Quick Response Manufacturing
Quick response manufacturing (QRM) is an approach to manufacturing which emphasizes the
beneficial effect of reducing internal and external lead times. Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) is
a companywide strategy to cut lead times in all phases of manufacturing and office operations. It can
bring your products to the market more quickly and help you compete in a rapidly changing
manufacturing arena. It will increase profitability by reducing cost, enhance delivery performance and
improve quality. QRM's overarching focus on time as the guiding management strategy is ideally suited
for companies offering high-mix, low-volume and custom-engineered products.
Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) is a strategy for reducing lead-times across all functions of an
organization. The resulting improvements in speed and responsiveness increase the organization’s
agility and responsiveness, resulting in competitive advantage.
Many well-known Lean Manufacturing tools have been developed for high volume/low variety, or ‘mass
production’ environments. Think of techniques such a Pull Systems, Kanban, Line Balancing and
Heijunka for instance, often applied to fast moving production lines. However, these tools often do not
translate well to low volume/high variety environments, which require short batch runs, higher levels of
customization and fast response to changes in customer demand.
QRM is rooted in the concept of Time-based competition (TBC) pioneered by Japanese enterprises in
the 1980s and first formulated by George Stalk Jr. in his 1988 article entitled Time – The Next Source
of Competitive Advantage. Time-based competition is a broad- based competitive strategy
emphasizing time as the major factor for achieving and maintaining a sustainable competitive
advantage. It seeks to compress the time required to propose, develop, manufacture, market and
deliver products. QRM advocates a companywide focus on short lead times that include quick
response to demand for existing products as well as new product and design changes. This
combination has led to the implementation of QRM in many high-mix, low-volume companies.
QRM Strategy Comprises of 4 core concepts
1. The power of time
Many hidden costs within a business are driven by long lead-times. Typical symptoms include excess
inventories, planning difficulties, expediting costs, overtime, quality issues and so on. The result is often
dissatisfied customers and a stressed workforce.
By visualizing the lead-time clearly and using one overriding measure to drive it down, the organization
will have clarity on its strategic goal and avoid confusion around conflicting objectives.
2. Organization structure
The traditional focus on Resource efficiency has driven a high degree of specialization into many
organizations. Lead-time can become extended as a result, due to inflexibility (e.g. specialized
equipment that suffers long changeover times, or specialized personnel that can only perform a narrow
range of tasks – and frequently have long queues in front of them). In fast moving production
environments, the ‘bottleneck’ process often moves, so inflexible mass production systems are not the
answer here’re Cells overcome this through a high degree of cross-training and autonomy, promoting
flexibility for resources to move to where the workload currently is. QRM promotes Flow efficiency
underpinned by additional capacity to keep the job moving, rather than holding additional inventory and
applying Pull systems.
3. System Dynamics
Lead-time is related to capacity utilization, demand variability and lot sizing. High utilization is great for
Resource efficiency, but damages Flow – think about this by comparing driving along a motorway at
Quick Response Manufacturing2))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
rush hour (highly utilized), to driving along the same road in the middle of the night! The Kingsman
Curve is a well-known model that illustrates this phenomenon. The higher your utilization, the longer
your queue is.Also, the higher your variation the longer your queue is.Underpinning Flow efficiency by
maintaining spare capacity will help absorb variability in demand and protect lead-time reduction.
System dynamics will help managers to understand the impact that utilization
and variability have on lead-time, and how even a small investment in additional capacity can generate
a significant lead-time improvement.
4 Enterprise-wide application
QRM is not just a shop-floor focused approach. Functions such as order processing, new product
introduction, purchasing and supply chain management can all have a significant impact on the overall
lead-time experienced by the customer. Office based QRM Cells can apply the same lead-time
reduction philosophy to their processes to contribute to reduction in overall lead-time. As with any
change management process, clarity of the goal and its benefits are essential to communicate.
Remember, QRM is driven by the goal of lead-time reduction, to which all aspects of the business can
contribute. Quick Response Manufacturing applies to every aspect of an organization, is singular in its
focus and simple to understand – generating competitive advantage through relentless reduction of
lead- time.
How Does QRM Work
QRM builds on the basic principles of eliminating waste and improving efficiency, while also
incorporating principles unique to QRM. These include:
Laser-like focus on lead time reduction in manufacturing. o Rethinking the manufacturing process and
equipment decisions, to put the focus on lead time reduction. o Focusing all aspects of the
organization, from the shop floor to the front office, and including vendors in the supply chain, on quick
responses and reducing lead times.
Training managers on using time-based strategies. o Linking business strategies to functional
strategies. o Measuring performance in ―time‖ units instead of monetary units. o Using the principles
of system dynamics to achieve quick response.
Cell-based system of manufacturing. o Implementing the Paired-Cell Overlapping Loops of Cards
with Authorization (POLCA) planning and control method. A focus on implementation and sustaining
changes that reduce lead times.
Using Manufacturing Critical-path Time (MCT) to measure lead times.
Benefits of Quick Response Manufacturing
There are a number of significant benefits resulting from implementing quick Response Manufacturing.
Three of the most important are:
1. Increased customer satisfaction - We're in a highly competitive world in which waiting time is
wasted time. If you can reliably deliver the products the customer wants, and do so quickly, you'll have
happier customers who return to buy from you again.
2. Increased cash flow – By delivering products to customers quicker, you get paid quicker and your
overall cash flow increases. This gives you more flexibility and a greater ability to respond to market
changes. 3. Beating the competition – Quick Response Manufacturing drives innovation and
prevents a company from resting on its laurels while a competitor innovates and steals away
customers. The relentless focus on further decreasing lead times pushes an organization to continually
be innovating, which results in improved quality, new product features, and a focus on being close to
and serving customers.
