Accelerate! Your Results
When an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) measures the success of its supplier relationships, it nearly always comes down to three basic criteria: price, quality and delivery time. It wants a quality product, at a reasonable price, as quickly as possible. No surprise there. But what happens when one of those benchmarks — delivery time — is systematically improved? It can not only decrease manufacturing critical-path time (MCT), but also improve quality and simultaneously lower the price. The challenge is, how does an OEM encourage its suppliers to use lean principles to identify areas where they can improve and then implement those changes? Visionary OEMs are willing to share investments in streamlining their partner businesses, and forward-thinking suppliers seek open analysis of their processes and costs to the OEM, developing a good working relationship into a collaboration with real business potential.
This is where the Accelerate! program comes in. Working as an independent third party to identify ways for the supplier to improve production and delivery time, Minnesota Technology, Inc. (MTI) acts as a liaison between the two companies and helps implement valuable cost-saving changes, increasing communication while ensuring confidentiality. So far, Accelerate! has brought about impressive results. Working throughout the larger manufacturing extension partnership (MEP) network, the program has delivered 260 projects for 220 suppliers and 18 OEMs in 20 states, and those companies have achieved an average MCT reduction of 53 percent.
Offered jointly by MTI and the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Accelerate! program has three phases. Kicking off each project the OEM and supplier sign a charter identifying the initiative and specific goals. The supplier pledges to improve its MCT and overall quality, while the OEM agrees to pay for a lean analysis of the supplier’s processes, without looking at any of the supplier’s internal data.
To get the process started, the independent third party — MTI — uses MCT to measure how long it takes an order to be completed, from the time the customer generates an order until the first product is delivered to the customer. MTI also uses Value Stream Mapping to analyze workflow, identify sources of waste and come up with away to streamline the process. And even if an OEM has suppliers across the country, the national MEP network has consultants in place ready to work with those companies.
The second phase of the Accelerate! program puts the impetus back on the supplier to make the changes recommended during the first step. The supplier can make these improvements however it sees fit, but it’s usually with a third party such as MTI. The benefit of that option is that the MEP already has a relationship with both the OEM and the supplier, and it has a variety of lean programs that can help bring about the recommended improvements.
Finally, in the third phase of Accelerate!, the supplier uses the lean methods and techniques to streamline its processes and cut down on waste company-wide, rather than just related to the work it does for the specific OEM. The program helps bring about better products and manufacturing systems for both companies, and it also improves the working relationship while maintaining trust on both sides. As the main contact between MTI and the national MEP system, and director of product development, I’m a big believer in the Accelerate! program and its ability to help Minnesota manufacturers grow and become more efficient.
John Connelly is director of product management at MTI.