Not micro-managing every detail of the project btw (MFPROMA)

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OVERVIEW: One of the management courses for my degree is the engineering production management that covers essentially many aspect of focused improvements being done in the manufacturing scene. I explore in this blog what was taught in class and juxtapose this in actual job descriptions and expectations that engineering graduates role should have in the scene.

What I particularly like about this course was the engagement that we’ve done in a partner business/community by the university. We got to go their production site and talk to their representatives and find ways to improve on their production. More details about that can be seen on the project section/tab!

To cover the learnings that was presented, I have here below the consolidated discussion of the lecture as well as the resources that I have below!

Operations Management

• Summary: The first weeks covers the fundamentals and definition of operations management that covers the succeeding topics wher ein design of goods and services are quality-maintained. Basically, the needed measurements here is the ratio of outputs-to-inputs. The return of investment is really emphasized and how we can do rapid product development while considering ethics and social responsibility.
• Learnings: Strategic decisions for the design of the product by the company should consider the whole supplychain. This is essentially the marketing, operations and accounting function of an organization. Our job (mfg eng.) is to minimize the cost of operations among all these functions.
• Opinion: I think more emphasis on the target evaluations and indicators that the operations is moving towards the desried performance is crucial in management but was not emphasized. For me, i’ve got to here more about OEE and Cost of Operations done in practical application for manufacturing of goods.

Project Management

• Summary: There are 3 phases in project planning. That is planning, scheduling and controlling.. For new product introductions (NPI) and time-based competition, it is essential that we define the goals, project overview and team organization so that the team is on the same page and they are not stepping in each others jobs even especially if its multi-disciplinary!
• Learnings: The activities here emphasizes the use of PERT-CPM to do the project management; Aside from that constant monitoring of resources, costs and quality and budgets. Revising the plan is expected. Therefore plan ahead for backup in scheduling.
• Opinion: PERT-CPM is sooo outdated. nobody uses it in practice due to its complexity to define the nodes and weight of the path. It’s just very taxing to do when Gantt chart does the job the same. If you want to consider the pessimistic and optismitic ways (3 estimates of PERT) of the expected dates of completion for the project, then maybe use PERT-CPM. If its just a small project with no moving gears and multiple people on it, use Gantt.

Below is an activity that we made for this topic; utilizing PERT-CPM for the project planning.

Forecasting

• Summary: forecasting is just predicting future events using previous historical data in essence. Time horizons for the forecast ranges from 3 months up to 3 years that is considered valid forecasting. We have economic and demand forecasting like delphi method, sales force composite and market survey that does a systematic qualitative means. Time-seriece models are more known like ARIMAX, and asosciative models like linear regression that captures associations between variables.
• Learnings: I got to use this in my project like that of sales force composite for doing a forecast given limited values given by the stakeholder.
• Opinion: The forecasting should be heavily examined and acocmpanied with grounding expectations. It is not concrete and do assumptions the further it is along a given timeline. Therfore there is a need to conduct constant error-correcting to ensure that it is within expectations based not only on trend but on other indices like seasonality. I have also deepened my understanding of this via my minor in data science!

Capacity Planning

• Summary: This supplements forecasting with the determination of expected product output that a facility can allocate and handle. I particually remember the difference between Design vs. Effective Capacity where in design capacity is theoretical maximum, while effective capacity considers operating constraints. Considaration in capcacity not only covers demand forecasting but also sales volume and change improvements.
• Learnings: Analysis for this is broken down to three essential parts: Bottleneck analysis that identifies limiting factor in a system; Break-even analysis that defines the point which cost is equal revenue (basic but essential!); Investment analysis that uses expected monetary value to evaluation capacity options in futre and present values (useful for introduction of new machines/production method)
• Opinion: This learning is needed in most manufacturing businesses with more specific jobs out there that just specialize in planning out capacity to ensure smooth operations. As a mfg. engr. this can be a job but further exploration is needed that I dont particularly plan on doing in my career.

Job Design

• Summary: This is the infamous time-motion study that focuses on the improvement of performance, safety and quality of the task given staff and workers.
• Learnings: Eliminating waste is protocol in manufacturing therefore doing studies to determine the standard time and motions that may affect efficiency is needed. Conducting SOPs after this knowledge will the next step in improving from these studies.
• Opinion: Of course, one of the things that many people done like is being examined by their actions and movements, step-by-step as per procedure. I remember talking to a process engr. stating that as much as possible do the time-motion study discreet as staff employees in the mfg. line may bear grudge. The best study is done also under random observations and sampling to ensure that there is a capture of the population. Again, emphasis on the discreet. Probably, rotational work can also undermine the study so not as effective as one may think.

Location Strategy

• Summary: This is done way way before actual implementation and is done by executives. Location really affects the costs and impacts assets on the ground. Analysis of the location and needed strategy for handling the environment to which the facility is located poses a unique problem on logistics.
• Learnings: Known 3 strategies for this are: factor-rating method which considers a weighted factor matrix that votes which location is optimal to take or vendor to choose based on location; A similar approach is done on a location cost-volume analysis but does it doing linear programming; lastly, center-of-gravity method considers previous locations of interest present in the field and weighted variables to determine the x,y position of a new location.
• Opinion: Again, this is often dealing with logistics, the most that I can think of this being used in practice is more concerned on choosing the vendor for their specific parts or service. Doing the analysis can greatly improve on the decision-makking of the executives that will do the final say-so. Other than, it can be also applied further using Djikstra alogrithm to know which transport route is suitable.

