5820 week 2 discussions
Week 2 Tours
*Discuss your findings concerning Tours A and B, according to the topics listed below: 1. Identify key production planning considerations (which, when and how much of each to produce, methods of dealing with short/long term changes in capacity demand).
Tour A: International Paper, Androscoggin Mill’s central ordering department receives all orders and places them in open slots in their weekly production cycles. The manager of operations control must take into consideration how many machines are available, which ones run what process, and how long each process runs. The production schedule is very detailed but remains flexible to allow for changes. Demand for paper products is cyclical in nature and fluctuates with the economy. A linear program ran each quarter to optimize the schedule. Similar size orders were grouped together to eliminate as much waste as possible. Trucks and railcars also had to be scheduled for shipments. .
Tour B: Norcen Industries key production considerations would be scheduling. As a “job shop” they create a wide variety of products to fulfil customer orders. The production manager must make sure the workers were assigned and understood the correct tasks. Assigning the best operator to perform certain tasks help keep costs down and machines running efficiently. On-time deliveries are important to receive repeat orders. Small jobs were given preference to expedite billing. As drops in demand created fewer orders the foreman ran into bottleneck issues. 2. Identify potential bottlenecks (use process flow diagram in text) and discuss possible methods of breaking them.
Tour A: International Paper, Androscoggin Mill – Some of the potential bottlenecks could be caused by machine breakdowns, paper breaks, weight and color changes and lumber supply issues. Androscoggin Mill performed regular maintenance to prevent breakdowns and changed “clothing” during regularly scheduled maintenance to reduce downtime. They produced their own pulp so they had more control over the quality of the pulp. They grow their own lumber which helps monitor the quality and quantity of lumber supply.
Tour B: Norcen Industries - some bottlenecks could be due to machine breakdowns, maintenance downtime, or late materials. Scheduling also could cause them if there are too many orders that must be processed on a particular machine. They had extra machinery to utilize just in case of a bottleneck. Some processes could be run in a different sequence to try and prevent them. 3. Point out any special considerations, which should be accorded to managing the workforce.
Tour A: International Paper, Androscoggin Mill operated 24 hours a day, employed about 1300 people, 175 salaried and the rest were hourly workers working either 8 or 12 hour shifts. There were day and night shifts and overtime was paid on daily shift overtime or any hours over 40 hours in a week. Unions were decertified in 1992 and teams were formed among the employees by the section they worked in. These self-managed teams set their own hours and priorities, scheduled their own training, and performed peer evaluations on each other. The pay scale was different depending on the knowledge and responsibilities needed for the job. As technology advanced, considerable resources were spent on training.
Tour B: Norcen Industries – Norcen had two shifts and operated from 6:50 am to 12:00 midnight. It paid in hourly wages (that were the highest in the market for that type of work) ranging from $9 to $13.75 depending on skill level and supplemented that with overtime pay at time at time and a half and a bonus checks paid during Christmas. The amount of these checked varied by seniority and were calculated according to company profit over 6 month periods of time so employees understood that the better their company did, the better they did. Norcen realized that some operators were better a certain tasks than others and assigned orders accordingly. They also understood that one employee could run two pieces of equipment at the same time buy starting the process of one while waiting for the other to finish. Bonuses were a good incentive for continued good work.
4. Identify significant issues pertaining to materials management within the process (i.e. inventory management, supplier selection, etc.)
Tour A: International Paper, Androscoggin Mill – 60% of the wood was supplied by other sources. The types and hardness of the wood had to be separated into piles, wood had to be soaked and debarked and too small chips were collected and burned for power. The river powered the plant, and the level of the river could affect the mill. They recycled the “black liquor”, bleached the pulp and stored the stocks of pulp for several hours before entering the blending operations. “Broke” paper wastes were recycled into the pulp and once again processed. The Mill had to increase its inventory of wood during fall and winter months to prepare for the “mud” season.
Tour B: Norcen Industries customers were no longer providing an extra 10% of material to cover potential scrap, and requiring multiple deliveries of their orders. Norcen had to be more conscious of the waste of each job. They had to hold inventory or set up the job more than once. Norcen purchased a 110 ton punch to make its own blanks quickly.
5. Discuss the significant aspects of quality control as they relate to this process.
Tour A: International Paper, Androscoggin Mill purchased or harvested their own wood during colder months due to longer more desirable wood fibers growing in the cold weather and increased their wood supply in the fall and winter to avoid the muddy wood that results from the spring thawing process. Work-in-process stocks were kept small to prevent different types of wood from mixing. The Mill adopted a quality improvement process (QIP) that used teams of highly trained managers and workers to ensure quality and competiveness and kept the mill in constant operation for customers all over the world for many years. Androscoggin made their own pulp and was able to monitor its production and quality. Quality pulp reduces the chances for paper breaks on the machines and eliminated any quality issues caused by old or deficient pulp.
Tour B: Norcen Industries – Norcen had followed 7 steps for quality control: 1. The foreman wrote the process sheet 2. The foreman discussed the process sheet with the assigned operator and made any changes needed 3. Each operator was responsible for their own setup 4. The first piece was check by the operator with the shop coordinate measuring machine and then again by an inspector 5. Jobs ran in lots of 5 and each 5th piece was inspected. If it failed, all previous 4 pieces were checked 100% as were all 5 of the next lot of 5 6. Quality was a joint responsibility of the operator and quality control. 7. All finished jobs were sampled by QC for a final inspection.

6. How is this industry likely to be affected by technological change?
Tour A: International Paper, Androscoggin Mill – Technology has transformed papermaking from being an art into being a science. The work has become more cerebral and less manual labor and settings are controlled by computers. Larger and faster machines at Androscoggin made more paper and required less employees. The mill grew about as large as it could get, but new efficiencies and upgrades made better use of the space available and increased production. Androscoggin’s corporate staff constantly studies new advancements and will continue to upgrade their technology as long as the company is in business.
Tour B: Norcen Industries was constantly trading in old equipment and buying new upgraded equipment. New technology enabled Norcen to produce some parts for less money in today’s dollars than it cost in 1967. New technology advanced machines saved them steps. Carbine cutting tools with EDM machining allowed them to harden metals first and then machine them where before they had to machine them, heat them and then machine them again. New machines had multiple tool holders so more parts of a job could be done while a part was held in position. Programmable indexes automatically rotated parts so different sides could be machined without operator intervention. Some machines had multiple vices so two or three pieces could be set up at once and some lathes had automatic bar-feeds. Set ups are often easier with the more advanced machine and more time can be spent actually cutting metal. Newer tools permit fancier machining done with greater accuracy, higher speed and less scrap. New equipment doesn’t tie up workers as long as the old ones did. Automated bookkeeping made job quoting easier. Time keeping, billing and finances can all be done on computers. 7. To what degree does vertical integration exist?
Tour A: International Paper, Androscoggin Mill – This mill was vertically integrated in that it combined pulp making and paper making at the same mill which provided it with many benefits. It removed transportation costs between a pulp mill and a paper mill, it eliminated the double handling of pulp, pulp drying and re-slushing costs were disposed of. Integration improved quality because the quality of paper produced depends highly on the quality of pulp and having the mills together allowed for hourly checking of pulp quality. 40% of the lumber supply came from their own land. The wood preparation and pulp making operations generated sawdust, bark, woodchips and chemicals that could be burned for fuel which cut down on energy costs. They burned chips and used the river to supply power to the mill.
Tour B: Norcen Industries, as a “job shop” metalworking company produces metal and plastic parts for numerous companies to assemble into their products. Many supply their own material to Norcen per order. I do not see vertical integration use at Norcen.