01
Toyota Lean Manufacturing
As one of the most complex and mature supply chains, the supply chain of the automotive industry is undoubtedly a master in the field of supply chains. When it comes to the supply chain of the automotive industry, one has to mention Toyota Motor; when it comes to Toyota Motor, it must be inseparable from the famous Lean production and JIT mode .
The JIT model was proposed by Kiichiro Toyoda, the second-generation leader of Toyota, after World War II. Inspired by the replenishment system of American supermarkets, it was practiced, applied and perfected by its production supervisor Taiichi Ohno in the Toyota Motor Factory. , has become one of the two most important pillars in Toyota's lean production.
The original intention of the JIT model is to reduce waste in the production process. These wastes are usually manifested as: waste of overproduction, waste of handling, waste of ineffective actions, waste of waiting, waste of over-processing, waste of inventory, waste of defective products .
In order to reduce these wastes (waste cannot be eliminated, it can only be reduced as much as possible), the JIT mode emphasizes on-time, on-quantity, and on-demand production, that is, the necessary parts are sent to the production line in the necessary quantity at the necessary time, and only the required The parts are only sent to the production line in the required quantity and at the exact time needed. What it pursues is a limit state of "zero inventory" of parts.
On time: Neither early nor late.
By volume: neither too much nor too little.
On-demand: That is, the product model is not mistaken.
This on-time, volume-based, and on-demand "zero inventory" supply model greatly reduces inventory waste, waiting waste, and handling waste. Thanks to the JIT model, Toyota successfully surpassed Ford, the largest car brand at that time in the United States, and gradually achieved today's glory.
So how did Toyota achieve the elimination of the source of all evils-inventory waste, and achieve "zero" inventory?
01. Realize the transition from push to pull through kanban management
Make full use of kanban management, adopt the "material picking system", that is, the subsequent process "pulls" each of the previous processes one by one according to the production plan (the production plan comes from the sales plan), and the shortage of WIP in this process is determined from the previous process Take the same amount of work in progress, so as to eliminate all slack points in the production process, realize "no excess inventory" or even "zero inventory" of products, and maximize the effectiveness of the production process.
02. "Pre-replenishment" replenishment mode
Inspired by the principle of replenishment in supermarkets, Toyota invented a replenishment model in which the materials of the automobile production line are consumed first and replenished later, that is, the "post-replenishment" model. In this mode, there is waiting waste, that is, a certain amount of goods need to be stored on the shelf, and due to the inability to accurately judge the consumption of materials, there may be a shortage of goods. With the continuous improvement of management level and the improvement of information technology, the "post-replenishment" mode is gradually replaced by the "pre-replenishment" (accurate replenishment before parts are consumed) replenishment mode. Under the "pre-supplement" mode, usually the sales department and the production department comprehensively balance the relationship between market demand and production factors every month, form the "(monthly) vehicle demand plan" and formulate the "(monthly) production plan", and make the production plan Open to suppliers and logistics providers to carry out things such as material procurement, production organization and logistics route planning in advance.
In this "pre-replenishment" mode, there is no need to respond to production with quantitative inventory, and real JIT supply can be realized. Compared with the "post-replenishment" mode, it can better reflect the lean concept of "zero inventory", but it requires the accuracy of production planning. It is relatively strict, and has relatively high requirements for the management level of vehicle manufacturing and the level of informatization.
03. Transfer inventory to suppliers to achieve "zero inventory" management
Transfer inventory is to use the advantages of the core enterprise to disperse the enterprise's inventory to the upstream or downstream enterprises of the supply chain. Usually in the automobile manufacturing supply chain, the vehicle manufacturer is usually located in the central node of the supply chain. Relying on the advantage of the right to speak in the central node of the supply chain, Toyota Motor usually transfers a large amount of inventory to the parts suppliers of upstream enterprises in the supply chain. Toyota does not need to reserve parts inventory to cope with its complete vehicle production, because companies involved in parts supply will build supporting parts production plants 3 kilometers to 5 kilometers away from Toyota's production plant to ensure accurate delivery to Toyota in the JIT manner On the production line of the factory, such as steel, instrument assembly, etc.; the supplier factory of some parts such as the engine is usually in the same factory area as the Toyota vehicle assembly plant. Car assembly workshop. This tightly coupled supply relationship has helped Toyota achieve "zero inventory" management for most parts. It is precisely because of this industrial chain effect that the implementation of complete vehicle projects will often drive the implementation of a large industrial chain, which has become the focus of local governments' competition for investment.
