Sequenced Manufacturing: The Path From Weekly Loads to Just-In-Time

Transitioning from weekly loads to JIT may seem impossible when you are a very high-volume manufacturer of multi-level electronic assemblies with many,many successful years of building to weekly time buckets. Gradually, though, these types of businesses are coming to realize that the inherent long leadtimes and high work in-process inventories associated with level-by-level manufacturing to weekly loads can no longer be tolerated if the business is to remain competitive. JIT with its promises of reduced inventories, reduced leadtimes, and improved quality becomes an obvious solution to the problem, but the task of making the drastic change can seem overwhelming. The concept of sequenced manufacturing is presented as a technique for making the transition in a controlled, continuous improvement manner.