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Ilija Stojanovic Dr. Leo Oriet Engineering and Profession 06-85-118 September 20th, 2013 Total Cost Minimization Several decades ago, when technological advancements were happening only from time to time and due to the limited communication and means of transport couldnt even be announced too far from the country they were invented, small individual owned workshops were the only place the tools and other utilities were produced at. These days, however, technological advancements are happening on a daily basis, and therefore many of the new firms and companies are taking advantage of these advancements to include them into their products in order to make them as best and up-to-date as possible. What makes one of those companies succeed while the other fails? Although the market and promotion of products are very important factors, minimizing the total cost of production is another crucial one. Getting the employees familiar with all kinds of work, buying better tools and more technologically advanced utilities and gear would also save an enormous amount of money in a long term. Also, engineers communicating with employees on the assembly line would make the production more efficient, resulting in more saving in the end. There are many more ways to reduce the production cost, and each of them contributes to the company coming out on top. Employees should be encouraged to learn to do multiple types of jobs in their work environment instead on just focusing on one single task. It is fairly common these days to see an

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employee given a single task to do and nothing else is his concern. This idea contributes to the lower professionalism in the company, where one worker depends on the performance of another. This method of work is what used to be practiced in the Fords first automotive manufacturing plants. There were workers working on the assemble line, the others were given the task to put the wheels on etc. However, this type of production required the company to hire a relatively large number of workers in order to satisfy the work load. In case of failure of one or more presses (the machines that are producing the automotive parts), there had to be many technicians available at the same time: they couldnt rely on just handful of them since the assembly line workers could do nothing to enable them for production. It is much more efficient if the employees are trained to be as a Jack of all trades, which would drastically reduce the number of people hired in the company, resulting in an immense profit. On the negative side, many people would lose their jobs, however it is not really the companys business any longer. It almost pays of every time to purchase the most current unities, tools and production operation equipment in order to minimize the profit losses. Ive had a chance to work at Central Stampings, CEL and PMP companies in Windsor. These factories produce the automotive parts for General Motors, and they use some very obsolete technologies that could be replaced by new ones in order to maximize efficiency. For instance, the use of oxy-acetylene cutting torches could not be considered obsolete just yet, however, purchasing oxy-gasoline cutting torches would greatly minimize profit loss on fuel. Gas torches (Petrogen) are able to produce higher temperatures and are able to cut through metal far more effectively that the acetylene ones. Additionally, those torches have a welding capabilities unlike the acetylene ones, which can only cut. According to Petrogen.com, The standard 2 gallon Petrogen tank filled with regular gasoline provides 10 continuous hours of trigger down cutting time. That is $8.00 worth of

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gasoline. When comparing the cost of fuel with other oxy-fuel torches, Petrogen has no rival. To give you a comparison, the amount of cutting you would accomplish with 1 large cylinder of acetylene (250 cu/ft) can now be done with 2 gallons of gasoline. That's about $8.00 worth of gasoline compared $180.00 for acetylene to do the same work, a 240% savings (Savings). For the company that uses cutting torches on a daily basis, lots of profit could be gained by purchasing the more technologically advanced ones. However, theres the other side of the coin. Replacing the old technologies requires the company to release the large funding in order to replace the old ones. In some cases, it might now be worth it. For instance, if the company is bound to close in the close future for whatever reason, purchasing better equipment wouldnt pay off. It takes time after revolutionizing the company for the profit to be gained from the use of the new equipment, but the profit gained in the long term is much greater than it wouldve been with the use of the obsolete equipment. Company employees are the engineers most reliable source of information regarding the manufacturing process. Engineers often neglect the opinions of the assemble line workers thinking they only assemble, knowing nothing about else about the manufacturing process. Very often this is not the case. Line assemble workers have the potential to see how efficient the presses are. Sometimes, the calculations done by engineers just dont cut it. Theoretically, what engineers have in mind would work, however the unexpected problems very often arise. For instance, if the press time is set by engineer to a certain value, theoretically the press should be the most efficient, however, the scrap disposed by the presses might be too heavy by the scrap conveyers to handle. They shut down, or slow down, resulting in the pile-up of scrap in an underground conveyer disposal system: something that couldve been prevented if other employees opinions mattered more. That is why communicating with assemble line workers

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often means the more efficient way of production, meaning less downtime and more profit gained. Minimizing production cost greatly increases the profit of the company: the profit that could be used to expand its business to another branches, to another countries, to another markets. Revolutionizing the company or teaching the employers more types of work are only two of many methods used to improve the efficiency of production. Team work among engineers and lower positioned workers is also crucial for reducing the down time of production. Its such factors that make one company prevail and expand compared to the others. However, many companies dont want to risk changes. The question is: are the CEOs of the companies willing to take a long shot and strive for perfection?

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Works Cited Savings Petrogen. n.p. n.d. 18 Sept 2013. Web.

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