Time Out: Using Visible Pull Systems to Drive Process Improvement (National Association of Manufacturers),New

Time Out introduces a revolutionary process, Visible Pull, for integrating the new worldclass management tools aimed at cycle time reduction, quality improvement, and optimum customer service. Many leading companiesDuPont, Union Carbide, and International Specialty Chemicalshave seen significant benefits from its application. Typical benefits have included a 10 to 20 percent gain in capacity, a 30 to 40 percent reduction in inventory, a 50 percent reduction in cycle time, and more. In this authoritative new book, one of Visible Pull's pioneers describes the development of Visible Pull and lays out a detailed roadmap for applying it to your own unique business. With thirty years of handson experience, Wayne Smith knows the obstacles that can impede improvement in a plant. Here, he outlines the changes in philosophy and behavior that must take place before progress can be made. Smith differentiates between the traditional, inefficient 'push' scheduling, where forecasts are made and everyone pushes material forward to meet the schedule, and the Pull Systems, which limit and control production based on downstream demand. With Visible Pull, workstations act in concert with one another, which in turn enables the company to better allocate resources, build a culture of teamwork, and link timeonline to business goals.In a series of five logical, carefully structured segments, Smith takes you stepbystep through the entire Visible Pull process, including: Making the Decisionhelps you decide if Visible Pull is appropriate for your organization through a highlevel overview of its goals, resource requirements, and potential benefits Assessing and Planningexplains how to identify and assess opportunities for improvement, choose the right tools, and develop a specific plan for change Pull Systemsdemonstrates how to use Pull Systems as the primary tool for managing time in a process and how to apply them to your specific environment Visible Management and Continuous Improvementdescribes how to use Pull Systems to institute an ongoing improvement process, build employee involvement, measure your organization's evolving capabilities, and guide your future growth.Replete with examples drawn from the experience of worldclass manufacturers, Time Out includes a full range of simulation techniques, as well as detailed, realworld application methods set within the context of an integrated enterprise.Designed for manufacturing, operations, and distribution managers, supervisors, team leaders, design engineers, and others concerned with manufacturing processes, Time Out offers an immediate and unprecedented opportunity for truly breakthrough improvement.Time Out offers a detailed roadmap for dramatically improving manufacturing cycle time in your company by using Visible Pull Systems to integrate and focus the complex array of competing management techniques. The book details how worldclass businesses like DuPont, Union Carbide, and others have benefited from implementing cycle time techniques and how you can draw from the toolbox to meet your company's unique needs. With Visible Pull, companies learn how to maximize the use of their manufacturing workstations, allocate resources better, and link timeonline to business goals. With a full range of realworld examples, simulation techniques, and application methods, Time Out offers manufacturing managers, supervisors, engineers, and others a dynamic new way of raising overall manufacturing performance.'Wayne Smith has an obvious depth of technical and conceptual knowledge together with a breadth of manufacturing experience rarely found these days. Our members know the genuine article when they see it and Wayne Smith is asked back after every presentation.'William H. King, President, AME Northeast Region.'The principles set forward in this book apply to every plant. Wayne Smith describes the basic principles of cycle time reduction, Visible Pull Systems, and bottleneck identifica