04. Standardized management
Another important idea of Toyota's lean production is standardization, that is, to achieve unification of repetitive things through the formulation and implementation of standards. Whether it is the "cars on the same track and books on the same text" during the Qin Shihuang period, or the ISO organization in modern society, they all reflect the importance of standardization to human progress. In Toyota's lean production model, the concept of standardization runs through the entire supply chain. For example, in the research and development process, through standardized design of parts of different models, the versatility and interchangeability are improved; in the production process, each process is decomposed to find out the "waste of waiting" and "waste of action" between processes, and continue to Improve the operation process and gradually formulate standardized SOP; in the warehousing and logistics link, through the standardized management of packaging equipment, transportation vehicles, and warehousing operations, a lean logistics system has been formed, such as the uniform use of EU boxes (European standard logistics Boxes) are combined and stacked to form a pallet, forming a standard pallet to improve the stowage efficiency of logistics trucks and reduce logistics costs.
02
"Black Swan" sounded the alarm bell of JIT mode
"Inventory" is the root of all evil. Efforts to reduce inventory to achieve "zero inventory" can be said to be the root of Toyota's JIT. However, since 2020, with the frequent occurrence of black swan events such as global disputes, trade frictions, and the new crown epidemic, the supply chains of various industries have been severely impacted or even completely paralyzed. The interruption of supply chains has brought immeasurable impact on the global economy. loss. The "zero inventory model" has led to a global shortage of parts and components, which has had a serious impact on the production of the upstream and downstream automotive industry chains. The delivery time of new cars has been continuously delayed, so that car companies are buying chips at high prices in the "black market". Even Toyota, which has strong supply chain management capabilities, will not be spared in the end and had to cut its global production by 40% in September. In addition to Toyota, Nissan and Honda, the German duo Volkswagen and Daimler, American GM and Ford, Korean Hyundai and Kia have all lowered their production and sales targets.
It is true that the "chip shortage" is the result of the superposition of multiple factors, but there is no doubt that the ultimate pursuit of "zero inventory" has caused the JIT model to have no power to parry under the extreme supply crisis. Under the impact of the "black swan", the JIT model that was once highly respected in the industry is being shaken, and the just in time that puts benefits first will have to turn to just in case to improve the resilience and elasticity of the supply chain system.
03
Heavy asset enterprise material supply chain
How to learn from the experience and lessons of the automotive supply chain
It is well known that heavy asset enterprises have many types of materials with large differences in value, and their turnover rate is far lower than that of parts in the supply chain of the automobile industry. Therefore, the supply chain management of these materials occupies a very important position in heavy asset enterprises. , it is necessary to support the normal operation of the equipment to ensure the smooth and smooth development of production, and at the same time, it is also facing great pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Of course, no matter how much the "shortage of core" has hit the supply chain of the automotive industry, it cannot be denied that the lean production originated in the automotive industry and the "Bible" status of the JIT model in the manufacturing field, so for the material supply chain of heavy asset enterprises In terms of management, how should we learn from the experience and lessons of the supply chain in the automotive industry?
In general, the material supply chain of the heavy asset industry can be improved from the following four directions.
01. Strengthen safety stock and reserve quota management
From the point of view of the transition from just in time to just in case, for the material supply chain management of the heavy asset industry, it is necessary to give up the buying and buying thinking of "preferring to use" and the pursuit of "zero inventory". Limit concept. In fact, even under Toyota’s JIT mode, there is no inventory at all. Usually, in order to deal with the existing quality problems of parts and defective products produced in the production and assembly process, it is necessary to store a small number of parts in the parts shed on the side of the production line. As the saying goes, "There is food in the warehouse, don't panic in your heart", especially for key equipment spare parts, strategic reserves should be properly carried out to prepare for emergencies.
