The unit production method was born out of the Group Technology (Group Technology) proposed by S.P. Mitrofanov in the former Soviet Union in the mid-1950s. Europe and the United States began to study it as early as the late 1950s. Application and implementation began in the 1960s. Japan began research in this area in the 1980s, but it was not widely used in actual production at that time. It was not until Japan's Mr. Hayakawa creatively and successfully applied it on a large scale in SONY that the situation was changed. Immediately afterwards, NEC, Omron, Jialong, Panasonic, etc. have introduced unit production methods to cope with the market demand pattern of multiple varieties, multiple batches, small batches, short delivery times, customization, and rapid updates. The unit production method has become An advanced production method adopted by mainstream Japanese manufacturers. In our country, the Dalian Machine Tool Factory and China Textile Corporation began to implement group manufacturing technology in 1966, which was suspended during the "Ten Years of Turmoil". In 1977, the former "First Machinery Ministry" proposed a ten-year plan to promote group technology, and Changchun FAW and other companies responded one after another. With the entry of foreign-funded factories, the application of unit production methods gradually appeared in our country in the mid-to-late 1990s. Some people say that the 20th century was an era of mass production and mass consumption, while the 21st century is an era of small quantity production and diversified consumption. The traditional assembly line production method requires large-scale investment and is suitable for large-scale production, while the unit production method is flexible and suitable for diversified production. The International Engineering Association has predicted that 70% of enterprises will implement unit production in the future. The unit production method will become one of the mainstream production methods in the manufacturing industry.
Manufacturing technology and production methods are the basis for the competitiveness of industrial products. Changes in production methods determine to a considerable extent the establishment of a country's competitiveness and the conversion of competitive advantages in different countries. During the American Industrial Revolution that began at the end of the 19th century, the mass production method enabled the United States to replace the United Kingdom as the global manufacturing center; after World War II, the lean production method enabled Japan to complete the transfer of manufacturing from the United States to Japan in only 50 years. Toyota Motor Corporation's net profit in the first quarter of fiscal 2004 was that of General Motors and Ford combined. After more than 40 years of savings, the Japanese automobile company finally defeated Detroit with its "lean production method" and the mass production method that Detroit was proud of. Currently, China is facing the third great shift in global manufacturing. We have reason to expect that the transfer of world manufacturing to China will also bring about an innovation in production methods based on inheritance.
As far as the production model is concerned, workshop-style single-piece production has appeared in human history. In modern times, Taylor proposed a scientific management method based on division of labor and piece-rate wage system, thus becoming the founder of manufacturing engineering. Based on the theory of learning curve, division of labor and standard interchangeability, the American capitalist Mr. Ford creatively established a special assembly line for mass production of cheap T-shaped cars. The endless conveyor belt connected the entire factory, marking the birth of mass production. . In the social context of the time, since this production method had obvious effects of lowering costs and improving production efficiency than the common craftsman single-piece production at the time, the successful implementation of this model meant greatly improving the competitiveness of the enterprise. Because in the early days of industrialization, a company could produce just one product and customers would buy it even though they didn't really want it. Therefore, the mass production method quickly became an advanced model that all countries at that time were learning from. It has had a huge impact on the entire capitalist world, directly changed the work and life of ordinary workers, and made it possible for millions of people to dream of owning a car. The completion of this learning process marks the first transformation of human production methods, that is, the development of single-piece and small-batch production methods into mass production methods with standardization, generalization, and centralization as the main characteristics, forming a socialized Big production. The mass production method promoted the industrialization process, produced huge material wealth for society, and promoted the formation of a market economy.
With the development of high technologies such as information technology, productivity has been greatly released. People's consumption has bid farewell to the era of unified mass consumption and entered the era of personalized and fashionable consumption. Global economic integration has accelerated this trend. Manufacturers must meet the different needs of different countries, regions, races, beliefs, and cultures. These needs are constantly changing, and manufacturers' competitors are no longer limited to one city or one city. place, but compete on the global platform. Today's customers' needs have become diverse and even personalized, requiring only certain types of products at specific times.
If your company doesn't meet their desires effectively, they'll turn to your competitors. More and more product types, higher and higher personalization and performance requirements, shorter and shorter product market life cycles and delivery times, and increasing price and cost pressures have made traditional mass production methods Unable to cope with the emergence of this unpredictable buyer's market, the production-oriented business model has long been replaced by a customer-oriented approach that emphasizes quality over quantity and seeks refinement over quantity. At the same time, the rise of hypermarkets and the accompanying small and medium-sized batches, low prices, and personalized customization challenge traditional mass production methods. So people began to study and try a new production method-the unit production method. The unit production method is a production method that changes on demand. The unit production method combines the advantages of single-piece production and mass production, which not only reduces the high cost of single-piece production but also avoids the excessive rigidity of mass production. The self-similarity between the enterprise unit and the overall organizational structure of the enterprise emphasizes autonomy, and the self-similarity between goals emphasizes self-discipline. Through the unity of self-discipline and independence, the enterprise unit achieves the unity of efficiency and flexibility, and better adapts to the market demand pattern of multiple varieties, small batches, short delivery times, and just-in-time systems.
