Factory Physics

Our economy and future way of life depend on how well American manufacturing managers adapt to the dynamic, globally competitive landscape and evolve their firms to keep pace. A major challenge is how to structure the firm’s environment so that it attains the speed and low cost of high-volume flow lines while retaining the flexibility and customization potential of a low-volume job shop.

The book’s three parts are organized according to three categories of skills required by managers and engineers: basics, intuition, and synthesis. Part I reviews traditional operations management techniques and identifies the necessary components of the science of manufacturing. Part II presents the core concepts of the book, beginning with the structure of the science of manufacturing and a discussion of the systems approach to problem solving. Other topics include behavioral tendencies of manufacturing plants, push and pull production systems, the human element in operations management, and the relationship between quality and operations. Chapter conclusions include main points and observations framed as “manufacturing laws.” In Part III, the lessons of Part I and the “laws” of Part II are applied to address specific manufacturing management issues in detail. The authors compare and contrast common problems, including shop floor control, long-range aggregate planning, workforce planning and capacity management. A main focus in Part III is to help readers visualize how general concepts in Part II can be applied to specific problems.

Written for both engineering and management students, the authors demonstrate the effectiveness of a rule-based and data driven approach to operations planning and control. They advance an organized framework from which to evaluate management practices and develop useful intuition about manufacturing systems.
Table of Contents
0. Factory Physics?
The Short Answer / The Long Answer / An Overview of the Book

Part I: THE LESSONS OF HISTORY

1. Manufacturing in America
Introduction / The American Experience / The First Industrial Revolution / The Second Industrial Revolution / Scientific Management / The Rise of the Modern Manufacturing Organization / Peak, Decline, and Resurgence of American Manufacturing / The Future

2. Inventory Control: From EOQ to ROP
Introduction / The Economic Order Quantity Model / Dynamic Lot Sizing / Statistical Inventory Models / Conclusions

3. The MRP Crusade
Material Requirements Planning—MRP / Manufacturing Resources Planning—MRP II / Enterprise Resources Planning and Supply Chain Management / Conclusions

4. From the JIT Revolution to Lean Manufacturing
The Origins of JIT / JIT Goals / The Environment as a Control / Implementing JIT / Total Quality Management / Pull Systems and Kanban / Goodbye JIT, Hello Lean / The Lessons of JIT/Lean and TQM/Six Sigma

5. What Went Wrong?
The Problem / The Solution / Scientific Management / The Rise of the Computer / Other "Scientific" Approaches / Where to from Here?

Part II: FACTORY PHYSICS

6. A Science of Manufacturing
The Seeds of Science / Formal Roots / Strategic and Operational Objectives / Models and Performance Measures / A Methodology for Improvement / Conclusions

7. Basic Factory Dynamics
Introduction / Definitions and Parameters / Simple Relationships / Labor-Constrained Systems / Conclusions

8. Variability Basics
Introduction / Variability and Randomness / Process Time Variability / Causes of Variability / Flow Variability / Variability Interactions—Queueing / Effects of Blocking / Variability Pooling / Conclusions

9. The Corrupting Influence of Variability
Introduction / Variability Laws / Flow Laws / Batching Laws / Cycle Time / Performance and Variability / Diagnostics and Improvements / Conclusions

10. Push and Pull Production Systems
Introduction / Perceptions of Pull / The Magic of Pull / CONWIP / Comparisons of CONWIP with MRP / Comparisons of CONWIP with Kanban / Conclusions

11. The Human Element in Operations Management
Introduction / Basic Human Laws / Planning versus Motivating / Responsibility and Authority / Summary

12. Total Quality Manufacturing
Introduction / Views of Quality / Statistical Quality Control / Six Sigma / Quality and Operations / Quality and the Supply Chain / Conclusions

Part III: PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE

13. A Pull Planning Framework
Introduction / Disaggregation / Forecasting / Planning for Pull / Hierarchical Production Planning / Conclusions / Appendix 13A: A Quota-Setting Model

14. Shop Floor Control
Introduction / General Considerations / CONWIP Configurations / Other Pull Mechanisms / Production Tracking / Conclusions / Appendix 14A: Statistical Throughput Control

15. Production Scheduling
Goals of Production Scheduling / Review of Scheduling Research / Linking Planning and Scheduling / Bottleneck Scheduling / Diagnostic Scheduling / Production Scheduling in a Pull Environment / Conclusions

16. Aggregate and Workforce Planning
Introduction / Basic Aggregate Planning / Product Mix Planning / Workforce Planning / Conclusions / Appendix 16A: Linear Programming

17. Supply Chain Management
Introduction / Reasons for Holding Inventory / Managing Raw Materials / Managing WIP / Managing FGI / Managing Spare Parts / Multiechelon Supply Chains / Conclusions

18. Capacity Management
The Capacity-Setting Problem / Modeling and Analysis / Modifying Existing Production Lines / Designing New Production Lines / Capacity Allocation and Line Balancing / Conclusions / Appendix 18A: The Line-of-Balance Problem

19. Synthesis—Putting It All Together
The Strategic Importance of Details / The Practical Matter of Implementation / Focusing Teamwork / A Factory Physics Parable