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a case study
A. Gunasekaran
Department of Management, University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth,
Massachusetts, USA
E. Tirtiroglu
Department of Management, University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth,
Massachusetts, USA
V. Wolstencroft
Gosport, UK
Figure 1
Response time to customer enquiries ± new build (GECMAe)
Figure 2
Response time to customer enquiries ± prime spares (GECMAe)
[ 432 ]
A. Gunasekaran, the work-in-process (WIP) as well. production. The company rearranged the
E. Tirtiroglu and GECMAe can also dramatically improve machines in order to have a dedicated
V. Wolstencroft production line for each family of parts
Gap between production and its volume, without sacrificing variety, by
marketing functions: going from process layout to cellular and products. The layout has been
a case study layout. U-shaped in order to support the
Management Decision . It should be noted that group technology teamwork for improved productivity. In
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has somewhat lesser product flexibility the beginning, there has been resistance
than process layout, but this does not on the shopfloor to the changes, as people
affect the products that are already well feared downsizing to ensue. Regular
established. The process layout could still workshops and meetings have been
be kept, dedicated to the new products organized to make sure there is no
that require more flexibility, and hence misunderstanding about the change in the
facilitate agility in the area of newbuild layout and the implementation of
Figure 3
Adherence to manufacturing schedule (GECMAe)
Figure 4
Customer compalints (GECMAe)
Figure 5
Reasons for bid loss (GECMAe)
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A. Gunasekaran, manufacturing cells. Also, training has GECMAe has implemented some of the above
E. Tirtiroglu and been provided to the implementation team suggestions, except that some of them have
V. Wolstencroft
Gap between production and in order for the team members to develop been partially implemented. The major
marketing functions: an understanding of the new grouping of challenges during the course of various
a case study parts and machines with the objective of change processes in GECMAe are:
Management Decision having production lines for each family of . top management support with financial
40/5 [2002] 428±435
products and parts. Various performance and technical aspects;
measures, such as manufacturing cycle
. identifying the areas for improvement
time and inventory level (including with change processes;
defective rates), have been introduced/
. establishment of core implementation
monitored or given emphasis. team; and
. Kanbans can smooth out the flow of work
. education and training on the new
at GECMAe (Slack et al., 1995). The methods of manufacturing and
technologies including BPR,
kanban system would work very well with
manufacturing cells, and kanban.
cellular manufacturing, as it is more
suited to higher volume production GECMAe has invested in two major areas:
(Schonberger, 1982). 1 people; and
. Another interesting observation from the 2 information technology.
case study is that, even with late
Education and training have become crucial
deliveries, high prices, and slow response
for making employees participate in the
to changes in the market, customers still
change process. IT, such as CAD/CAM, the
come to GECMAe. This suggests that the
Internet and WWW have helped to develop
key factors of importance to the customer teamwork for implementing the above
consist of other attributes, such as (recommended) changes. Performance
reliability and durability (since one is measures and metrics have been developed to
dealing with aeroplanes). Perhaps the encourage reward for contribution to the
customers are dealing with GECMAe change process and obtain co-operation.
purely because of the prestige of the These two areas are essential for any change
company. Improvements must be made process. Furthermore, GECMAe has invested
now in order to maintain this competitive in developing suppliers.
advantage. Otherwise, with competition
becoming increasingly intense, if the
company rests on its laurels it will be 5. Conclusions
marginalised.
. The data collected from the gap analysis In this paper, an attempt has been made to
have led to the conclusion that cost is a study the gap between marketing and
production in the context of a case study from
key parameter for both production (the
the real world of business. The case study,
company) and, more importantly, the
conducted at GECMAe, an aerospace
customer. Since cost is the primary issue,
company, was used to add a real industrial
then one should be in the mode of
perspective; thus, it provided a basis for
``thinking lean.'' To reduce costs, along
assessing and discussing the implementation
with cellular manufacturing, adoption of
of gap analysis. It also highlighted some
other valuable concepts and technologies,
important problems currently arising within
such as the following, should also be GACMAe, especially with regard to
considered: BPR, JIT, CE, DfM, improving manufacturing performance.
CAD/CAM, modularization/ The main contribution of the paper lies in
standardization, rapid prototyping, and how a simple methodology such as ``gap
QFD (Gunasekaran et al., 2002). analysis'' can be used to identify the
. Application of BPR to identify and inconsistency between marketing and
eliminate hand-offs/non-value-adding production. This methodology has been
activities to save money at GECMAe applied to a large-scale company, and the
(Hammer, 1990; Hammer and Champy, lessons learned from the case study would be
1993; Hammer and Stanton, 1995). useful to other companies.
. Establish an alternative to performance- GECMAe has always been successful in
related pay that will keep employees implementing the right technologies and
motivated and encourage teamwork at concepts at the right time. There are,
GECMAe. however, many changes that are currently
. Develop cross-functional teams to taking place at GECMAe, as well. The
eliminate dissimilarities between ``change team'' has been set up to investigate
marketing and production. current manufacturing problems. Much
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A. Gunasekaran, work has been carried out to improve the Gunasekaran, A., Tirtiroglu, E. and
E. Tirtiroglu and training and education of employees, and the Wolstenscroft, V. (2002), ``An investigation
V. Wolstencroft pilot introduction of kanbans and cellular into the application of agile manufacturing in
Gap between production and
marketing functions: manufacturing has been most successful. an aerospace company'', Technovation,
a case study Changes are being made in light of the forthcoming.
Management Decision overall business perspective and the market. Hammer, M. (1990), ``Reengineering work: don't
40/5 [2002] 428±435 GECMAe has the right philosophy, in that, automate, obliterate'', Harvard Business
there is no point buying the latest technology Review, Vol. 68 No. 4, July/August, pp. 104-12.
if re-engineering or efficiency improvements Hammer, M. and Champy, J. (1993), Reengineering
can achieve the same desired end result. BPR the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business
is a powerful concept that has proved to Resolution, Harper Business, New York, NY.
produce some impressive increases in Hammer, M. and Stanton, S. (1995), The
productivity. At GECMAe, not many Reengineering Revolution, Harper Collins,
employees have heard of BPR; however, New York, NY.
unaware of it and inadvertently, they use Kim, Y. and Lee, J. (1993), ``Manufacturing
many BPR ideas, improving business strategy and production systems: an
processes and reducing the numbers of hand- integrated framework'', Journal of Operations
offs in the spirit of best practice more than Management, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 3-15.
anything else. Moon, M.A., Mentzer, J.T. and Thomas, D.E. Jr
(2000), ``Customer demand planning at Lucent
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