تاثیر مورد نیاز تولید جدید بر بهره وری خط تولید و کیفیت در کارخانه متمرکز

This research studies how changes in manufacturing requirements affect production line performance in a focused factory. Specifically, we examine whether production line labor productivity and conformance quality decline as the range of models produced and the heterogeneity of production volume increase in a factory designed for high volume production of a narrow range of models. We use the organizational nature of production lines to argue that the performance of focused production lines will decline when the lines adopt new manufacturing tasks that are outside the scope of the absorptive capacity developed through the execution of their prior focused manufacturing task, but not otherwise. The study examines four years of data from 16 production lines of a compressor manufacturing factory of the Copeland Corporation. Our statistical analysis identifies limits to change, suggests paths to successfully changing the manufacturing requirements of a focused factory, and places the operations strategy discussion of focused factories in a dynamic environment.

This research studies how changes in manufacturing requirements affect production line performance in a focused factory. Specifically, we examine whether production line labor productivity and conformance quality decline as the range of models produced and the heterogeneity of production volume increase in a factory designed for high volume production of a narrow range of models. We use the organizational nature of production lines to argue that the performance of focused production lines will decline when the lines adopt new manufacturing tasks that are outside the scope of the absorptive capacity developed through the execution of their prior focused manufacturing task, but not otherwise. The study examines four years of data from 16 production lines of a compressor manufacturing factory of the Copeland Corporation. Our statistical analysis identifies limits to change, suggests paths to successfully changing the manufacturing requirements of a focused factory, and places the operations strategy discussion of focused factories in a dynamic environment.

Our results suggest that changes in manufacturing requirements may come from various sources, and that production lines may resist an unintended change even if the lines have the ability to respond favorably to an intended change. In terms of focus variables, we found that the labor productivity of lines in both shops generally responded favorably to change in part mix breadth, an intended change. In contrast, lines in both shops exhibit a detrimental impact of increasing volume heterogeneity, an unintended change, on labor productivity. In terms of the relationships between focus variables and performance variables, the results show a detrimental effect of part mix change, which is a focal demand variable, on conformance quality, a non-focal performance variable. This stands in contrast to the general lack of detrimental impact of the same change on labor productivity, a focal performance variable. The detrimental impact of volume heterogeneity on conformance quality concerns a combination of an unintended change and a non-focal performance variable. This further underscores the point that of the many possible relationships between variables representing demand and those representing performance, many are between non-focal pairs of variables, and many include unintended changes.