Approach in improvement of factory performance through reengineering of manufacturing

Abstract

Much is being published about the way to improve the performance of today's factories through business process reengineering (BPR) or "continuous process improvement". The result is often a number of substantive target changes regarding the business vision which create consequences for activities such as marketing product creation, product realisation, distribution etc. Often the changes in partial targets bring consequences to the manufacturing units concerned. As a result, manufacturing tasks to be performed demand a redefinition. The demand cannot be realised by just applying certain "rules of thumb". Instead, it requires a coherence of innovation in system features such as the type of process sequences, regarding means and equipment, the layout and planning of the tasks, and even the restructuring of the entire organisation. The approach like BPR deems an innovative look to the company mission and results in drastic process changes. This paper promotes the application of systems engineering in BPR environment. This will prove to be of great value in the definition and management of several reorganisations of manufacturing units, investment, and innovation projects. In writing this paper we were primarily guided by manufacturing fields such as production engineering and industrial organisation. One dominant aim forces us to concentrate on management of innovation projects in manufacturing.