Supply continuous improvement

Do not comply with the health and safety standards of your industry Do not comply with the relevant environmental regulations Do not have a system to assure the quality of supplies Are not committed to continuous improvement Are financially unstable... 

Subcontractor development should not be limited to the assessment for compliance to ISO/TS 16949 as indicated in Note 1. The standard contains the minimum requirements and, with the requirement for continuous improvement, it may be necessary to work with some of your subcontractors in order to develop their capability to improve process capability and delivery schedules or reduce avoidable costs. You can t develop all your subcontractors and hence Note 2 of the standard indicates that you should prioritize subcontractors for development based upon performance and importance of product or service supplied. 

U.S. automotive histoiyi reveals a fairly continuous improvement in both performance and fuel economy, but the relative interest in each is influenced by externalities. Wlien gasoline is plentiful and inexpensive, the consumer is more interested in performance and/or larger vehicles, both of which tend to decrease fuel economy. During the /Uab oil shocks of the 1970s, when the gasoline supply was stifled and driv-... 

The first human hver transplantations were performed in 1963 by Starzl and colleagues. Until the application of immune system suppressants, the long-term survival rate of transplant recipients was poor. Continued improvements in surgical techniques, organ preservation, and immune suppression led to I-year survival rates of 85% to 90%. The most common indications for the need for a hver transplantation are chronic hepatitis, alcoholic hver disease, and cirrhosis. The widening gap between the need for transplant material and the supply has caused the medical research community to search for alternatives to transplantation. 

In slurry reactors (Fig. 8.8) small catalyst particles (10-100 pm) are suspended in a liquid phase by mechanical mixing. Stirring also improves the contact between the gas bubbles and the liquid phase and heat exchange with the surroundings. Slurry reactors can be operated in a batch, semi-batch or continuous mode. In the semi-batch mode often the gas-phase is supplied continuously. 

A great deal of biomass was used as fuel for cooking and heat supply in China. The traditional method of utiUzation of biomass energy has not been able to suit the demand, along with the rapid development of the rural economy, continuous improvement of the peasants Uving quality, and the increasing attention to the environment. 

It can therefore be concluded that plastic packs and devices supplied by the pharmaceutical industry normally pass through a thorough and rigorous test procedure, but even so, such procedures will continually improve. If possible, loopholes in the present systems must be identified by more attention to the internal storage containers, piping, filters, etc. which are usually found in factory production areas and the bulk containers used to supply the industry with drugs and other excipients, as these receive far less attention than the pack destined for the patient . If these are plastic contact materials, they will require some form of ongoing review. 

There have been several cases of similar studies, showing the use of in silico metabolism prediction combined with vendor supplied LC-MS data analysis tools, with varying degrees of success. Generally the prediction package will provide several suggestions for metabolites and miss some key pathways. This process is very beneficial to the continuous improvement of the software as missed pathways can be added, and those that are over-predicting can either be set at a lower likelihood or have the chemistry modified to... 

Toyota s former President Watanabe, interviewed by Stewart and Raman (2007), reaffirmed the two main pillars of the Toyota Way continuous improvement and respect for people which includes critical stakeholders, the employees, the supply partners and the customers. These operational and cultural tenets have been systemized within the Toyota Production System (TPS). Initially, TPS was conceived of as the "3P model of Purpose, Process and People. However, Liker (2004) refined and extended this to the"4P model of the Toyota Way, Philosophy, Processes, People and Partners, and Problem Solving, represented in Figure 4-1. 

For each supply chain, the impact is different. There are no hard-and-fast rules. The trade-offs of customer service, forecast accuracy, and inventory are the easiest to understand. Through continuous improvement programs, employee training, investments in technology, and alignment of metrics, the core of the supply chain can be improved. 

Map your source of variability, reduce what you can through continuous improvement, and design the supply chain to absorb what you carmot eliminate. 

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