Managing Automation - January 2009 - (Page 20) DEEPDIVE agility “Those plodding along, like the dinosaurs, can’t adapt strategically. They won’t survive,” says Tom Duffey, Plastic Components As a result, Honda will be able to react duction line changes, Honda says it will comrelatively quickly to the unprecedented plete its changes in about eight months. changes it faces. The company in Novem“When you look at companies like Honda ber 2008, cut back production of its Pilot and how they are able to respond to changing sport-utility vehicles in its Lincoln plant by market conditions, and you compare them to 8,000, or 32%, and planned an additional their North American competitors, you can 22,000-unit cut of Pilots and Odyssey minisee how important agility is for a manufacturer vans in the first quarter of 2009. At the same time, Honda took steps The pressure to become more agile in to shift production of most of the order to deal with accelerating rates of V-6 Accord sedans for the North change is pervasive among manufacturers. American market from Marysville to Lincoln, which had never made Accords today,” says Gordon Fleming, chief marketbefore. That will open up more capacity in ing officer at manufacturing software vendor Mar ysville for production of four-cylinder QAD, which has a substantial presence in the Accords and engines. automotive industry. “It can really be a matter While its traditional competitors often spend of survival.” a year or more retooling for such major proIt was Charles Darwin who said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” That has never been truer than it is today across most vertical industries where manufacturers are being forced to cope with rapid — and in some cases unprecedented — rates of change. Fluctuating economies, accelerating globalization, escalating customer demands, shrinking product lifecycles, and rising government regulation all are combining to force most manufacturers to get much better at quickly recognizing market shifts and responding to them. They are being required, for example, to move production from one plant to another, adjust product prices, or revamp short-term demand plans and production schedules on the fly. “In our industry right now what’s happening is that companies that are agile and have the ability to adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics are those who’ll survive what is looking like a serious recession,” says Tom Duffey, president and owner of Plastic Components Inc., a maker of injection molded thermoplastic parts. “Those plodding along, like the dinosaurs, can’t adapt strategically. They won’t survive.” The pressure to become more agile in order to deal with accelerating rates of change is pervasive among manufacturers. In a recent survey of manufacturers by Managing Automation, 94% said their companies need to become more agile, and 60% said agility is a greater focus today than it was a year ago. Cost pressures and increasing customer demands are driving the rapid ma January 20 2009 Photo courtesy: Plastic Components Inc.
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