Facility Layout

• Summary: Facility layout is paramount to having a smooth movement of materials and traffic within constrained spaces. Of course end goal is determined the long-term efficience and requirements for the job where in improved flow will increase the utilization of the space.
• Learnings: Introduction to work celss and product oriented layouts that provides the best high-volume, while having a low-variety production. This is ideal for a linear fabrication and assembly line. Other applications can also be seen in offices in movement of interactions within personnels.
• Opinion: One of the memorable things I did was utilizing AutoCAD to validate introduction of a new machine in the assembly line. Sadly, this was not mentioned or even introduced in laboratory work but engineers in plant needs to know this and is essential for navigating available space that can be allocated for work.

Waiting-Line Model

• Summary: A very niche application where waiting lines within the material flow is seen as athere is a temporary imbalance between supply and demand. This not only covers human aspect of waiting line but also physical queueing of items within the facility.
• Learnings: It is required to know the following to make an informed decision how to deal with this type of problem: average number of customers waiting, average waiting time, system utilization and probability of waiting. Knowing these variables can supplement the short-term forecasting that was done in previous topics. Subsequent to this are the models which considers wheter number of customers are limited or not and the number of server.
• Opinion: This helps on capacity planning in knowing how to balance waiting cost to the expected capacity. Typically remedy is to just add temp. workers to minimize the bottleneck in waiting! Again, this is a problem for another person preferably!

Below is my consolidated notes that I have scanned thankfull and my lecture slides that I have for future reference.

Juxtaposition with Current Jobs at the market

Now, to compare this course and see if it aligns with the interest of employers in the field, I have a sample of the job description for focused improvement (FI) engineer entry role @ Unilever and a New Product Introduction (NPI) engineer @ IMI that I got recently as of writing.

As you can see, for FI, it covers more of the KPIs for factory. Kaizen mentality is mentioned several which assumes that continuous enhancement in the processes, product and services within the line is expected to be performed. Mention of various equipment and specific work orders may deviate from what was discussed but this was taught in other courses to so no worries there. Lastly, lean manufacturing principles was also covered to ensure that waste is minimized throughout the manufacturing scene.

• FI Engineer Job Description:
  • Responsible for driving Kaizen implementation across the site improving key factory metrics on: Safety, Quality, Output Reliability and OEE 
  • Supports in development of Autonomous Maintenance Kaizens, CILT Calendar drafting and execution. In the past year, FI Engineers were instrumental in increasing site OEE from 67% to 72%. 
  • Supports day-to-day Factory Operations in investigation of Emergency Work Orders, Q-Emergency Work Orders and S-Emergency Work Orders.  
  • Conducts Non-Value Adding Activity analysis to help reduce NVAA across site 
  • Leads Time-Studies required for Kaizen implementation. 
  • Operates new Digital Tools on-site for FI implementation: 3D Printer, Digital Scopes, High-Speed Cameras, Vibration Meters, Real time dashboards.
  • Supports Waste Stream mapping and implements FI projects for Waste reduction.  

For NPI, it is specific for the employer as IMI is known for semicon products so mention of their products like power devices is expected. A common ask for the role is the paperwork like that of RFQ or request for quotation which immediately signifies that you need to know and speak to vendors that will provide a quote and can do business with expected product being introduced. Many specific documentations are also asked but that can be learned on the job. Lastly, process design not only for execution but also for production is also wanted for the candidate. Self-development is expected aside from these support in current NPI intitiatives by the company.

• NPI Engineer Job Description:
  • RFQ support: • Provides valuable insights and data for request for quotation systems, technical gap and feasibility assessment, and proof of concept prototyping in order to enable IMI to engage and win identified opportunities
  • NPI, prototype and process development
  • Handles management of NPI and prototype builds, WIP monitoring, line supervision and workability report generation
  • Provides support to NPI and prototype build execution, process DFM and option selection, assembly tooling design, process design and development, product and process validation, line set-up, and manufacturing hand-over to Process Engineering Team to support a smooth, efficient and risk-minimized build-up of manufacturing readiness
  • Supports the Product Development team in completing required documentations (APQP Phase 3A and others)
  • Knowledge generation and propagation activities
  • Ensures the conduct of training and knowledge sharing sessions in areas agreed
  • Competency development: Engages in self-development activities in topics agreed upon with the immediate superior in order to meet the present and future competency requirements needed for Power Devices development projects

REFLECTIONS: Overall, seeing the job descriptions for requested jobs that may match the job of a manufacturing engineering graduate, I cant help but wonder if the course makes us job ready. Short answer, yes but needs further more projects and mini-implements. The course was able to tackle the main parts atleast which is the capacity planning and the operations management. The degree also tackle lean manufacturing and prototyping should be second nature to MFG. engr. students since we are able to capture the mechatronics aspect of manufacturing.

Though I fear that is not enough, many employers are asking that candidates should already know the insides of their work from the get-go and avoid training them when they get accepted which is inevitable. Specific wants also can impact the possibility of getting an interview to a hiring manager. Going back to the question, production management course when examined with jobs in the market covers like 30% of whats being asked. Further projects that can be displayed and presented should be done for personal branding if you are a potential employee to these companies!