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Product Manufacturing Decision

A product may be ready to build. Is the business ready to produce it?
Product manufacturing decisions turn a product design into a production setup that can deliver the required volume, quality and cost.

How and where should we manufacture the product to meet cost, quality, capacity and delivery targets?

  • Prepare

    • Understand product specifications and expected demand

    • Compare plants, production processes and capacity options

    • Assess tooling, equipment, investment and workforce needs

    • Evaluate manufacturing cost, quality risks and lead times

    • Identify product-design or sourcing constraints that affect production

  • Make

    • In which plant should the product be manufactured?

    • Which manufacturing process and production approach should we use?

    • Which products and configurations should each plant produce?

    • Which investments and capacity should we approve?

    • What cost, quality, output and lead-time targets should we commit to?

    • Is the product and production process ready for industrialization?

  • Execute

    • Establish the production process, tooling and equipment

    • Prepare routings, work instructions and quality controls

    • Verify that the process can produce the approved product consistently

    • Release the product and production process

    • Ramp up production and resolve implementation issues

  • Measure

    • Is actual manufacturing cost meeting the approved standard cost?

    • Are productivity and quality improvements delivering the planned margin?

    • Is manufacturing equipment delivering the expected return on investment?

    • Are capacity and asset utilization supporting profitable growth?

    • Are scrap, rework and inventory within the approved business case?

    • Is working capital developing as expected during ramp-up?

  • Related standard and lifecycle processes

    • ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288: System lifecycle processes, including production within the lifecycle scope

    • ISO 9001: Operational Planning and Control; Production and Service Provision; Identification and Traceability; Control of Changes; Release of Products and Services; Control of Nonconforming Outputs

    • ISO 10007: Configuration and change control where manufacturing changes affect the product definition

Example

Manufacturing and Industrialization

Prepare: Can the new product be manufactured in Plant A at the required volume, quality and target cost of €X per unit?

Make: Should Plant A, the proposed manufacturing process and required investment be approved, with €X per unit as the expected standard cost?

Execute: Install tooling and equipment, establish and verify the production process, and ramp up production.

Measure: After ramp-up, are we producing at €85 per unit with the expected quality, capacity and lead time?

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