Home : Volume 30 : Winter 2004 :
Center for Quick Response Manufacturing celebrates 10th anniversary

Left to right: MSE alumni Adi Wijaya, Okan Gurbuz and Anirban Banerjee review the operation of the first Cell at Varco Systems, a manufacturer of oil drilling equipment in Orange, California. (24K JPG)

Perhaps more than anything, the 10th anniversary of the Center for Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) celebrates a realization. In 1993, Industrial Engineering Professor Rajan Suri established the center in the College of Engineering as a forum to learn the theory and practice of QRM and to help in the transition from the theoretical to the practical. Industry leaders and university faculty formed a partnership to consolidate the discussion and investigation of quick response manufacturing and soon realized that great efficiency, profit and competitive advantage lay hidden in many manufacturing firms.

From an initial core of companies, membership in the center has grown to include more than 30 manufacturers of various sizes, products and locations. Center members have the opportunity to not only remain on the cutting edge of manufacturing, but to create it.

QRM is a companywide strategy to cut lead times in all phases of manufacturing and office operations. It can bring products to market more quickly and secure business prospects by helping manufacturers compete in a rapidly changing manufacturing arena.

Rajan Suri (10K JPG)

Suri says it not only makes a firm more attractive to potential customers; it also increases profitability by reducing non-value-added time, cutting inventory and increasing return on investment.

"Companies have to completely rethink their operations," Suri says. "The reason for this is that historically, manufacturing companies were organized to minimize the unit cost of each operation, not to minimize the time it takes for products to flow through their system. At the QRM Center, we have developed a complete theory of how companies can minimize their response times, even for custom-designed products."

Using QRM strategies, one manufacturer of customized medical equipment reduced its response time from six weeks to three days. Another manufacturer of custom oil drilling equipment reduced its response time for certain products from 75 to four days. As a result, Suri says these companies experienced not only 20-to 40-percent reductions in product costs, but also significant increases in market share.

Trans-Coil, Inc. (TCI), a manufacturer of peripheral products for variable frequency drives and other electronic power conversion equipment, learned of Suri and his work in QRM in 1995. At that time, the market demand for TCI's standard product was exploding and its business and manufacturing processes could not keep pace.

"We were not able to capitalize on our markets' demand for the product and, more importantly, we were not meeting our customers' needs," says Trans-Coil Director of Quality Brian Sobczak. "We implemented QRM methodologies, including bringing operations closer together into product-focused manufacturing cells, cross-training cell members, developing partnerships with key suppliers and streamlining administrative processes. As a result, TCI slashed its lead time 93 percent while improving on-time delivery to more than 99 percent. Our focus throughout the entire process has been on removing time from our business system and increasing customer satisfaction."

The center also boasts of success stories beyond the examples of dramatic improvements in manufacturing efficiency and profit. These are the stories of the Manufacturing System Engineering (MSE) Program's QRM graduates such as Okan Gurbuz, now a manufacturing engineer with Varco International. As a graduate student, Gurbuz says his experience at the Quick Response Manufacturing Center was like a simulation of real life. He visited companies, analyzed their manufacturing systems, and worked with them to improve their effectiveness.

"At the center, we learn that to beat the competition, you have to think outside the box, and do things that are very simple but at the same time powerful enough to gain your company a competitive edge in the market," he says. "Learning how to create a sense of urgency and be persuasive helped advance my career. The center's reputation has also helped. My recommendations and opinions are always respected by the management team at Varco International."

After successfully implementing several QRM cells, the Varco International management team realized that it could achieve even more if it had more staff trained in QRM. So, Gurbuz says, they hired two more MSE/QRM alumni from UW-Madison.

For further information, please see www.QRMcenter.org

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Date last modified: Sunday, 09-May-2004 09:52:00 CDT
Date created: 09-May-2004

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