How manufacturing practices vary across the world

How manufacturing practices vary across the world are as diversified as the practices themselves.Many countries manufacture the same way.Some countries like Japan and the USA have become pioneers in some manufacturing practices.Nearly every country manufactures and will use a variety of manufacturing methods for different products.The manufacturing practices that vary across the world vary because of businesses more than because of country.There are 20 well-known manufacturing practices that are used in many countries and for many different businesses across the world.

1. Lead Time Reduction is a plant-wide initiative to measure and continually reduce lead times. Non-value-adding steps in the manufacturing process are gradually eliminated and dock-to-dock velocity is increasing.
2. Streamlined Flow is where appropriate, a demand-based flow or "pull" production strategy is adopted, using demand flow techniques, to produce to order rather than to stock.
3. Quick Changeovers are the manufacturing practices that are employed to increase equipment availability and respond quickly and economically to changing schedules and customer needs.
4. Focused Factories are where the facility is structured into product- or customer-focused work groups housing all operations to manufacture a family of products. Office operations are similarly structured to increase accountability, response time and quality while reducing inventories and backlogs.
5. Empowered Teams are manufacturing practices where employees are multi-skilled members of motivated, capable work groups with clear roles, responsibilities and performance standards.
6. Cross-Functional Teamwork, here there is a high level of teamwork and coordination between organizational units and strong internal customer-supplier relationships.
7. Associate Involvement and Commitment is when shop floor employees routinely solve problems, suggest and implement improvements and are committed to world-class performance.
8. Process Reliability is where a formalized system is in place to maximize equipment uptime and reduce variation in product quality. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) measures are at world-class levels.
9. Continuous Improvement involves employees that are engaged in CI and/or Kaizen Events on a regular basis. All teams meet to set goals, solve operating problems and implement corrective action.
10. In-Process Quality, is a manufacturing practice where product quality is built-in at the operating level. Employees have the ability and the authority to make product quality decisions in process and quality management tools (SPC, error-proofing, etc.) are in place.
11. Seamless Shift Operations is the practice where continuity, consistency and communication are maintained across shifts. An effective 24-hour management system provides the necessary support for all shifts. Shift schedules satisfy both operational and employee needs.
12. Standard Operating Procedures is when the manufacturing plant is ISO (or QS) certified. Operating procedures and quality standards are consistent and a formalized process is used to ensure sustainability.
13. Goal Deployment is when the key performance indicators and shop floor goals are in place for each area, developed at the operating level and tied directly to plant goals.
14. Visual Management Systems are manufacturing practices where plant and team scoreboards and other visual means of controlling and improving operations are used throughout the plant. Operational status information is available quickly and accurately to anyone who needs it.
15. Incentives, Rewards and Recognition, this a manufacturing practice where there is an effective incentive and recognition system that promotes continuous improvement and rewards outstanding individual, team and plant performance.
16. Plant Safety, Loss Prevention and Housekeeping is where effective training and awareness, thorough incident investigations and a 5S organization program ensure an orderly, efficient and safe workplace.This is a greatly used manufacturing practice in the USA.
17. High-Performance Leadership requires all levels of plant leadership to provide coaching, training and mentoring to subordinates, encouraging peak performance and employee involvement.
18. Supplier Partnerships this practice enables the organization collaborates with a few key certified suppliers to continuously improve material cost, quality and delivery, benefiting all involved.
19. Cross-training and Multi-skilling in each area of manufacturing provides the needed flexibility. Training of all personnel, including the plant leadership team, is a key priority.
20. World-Class Performance Measures is a practice where performance metrics measure performance against world-class standards, are generated and controlled by shop floor personnel and are successful in rallying the entire organization toward higher performance levels.

There manufacturing practices that are used across the world are used in the various countries, and in the various companies.There are companies based in one country that will have manufacturing plants in another country and these companies may use different manufacturing practices in the different countries.How manufacturing practices vary across the world are by the manufacturing practices used by the diverse companies across the world.