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Branch news: London and Southern Branch - Visit to BOC Edwards - Industry sectors Article
The article entitled: "Branch news: London and Southern Branch - Visit to BOC Edwards" is in the Industry sectors Articles section of Operations Management Papers area...
ARTICLE DESCRIPTION: BOC Edwards supply vacuum systems, vacuum components, process gases and abatement systems to a broad range of industries including semiconductor, scientific instruments and healthcare.The majority of the company’s manufacturing is based in Sussex, with 80% exported to regions including the USA, Japan and South East Asia.
MORE INFO: Branch news: London and Southern Branch - Visit to BOC Edwards BOC Edwards supply vacuum systems, vacuum components, process gases and abatement systems to a broad range of industries including semiconductor, scientific instruments and healthcare.The majority of the company’s manufacturing is based in Sussex, with 80% exported to regions including the USA, Japan and South East Asia. Around 20 IOM members took part in an excellent tour around the company’s High Speed Machines plant at Burgess Hill; hosted by Andy Marsh, Nick Haste and IOM member Amanda Jones. This is a modern manufacturing facility, which includes advanced CNC machining, clean room assembly and test. Internal material flow is facilitated by an optimised layout and entirely regulated by Kanbans; using red-amber-green operator prioritisation. Supplier replenishment is by direct line feed, regulated by faxbans and medium term forecasts. A presentation by Global Business Manager Alan Purvis and Master Operations Planner Damian Bates provided members with a broader appreciation of the company’s business environment and its unique approach to planning and control. BOC Edward’s biggest single market is the semi-conductor industry, where the company supplies vacuum systems to OEMs, including Applied Materials, and directly to microchip fabrication plants operated by companies including Intel, Samsung and tsmc. Alan explained that demand in this sector is extremely volatile, ‘Chip producers all invest or all stop investing’. Consequently semi-conductor sector demand can double or halve over a three-month period; with company profitability extremely sensitive to decisions taken in demand-supply management. Customers are extremely demanding as they face severe revenue penalties for fabrication plant downtime. The company has therefore invested a considerable amount of money and expertise into systems for demand chain management. Damian Bates explained that the company employs SAP enterprise software for the order processing and available-to-promise (ATP) end of its demand chain with i2’s advanced planning system employed to facilitate global demand chain planning. Manufacturing planning and control has been considerably simplified through the company’s lean manufacturing programme and the principle of ‘eyeball shop control’-originally pioneered by the company’s present CEO ‘Raj’ Rajagopal some 20 years ago. Consequently master production schedules are developed in i2 and simply communicated to final assembly, with plans implemented through Kanban replenishment and without the need for MRP. The company operates a daily planning system, with the global orders consolidated overnight and fed into the supply chain planning system. Plant Operations Planners are aware of the global orders and inventory position for their products, and take decisions according to well developed business rules that ensure: an achievable manufacturing plan (so that ATP dates are achieved), minimal use of airfreight, and with actual customer orders prioritised over global safety stock and forecast requirements. The medium term supply chain planning process is monthly, and involves a feedback loop to consider forecast variance: in aggregate, by territory and by product. Alan commented that whilst the aggregate variance is in the region of +/-10%, it is much greater at territory and product levels. The company develop a rolling three month capacity plan which considers: overtime and recruitment, re-deployment, air or sea, tooling requirements, supplier issues, the outlook for product availability and the flexibility to cope with stock orders. London and Southern Region members expressed their thanks to Alan and his team for an excellent factory tour and for a clear and comprehensive account of a very sophisticated planning system. Peter McCullen, MIOM Brighton Business School
PUBLISHER: Institute of Operations Management
Page number: 7 Word count: 450
Vol 31 - No 03 - May 2005
The article can be downloaded in full from the publisher's site i.e. the Institute of Operations Management.
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