Initial Situation
Pumps Inc. is an internationally active company in the industrial goods industry. The company generates the majority of its annual turnover of €2.4 billion with the sale of pump systems for various applications.
The sales department at Pumps Inc. complains of unreliable delivery commitments from production. From the head of production, you learn about their high flexibility due to their arrangement as a workshop production facility. Almost all products can be manufactured on all machines. However, in some cases there are long queues in front of the machines.
You are commissioned by the board to analyze processes production to increase delivery reliability and discuss possible causes with them. The technical board member believes that the products are not aligned with the optimal resources in production, in response to which the head of production provides you with a product-process matrix for detailed analysis..
More Information
• Pumps Inc. offers customers 5 different pumps.
• All pumps go through 3 process steps – “mechanical production,” “electrical production,” and “surface treatment” – before being sent to assembly.
• For Pump S (only), the mechanical & electrical components are purchased, which means those two steps are omitted.
• For technological reasons, Pump L can only be produced on the small “mechanical production” machine.
• For technological reasons, Pump M cannot be produced on Machine 2 in “electrical production”.
• Moreover, you have confirmed requirements for the next year for each product from the sales department.
Questions and Potential Solutions
For Pumps Inc., you have to deal with various issues and develop solutions. We look forward to seeing how you would help Pumps Inc. with their challenges.