Of course, giving up the pursuit of "zero inventory" does not mean giving up the concept of lean management. The reserve of spare parts should neither be unavailable nor random, and a reasonable amount should be reserved, that is, quota management. With the continuous reduction of inventory in recent years, the space for inventory reduction has gradually been reduced to the limit. In the future, the focus of material inventory management of heavy assets will no longer be limited to the reduction of overall inventory, but will pay more attention to the inventory structure. The optimization and subdivision management of categories, so as to realize the transformation from total inventory reduction to inventory quality improvement, and the management of reserve quotas for categories will be one of the important starting points for undertaking this transformation.
02. Strengthen supplier collaboration and promote the VMI model
As mentioned above, in heavy asset enterprises, some of their spare parts have high value and low turnover, which occupy a large amount of working capital. For the management of such materials, it is recommended to strengthen the coordination and cooperation with the upstream and downstream of the supply chain, and cooperate with suppliers Explore the VMI inventory management model, open the equipment inspection and maintenance plan or demand forecast plan to suppliers, and suppliers will make their own judgments based on the inspection and maintenance plan or based on the forecast plan and replenish the VMI warehouse. In this way, asset-heavy enterprises can have no or less inventory, so as to reduce their own inventory amount, and then reach or approach zero inventory. Of course, this inventory management method has certain limitations. The reduction of its own inventory will often lead to an increase in other costs. For example, the purchase price under the VMI mode will be higher than the price under the conventional procurement method. In addition, for companies that do not have a dominant position in the supply chain, they usually cannot gain the trust of suppliers. Therefore, accurate forecasting and excellent coordination must be used to reduce material inventory.
03. Apply the intelligent application mode to explore the storage and consignment business
For the management of low-value consumables and other categories of heavy asset enterprises, we can learn from Toyota's "pre-replenishment" replenishment model, introduce intelligent material shelves, such as picking cabinets, parts vending machines, and carry out storage with suppliers In the consignment business model, smart shelves such as picking cabinets are placed on the production site, and the Internet of Things technology is used to realize real-time picking and settlement, so as to realize zero inventory, zero process and unmanned management of low-value consumable materials. In this way, the materials do not occupy the inventory of the heavy asset enterprise, and the inventory is owned by the supplier, and the heavy asset enterprise can get it as it is used, so that the inventory can be transferred to the supplier to reduce its own inventory cost.
04. Carry out standardized operations
Drawing on Toyota Motor’s experience in standardization, asset-heavy enterprises can explore the standardized design of spare parts in the R&D and design stage in the material supply chain management. The material management department, the business production department, and the technology research and development department jointly conduct standardized discussions on the design of the oil casing; in the warehouse resource management link, you can explore standardized warehouse operation services, such as classifying and classifying warehouse resources. Implement corresponding informatization transformation by category to form standardized warehouse management. For example, for group-type heavy asset enterprises, the storage resources (warehousing, material shed, and storage yard) range from hundreds to thousands, and standardized warehouse operations It can maximize the effectiveness of limited financial and human resources, and concentrate resource advantages on the management of core storage resources.
Summarize
Although the global supply chain has become accustomed to responding to "black swan" events under the background of frequent black swan events, the supply chain still faces too many uncertainties. Fully absorbing the supply chain experience and lessons of the automotive industry can help to rebuild The asset industry avoids detours in the field of material supply chain management. On the road of pursuing cost reduction, efficiency improvement and quality improvement, it can grasp the main contradiction, avoid blind pursuit of cost reduction and inventory reduction, and realize the transformation from just in time to just in The transformation of the case can calmly deal with the risks under extreme supply, further strengthen the flexibility and resilience of the material management supply chain, and provide a solid guarantee for asset-heavy enterprises to ensure supply and stable production.