Quick Response Manufacturing: A Companywide Approach to Reducing Lead Times (Hardcover)

by Rajan Suri (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Rajan Suris principles of Quick Response Manufacturing are easy to grasp and powerfully effective. They allowed us to reduce elapsed manufacturing time from 23 days to 7 days and work-in-process by 41 percent."
— Charles J. Monante, President, Converter Concepts, Inc., JUNE 2004

"Dr. Rajan Suri explains Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) in easy to understand terms: why it is necessary, its benefits, and how to implement it. At John Deere, we are using the QRM philosophy and tools to train our employees and our supply base. QRM has enabled us to implement changes that improve customer response time and take millions of dollars out of our supply chain."
— Bill Butterfield, Supplier Development Process Owner, Deere and Company, JUNE 2004
   

Product Description
Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) builds upon kaizen, TQM, TPM, and other strategies to use speed for competitive advantage. The difference between QRM and other time-based programs is QRM involves the entire organization--from the shop floor to the office, from purchasing to sales.

Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) is an expansion of time-based competition (TBC) strategies that use speed for a competitive advantage. Essentially, QRM stems from a single principle--to reduce lead times. But here's the key difference that successfully sets QRM apart from other time-based programs: Quick Response Manufacturing is an approach for the entire organization--from the shop floor to the office, from reorganizing production to new product introduction, from accounting to performance measures, from purchasing to sales. In order to compete on speed, you must change the management mind-set and reduce lead times throughout the organization.

And for those of you who have invested in lean manufacturing programs, QRM does not require that you scrap these programs. Instead, Quick Response Manufacturing builds upon the ideas of kaizen, TQM, TPM, and others, making it an expansion of your company's quest for competitive strategies. So discover the power of speed. Quick Response Manufacturing is a broad and powerful corporate strategy that holds tremendous benefits for your entire organization.

Here's what You Get:

15 specific steps to implement a successful QRM program.

Case studies of seven companies--including John Deer, Horicon Works, and Ingersoll--that successfully use QRM. Hundreds of tools and examples to show you why QRM succeeds. 120 tables and figures to illustrate QRM. Formulas to measure lead times. Two quick fixes to adjust your existing accounting systems to enable QRM efforts. Discussion on cells, teams, and the need for employee empowerment. Now you can discover what other top companies already know: Quick Response Manufacturing is a truly tested way of implementing and achieving a powerful competitive strategy based on speed.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Productivity Press; 1 edition (June 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563272016
• ISBN-13: 978-1563272011
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #123,419 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #63 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems > Quality Control
  #73 in	Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Operations Research
  #95 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems > Production, Operation & Management

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete Book for Improving Manufacturing, June 29, 2002

By	Bill Ritchie (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

It was hard to put this book down when I first read it. As a manufacturing manager, it almost seemed as if Prof. Suri had spent time in my plant. Most of the topics he addresses in QRM are relevant to the issues I was struggling with. He writes about reducing lead time in all aspects of operations, even product development. His concept of POLCA to create a pull system for low volume, high mix manufacturing is innovative.

I recommend this highly to anyone who is trying to understand a manufacturing operation and how to improve it. It is easy to read and understand with concepts that work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best for Job-Shop Manufacturers , December 19, 2005

By	T. Kemp "T Kemp" (Beaverton, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was great! I couldn't put it down. The author is able to pull together the best of Lean, Kanban, JIT etc... and apply them in a methodology that truly works for a diverse manufacturing plant. We make hundreds if not thousands of different products, some only once and some are repeats but always in small batches. It was really great to read a manufacturing book that will help a plant like ours. Some really great stuff in this book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Focuses on today's manufacturing climate, October 28, 2004

By	J. W. Kwiecien (Manitou Springs, CO, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a former manager of strategic planning, now returned to the manufacturing side, I consider this book to be one of the most important I have read over the past several years. What I am seeing in manufacturing is that the cookie cutter products, high tech or not, are moving to either Asia or Mexico. The remaining products are being sold to customers who require a high level of customization on a very short lead time. The author has developed a system to accomplish this. He focuses not just on the nuts and bolts of the shop floor, but also on streamlining the support systems needed to achieve this level of service. If you are in high level manufacturing or corporate management, you need to read this book. If you are at a lower level, you will still be exposed to many ideas which you can incorporate into improving your service, to both internal and external customers, and reducing your lead times. I think it ranks right up there with The Goal as one of the most important business books written in the era of modern manufacturing.