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A
Focused Factory strives for a
narrow range of products, customers and processes. The result is a
factory that is smaller, simpler and totally focused on one or two Key
Manufacturing Tasks.
Wickham
Skinner lists several features of Focused Factories. For
more on this, see
Focused
Factory Characteristics.
The
Focused Factory rests on three underlying concepts:
-
There
are many ways to compete besides low cost.
-
A
factory cannot perform well on every measure.
-
Simplicity
& repetition bring competence.
At
Strategos, we have seen the effects of focus- customer satisfaction,
lower cost and less frustration. Several
researchers have documented these effects with quantitative
studies.
Key
Manufacturing Tasks
Skinner's
research suggests that a particular factory
can excel with no more than one or two overall objectives. These
might be quality, delivery reliability, response time, low cost,
customization, short life cycle products, or another competitive
dimension.
The
Key Manufacturing Task(s) is the most important thing the factory must
do or achieve for success. Terry Hill, in his book "Manufacturing
Strategy" shows how to identify the Key Manufacturing Task(s)
and link it to marketing and corporate strategies.
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 Wickham
Skinner is considered the father of Manufacturing
Strategy. His book "Manufacturing In The Corporate
Strategy", published in 1978, set out the
principles on which most other work has been based. His
seminal article "The Focused Factory"
was published in The Harvard Business Review in 1974 and is
still available from Amazon.com.
Dr.
Skinner, a graduate of Yale, is an emeritus professor at
Harvard University, where he taught and researched in the
field of industrial management. Dr. Skinner has published
three books, co-authored ten case books, and has written
extensively for business magazines and journals.
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Why
Factories Lose Focus
Some
factories are unfocused originally because designers fail to recognize
the limits and constraints of technologies and systems.
Other
factories are highly focused at first but lose it over time. Several
forces and factors diffuse the original focus. Among these
are:
A
Broader View of Focus
In
recent years, we have extended Skinner's concept. The strategic
question is: "by what criteria shall we
divide our space, people and machines into manageable work
units?" A future issue of Lean Briefing will explore
this in more detail.
"The
focused factory will out-produce, undersell, and quickly gain
competitive edge over the complex factory."
-Wickham
Skinner
The
Focused Factory Series
Characteristics of Focused Factories
Key Manufacturing Task
Focused Factory Example
Benefits
Plant-Within-Plant
Reader Comments
HAYES,
ROBERT H. and WHEELWRIGHT, STEVEN C., Restoring Our Competitive Edge,
John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1984.
HILL,
TERRY, Manufacturing Strategy, Macmillan, London, 1985.
LEE,
QUARTERMAN,
"How To Optimize Manufacturing Focus", Managing
Technology Today, Vol. 1, No. 5, September/October, 1992.
LEE,
QUARTERMAN, "Manufacturing Focus - A Comprehensive View",
Operations Management Association (OMA) Conference Proceedings,
Warwick, England, June, 1990.
SKINNER,
WICKHAM, Manufacturing In The Corporate Strategy", John Wiley
& Sons, New York, 1978
SKINNER,
WICKHAM, Manufacturing: The Formidable Competitive Weapon, John Wiley
& Sons, New York, 1985.
SKINNER,
WICKHAM, The Focused Factory, Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1974.
STALK,
GEORGE and HOUT, THOMAS, Competing Against Time, The Free Press, New
York, 1990.
WRENNALL,
WILLIAM, AND LEE, QUARTERMAN, Handbook of Commercial and Industrial
Facilities Management, McGraw Hill, August, 1993. |
