{"id":2443,"date":"2023-12-07T00:04:15","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T00:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/?page_id=2443"},"modified":"2023-12-07T00:04:15","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T00:04:15","slug":"full-kit-application","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/keypractices.viagointernational.com\/?page_id=2443","title":{"rendered":"Full Kit Application"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sick of it!\u201d Tina threw her hands up in the air and glared at Axton. \u201cI\u2019ve had enough. We\u2019ve got bits of houses everywhere out in the factory. They\u2019re even stacked on top of each other, and there\u2019s some outside under the lean-to as well! We can\u2019t work on half of them, and the ones we can work on progress slowly because we have to move everything we are working on around the traffic jam of houses clogging up our factory! And now you\u2019re telling me we have to fast-build these three next week? Not gonna happen! Stop making ridiculous demands! We\u2019re going as fast as we can already.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axton held up a hand and ducked, hoping to calm Tina down before she launched into another of her infamous rants. \u201cWoah, woah, Tina, calm down! I didn\u2019t mean anything by it, OK? I know you\u2019re doing everything you can. I was just saying that the schedule said they would be finished this week, and the customer \u2013\u201c He didn\u2019t have time to finish before Tina exploded again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStuff the schedule! The schedule doesn\u2019t match reality! I don\u2019t even know why we bother with it! We can only work on the jobs we have the BOM (Bill of Materials) for, right? If we don\u2019t have the bits for the jobs on the schedule, we can\u2019t just pull them out of our\u2026 well, we can\u2019t pull them out of nowhere! We\u2019ll finish them when the supplier gets their\u2026 uh, gets into gear and ships our stuff. When that happens, I promise you I\u2019ll pull everyone off everything else and finish those jobs first. Until then, though, we should carry on with the jobs we can make progress with, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That made Axton pause for a moment. Axton was the new operations manager at Tiny House Builders (THB for short), and it was his job to make sure that their tiny houses got completed on schedule. Part of that meant he also did the purchasing, and he knew maintaining relationships with their suppliers was an important aspect of keeping the jobs flowing through the factory. Tina, however, was the lead supervisor of the assembly teams which actually constructed the tiny houses from the prefabricated components he purchased. If the parts she needed weren\u2019t available that was his fault, not hers, and he couldn\u2019t deny that she had a point. Surely it would be better to have her assembly teams doing something productive while they were waiting for the missing components to arrive, wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axton nodded slowly. \u201cI can see what you\u2019re saying,\u201d he began cautiously, hoping not to trigger another outburst from the irritated woman in front of him. \u201cI get it. You need to keep the completion rate up, so you move your teams onto other jobs while you wait. That makes sense. The thing is, though, our scheduled jobs are getting later and later while we\u2019re waiting for the components. Once the components show up, we have to expedite, and switching everyone to expedite the late jobs\u2026 well, it makes a mess. Our predictions as to timings and sequences get completely messed up.\u2019 We don\u2019t know how long each job will actually take or in which order they\u2019ll get completed, which makes it impossible to keep our short lead time promises. Would it be possible to just stop work and focus on clearing whatever the missing thing is for a job, then carry on with that job and finish it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHah!\u201d Tina shook her head emphatically. \u201cNo. Not a chance. If I do that, I\u2019ll have my teams doing your job, they will be busy chasing up missing components and not actually finishing anything. We would finish even fewer jobs! At least this way we\u2019re finishing some jobs on time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it was Axton\u2019s turn to look exasperated. \u201cWe\u2019re finishing some jobs on time,\u201d he said reiterating Tina\u2019s statement, \u201cbut they\u2019re not the jobs we expected to have finished, and they\u2019re not finished in the sequence we expected. It doesn\u2019t look good to customers when they ask when their tiny house will be ready, and we\u2019re forced to say we don\u2019t know!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They glared at each other for a moment before Tina looked away with a shrug. \u201cThe whole issue wouldn\u2019t come up if the BOM was on hand when we started the work,\u201d she said. \u201cBut as you know, when the due date gets close, we have to start jobs, whether we\u2019ve got everything or not. And sometimes, we find that the components we need for the job are on back order, were ordered late\u2026 or (looking pointedly at Axton) weren\u2019t ordered at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axton winced. That was directed at him, and he couldn\u2019t honestly say Tina\u2019s complaint was unjustified. \u201cOK,\u201d he said reluctantly, \u201cthat\u2019s fair. Maybe there\u2019s some room for improvement with getting components in proactively. But I\u2019ll need some help from you about that, OK?