only a balanced approach will provide thesignificant and sustainable improvement requiredof firms who will survive and prosper in thetwenty-first century.

In this breakthrough guide, Dr. Ignizio picks upwhere such concepts as Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturingleave off to provide you with a holistic,three-dimensional approach to mastering the artand science of manufacturing.

Focusing on the three primary enemiesof factory performance—complexity, variability,and lackluster leadership—Optimizing FactoryPerformance cuts to the heart of the problem ofless-than-world-class performance and demonstrateshow those enemies manifest themselves incompanies across manufacturing sectors. Ignizioalso explores the insidious effect company politicsand flagging commitment to manufacturing performancehave on competitiveness.

Emphasizing the all-important, often overlookedthird dimension of manufacturing—factoryprotocols—Ignizio describes the types of strategicand tactical changes to physical plant and operatingprocedures any company can make to achieveperformance improvements. In addition, he arms youwith powerful, original metrics for measuring andcomparing factory performance, as well as a set ofinteractive simulation models, available online at

Running throughout the book is an oftenamusing, always instructive account of the fictionalhigh-tech firm, Muddle, Inc., which helps supportthe concepts discussed in the real world of manufacturing,while reinforcing key lessons learned.

Read Optimizing Factory Performance and findout how to transform your organization into the kindof fast, agile manufacturer that delivers the rightproducts to the right customers at the right time—every time.

1991 Engineering Multimedia Products and Industrial Engineering.

Boost factory performanceand transform your companyinto a world-class competitor You can dramatically improve factory performance, decrease cycle time, increase capacity, and cutcosts, while expanding your profits and market share. You won't need to invest in new equipment andtechnologies, make sweeping personnel cuts, or relocate your facilities to far-flung locales around theglobe. Best of all, these improvements will be sustainable. Sound too good to be true? You won't think so once you've read Optimizing Factory Performance. Unlike TQM, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and similar "remedies," which offer only partial solutionsto the problem of manufacturing inefficiency, the methodology outlined in this book is firmly rootedin the real world of manufacturing and based on sound science. Dr. James Ignizio offers a balanced,three-dimensional approach to understanding, measuring, and conquering the three enemies ofmanufacturing: complexity, variability, and poor leadership. Armed with simple, easy-to-use metrics,interactive factory simulation models, and other original tools, you will Cut cycle times Increase capacity Reduce variability in outs and lead times Decluster starts and maintenance events Root out performance-killingcompany politics and turf battles Create a culture of continualperformance improvement

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