Meat + Poultry - October 2007 - 133

LEAN TIPS

(SOPs) that formally state the schedule is closed out and communicated
at a certain time. The problem still
exists. Strategic plans should include
overhauling the scheduling and ordering systems. Strategic planning that
includes the various departments involved in procurement, sales; scheduling and production can be very helpful
to minimize scheduling discrepancies.
At the very least, production should
be aware of schedule changes prior
to start up.
Another recurring problem in the
supply and production systems is
emergent orders. This is particularly difficult when the meat or poultry
product is fresh versus frozen. Emergent orders are the orders that come
in during the production run and
pushed into the schedule. I am not
saying that this should not happen. It
does. On the other hand, if flow and

pull are important and viable Lean
principles, then emergent orders need
more consideration than I have seen
given. On one hand emergent orders
are as close to a pull order as you can

"Take some time to
review your enterprise
from a strategic
perspective. Look at
your systems from
start to finish."
get. The customer calls on Tuesday
and wants his hamburger or chicken
tomorrow. You want the business and
take the order.
The problem is that you were not
prepared for it. Meat is already butchered and in process based on a sched-

ule. Now the schedule has changed.
The change may cause shifts of personnel, equipment changeovers or
other responses that cause disruptions
to flow. This may be a fact of life. The
goal, however, is to minimize the effects of emergent orders on other orders. The stories told regarding poor
flow and pull always detail the negative ripple effect of moving some clients order to the front of the line.
There is no simple answer for this
systemic problem.

Effective strategic
initiative
One company designed an effective
strategic initiative to prepare for the
inevitable emergent orders. This particular company restructured and enforced a dead line or cut off for next
day orders. The cut off was 3:00 p.m.
Customers were reminded and most

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October 2007

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Meat + Poultry - October 2007

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