Supplier product improvement

What characteristic of the supplier s product can be changed and reduce costs without changing the quality of your finished product This is a very difficult question for most businesses to answer because they do not understand their own processes that well. The answer requires a very detailed understanding of both operations and products. A team with members from both companies can begin to investi te this question and suppfy some problem-solving tools to help them get some ideas of where the most savings can be obtained. 

One of the problem-solving tools that can be used is brainstorming. This is where possible solutions, regardless of how far out they may seem, are listed just to get thoughts started. After the list has been made, each one of the possibilities is discussed to see if it might really woik. The ones 

A way to put previous problems behind you is to try to deal with the situation openly and look at what really happened and then move on to what is being or has been done to prevent the situation from happening again. 

A situation existed where a raw material supplier was causing a very bad color problem in a finished product. The supplier was disqualified but never given aity information about the problem. After repeated attempts to find out what could be done to resolve the problem, the supplier just ve up. Needless to say, the supplier was not happy. The subject came up during a supply base reduction meeting. Very little information was documented so we started the requalification process, which turned out to be successful. The difficult part turned out to be getting the people that were involved initially to put the situation behind them. As it turned out, their product was better than what was needed so another supplier was given the business, but this one remained as a qualified alternate. 

If you had a supplier that delivered bad product and would not own up to the fact that it was bad or the supplier could not deliver material as needed or agreed to, would you buy from them again Probably not, but would you be willing to work with that supplier to help them improve  

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At company level, the activities should progressively go beyond process improvement to take the entire product cycle into account, from raw material production to product recycling and/or disposal and involving all functions and departments of the company as well as suppliers and customers. This holistic approach allows the companies to design, produce and promote innovative, environmentally and economically sound products, improving their ability to successfully negotiate their position in the global markets. 

Supplier involvement there is good evidence that Air Products is working with suppliers to improve safety, although there is little evidence of a strategy to encourage or insist that its suppliers work to other environ mental standards. 

The cellulosic thickeners market has had low growth in the past recent years when the demand for liquid polymer type thickeners has been greater. This because of the trend to full liquid production line and easily - tailored systems. Paints manufacturers wait for cost effectiveness from suppliers with improved, more efficient and competitively priced products. 

Euzenac talcs to improve polyolefin pipe properties, supplier product literature (POE T GB 23 07). RioTinto Minerals 2007. 

The automotive industry has placed increased pressures on OEM suppliers to improve their productivity, quality and cost of the polyurethane articles which they produce. Styling changes, complex designs and OEM productivity demands for automotive seats have necessitated the need to produce more open foam in all-water blown TDI- and... 

Surface modifiers can be added to the talc by the talc supplier to improve or reduce various talc-polymer interactions. The choice and concentration of the modifier depends on the desired benefit in the talc composite. Silanes and titanates are used to improve the bond between the talc surface and the polymer. Other surface modifiers, such a glycols and sorbates, are used to improve dispersion of the talc in the polymer. Stearates, such as zinc or calcium stearate, are added to the talc or mixed into the compound to reduce die drool and lubricate die surfaces. Epoxies can be used to minimize interactions between talc and certain stabilizers or metal impurities. These surface-modified talc products are generally more expensive than untreated talc. The decision to use a surface-treated talc is based on cost-performance balance. Sometimes it is more cost-effective to add any additives during the compounding operation than have them added to the talc by the talc supplier. 

In a simple quick response strategy, suppliers receive POS data from retailers and use this information to synchronize their production and inventory activities with actual sales at the retailers. In this strategy the retailer still prepares individual orders, but the POS data is used by the supplier to improve delivery performance and hence reduce supply variability. 

Just as the moulding equipment suppliers have improved their products, so have the moulding compound manufacturers and distinct improvements have been made over the last few years in epoxide moulding compound formulation. Epoxide moulding compounds now exist with properties that were totally unattainable only a few years... 

The general benefits of the efforts in supply chain management have included a professional upgrading of the supplier relationships, improved field work productivity, and the assurance that services are measured and benchmarked. Specific benefits include the following ... 

Metallocene based polyolefins and polyolefin elastomeric compositions (POE) are often noted in supplier product literature to exhibit useful (and commercially viable) properties in blends with other polyolefins. Metallocene based polyethylene has also been noted to have the potential to replace the LLDPE/LDPE blends that are employed in a myriad of film applications [32 ]. PP/metaUocene ethylene-a-olefin copolymer blends for car interior applications have been noted [33 ]. MetaUocene-LLDPE blends with HDPE have been proposed for heavy-duty industrial grade bags as well as food packaging films [34]. Exxon-Mobil product literature notes the utility and ease of blending the metallocene LLDPE Exceed with other polyolefins. PP/POE blends showed similar mechanical properties and lower viscosity than the more conventional PP/EPDM blends [35]. Polyolefin plastomers (POP) imder the tradename Affinity GA were introduced by Dow as a polymer blend additive to improve the flow without loss of... 

Opportunities for improving the effectiveness of operations act as the internal drivers for change. They include asset utilization, productivity improvement, cost minimization, waste reduction, and work place safety, as shown in Fig. 1.4. For example, it may be possible to improve product performance and cut manufacturing cost by substituting one component with another. To implement it, however, one may have to modify some manufacturing processes, modify procurement, work with new suppliers, modify marketing plans for the product, and train workers. 

Managing product quality, does the customer help the supplier to improve process capability Are aggressive targets (e.g. 50 ppm defects) set by the customer Is the supplier responsible for quality of incoming goods and warranty of the parts in service ... 

Product improvement and new product development are important features of the market. Polymer suppliers are continuously seeking to enhance the performance properties of their products to meet ever more demanding regulatory and customer requirements. 

The use of CA has proved to be beneficial for companies introducing a new product, when an opportunity exists to use new processes/technologies or when design rules are not widely known. Design conformance problems can be systematically addressed, with potential benefits, including reduced failure costs, shorter product development times and improved supplier dialogue. A number of detailed case studies are used to demonstrate its application at many different levels. 

You need an improvement system that causes improvement opportunities to be identified. Relying on chance encounters will not create the conditions needed for continuous improvement. The data that needs to be analyzed will be generated by a particular process and this process governed by particular documented procedures. By having already placed instructions in these procedures for certain data to be transmitted to your data analysts, you can cause opportunities to be identified. Other opportunities that are less dependent on product or process data may arise from the audit process and particular projects such as benchmarking, customer and supplier surveys. 

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