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tina held her tongue, giving Axton the chance to share his plan. \u201cWhen we get an order, you need to check what\u2019s needed for the order, see what we\u2019re missing, and tell me so I\u2019ve got at least a chance of getting the components before you start work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tina shook her head. \u201cYou want me to start doing your job as well as mine? Forget it. That\u2019s purchasing\u2019s job, and if they\u2019ve got too much to do then Student Job Search always has some keen youngsters available.\u201d She didn\u2019t seem as angry as before, though, which was a profound relief. \u201cWhat I will do,\u201d she said, \u201cis take you on a walk through the factory, so you can see which jobs are waiting for parts. And we\u2019ll check all the orders we currently have and see what we\u2019re missing for them. I\u2019ll get back to you about that tomorrow, OK?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the benefits of building tiny houses was that the components were fairly standardised, so there weren\u2019t thousands of unique pieces needed. Tina\u2019s checks wouldn\u2019t take too long to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u201cThanks,\u201d Axton said sincerely. \u201cLet\u2019s do that walk-through now. I\u2019m really interested to see what is not showing up in my reports. Tina, Once I get back, I\u2019ll see what I can do about changing how we communicate with suppliers and see if we can get them to move faster.\u201d As they walked out of his office, Axton sighed. One argument had just ended, but he felt sure he was there would be more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the month, Axton\u2019s work was starting to show results. Axton had created what he called a prerequisite clearing board. Each card on it represented a job, and there was a list on each card of the prerequisites which had to be cleared before the job could be completed. Anything tagged in green was already cleared, anything written in black was in progress but hadn\u2019t cleared yet, and anything in red hadn\u2019t been ordered yet. Most of the prerequisites were components from various suppliers – bathroom kit sets, wall panelling, insulation, window kits, that sort of thing. Any cards with red on them were left in a space on the left of the board. Once a card had nothing red on it, Axton moved it to the date on the calendar when he expected the last black prerequisite to clear. Once a card was completely green; it was moved to a space on the right of the board. Any of those jobs could be run from start to finish, without having to stop because something was missing, and those were the jobs Tina chose from when selecting what her teams would work on next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t perfect, as Axton would be the first to admit. Updating the board took time in which he could be doing something else, and some of the suppliers where hard to get hold of. Axton knew they would need to move to some sort of computerised system if the company grew. But he was a pretty visual kind of guy, and while he was working this out it helped him to be able to see everything and how it all related to each other. Moving the cards around made it feel a bit more real, somehow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearing the prerequisites was mostly a matter of arranging things with suppliers, and that hadn\u2019t been free from problems either. Axton had been forced to engage with and start ordering from suppliers THB didn\u2019t have as favourable terms of trade with, and in some cases didn\u2019t buy enough from to qualify for a trade account. It was working, but it wasn\u2019t yet ideal. However, Axton had made a point of talking to their suppliers more often and sharing the \u2018wins\u2019 that the new arrangements had allowed, and that seemed to be making them more willing to cooperate with his requests. Axton was sure the yelling frustration coming from the purchasing office had reduced. They were definitely starting to get in front of the problems. Admittedly, there was still one supplier that had a long lead time, and Axton still had work to do there as he didn\u2019t want to hold lots of stock either. Axton could imagine a time coming when they would have to reorganise their supply agreements again, but for the moment it was good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Good enough, in this case, meant that a lot of the issues he and Tina had talked about had reduced in severity. The timing and sequence of job completions had become more reliable \u2013 not perfect, yet, but they could see it was moving in the right direction. Increasingly often, jobs were getting started and finished without having to pause to wait for components, which meant that internal lead times were starting to trend downwards too. Finally, Tina had pointed out another, unexpected, benefit \u2013 having fewer partially-completed houses sitting around had made it easier and quicker to move things around in the factory and storage spaces, which meant less damage was occurring and her people were able to spend more time \u2018on-the-tools.\u2019 Work was flowing smoother and, Tina reckoned, a bit faster too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All in all, working towards having a \u2018full kit\u2019 for each job that got started had made life a lot easier for Axton and Tina, and everyone else who worked at Tiny Home Builders. It meant that Axton had time to look at some other issues that had been troubling him \u2013 like the way jobs always seemed to pile up in front of the electricians, for example. It would be interesting to find out what was happening there\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sick of it!\u201d Tina threw her hands up in the air and glared at Axton. \u201cI\u2019ve had enough. We\u2019ve got bits of houses everywhere out in the factory. They\u2019re even stacked on top of each other, and there\u2019s some outside under the lean-to as well! We can\u2019t work on half of them, and …<\/p>\n

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