At the end of 2003, Japan's largest financial news agency, Nikkei BP, published a long series entitled "Victory over Made in China - Five Aces of Japanese Enterprises", which attracted widespread attention from the Japanese and Chinese manufacturing industries. The article cites several examples of successful operations despite the miserable economic environment of Japan's domestic manufacturing industry, refuting the assertion that Japan's manufacturing industry has lost its competitiveness against Chinese manufacturing. These five trump cards are: unit production method, customer response, product development, patented technology, and quality brand. The article believes that the production capacity of Japanese factories to adapt to multiple varieties, small batches, and short delivery times, as well as personalized, fashionable, and high-end product designs, are the direct reasons for winning customers and keeping orders in Japan. In fact, this is not necessarily the case, because the production of multiple varieties, small batches, and multiple batches of products requires multiple mold changes or transfers. Every time the product is changed, tools, parts must be replaced, and the process sheet must be refilled, all of which require manual work. Therefore, the more changes there are, the more cost-effective it is in China where labor costs are low. At the same time, foreign trade unions are powerful. If workers are required to learn several operations and perform several types of work without increasing their wages, they will be boycotted by the trade unions. For Chinese operators, mastering several skills is considered a rare opportunity to add value to their human capital, and the promotion of multi-skilled workers is easily welcomed by grassroots employees. At the same time, foreign wages are high, labor security and welfare levels are high, and the barriers and costs of layoffs are extremely high. Even in countries like Japan, which has a profound culture of lifelong employment, downsizing will eventually be subject to pressure from customs and morals. Unit production requires flexible allocation of human resources, which is easier to implement in China because wages are low and labor regulations cannot be fully enforced. Therefore, China has more advantages than Japan in promoting unit production. It is actually a trump card for Chinese manufacturing to defeat Japanese manufacturing.
In February 2005, "Nanfengchuang", a comprehensive social journal with important influence in China, published an article titled "The Shocking 'Canon Revolution'", which introduced the Canon's Japanese factory has implemented a shocking revolution in production methods. This new production method is called the unit production method. It has achieved a huge increase in Canon's profits and the company's humanistic care for society. Canon faced huge cost challenges when moving its assembly plant from China back to Japan. In 2003, for example, the average monthly wage of Chinese workers was US$126, and the average monthly wage of Japanese workers was US$3,737. The latter was the former. 30 times. From 1998 to 2002, Canon abandoned 66,000 feet of conveyor belts in Japan, which in turn brought a certain amount of cost. Adding in other increased costs, Canon's production costs in Japan were higher than the total production costs in China. greatly increased.
However, from 1998 to 2003, the unit production method helped Canon reduce its labor force by 27,000, while improving labor productivity by 50%, saving 720,000 square meters of factory area, allowing Canon to rent warehouses for storing parts and equipment The quantity was reduced from 37 to 8, cutting real estate costs by $280 million. Although the prices of Canon's products produced in Japan are higher than those produced in China, demand has grown rapidly and profits have increased due to the advantages of quality and performance varieties. Greatly increased. In July 2004, Japan's Canon announced that thanks to the huge demand for color copiers and digital cameras, its profits in the quarter as of June 30 increased by 30%, reaching US$3 billion. This will be Canon's first Bianxu set a new profit record for the fifth year. In such profit growth, the unit production method plays a huge role.
The traditional mass production method breaks down the complex production process into many easy-to-use processes. Mastering the process, each worker only completes one process, so the entry cost for workers to enter the production process is very low. At the same time, due to simple labor skills, workers are in a weak position during the negotiation process with management, and labor wages are driven down to a low level. level, the products produced by the capital have excess purchasing power relative to the purchasing power of labor consumers, which leads to a typical capitalist economic crisis. So I personally think that to solve this problem, it is enough to adjust the production mode, and there is no need to adjust the production relations. Before World War II, Capitalist economic crises break out frequently and periodically. This period coincides with the time when mass production methods are widely adopted around the world. Undifferentiated labor supply leads to low wage levels and ultimately leads to an imbalance between demand and supply. Economic and social crises and turbulence. The American movie "Modern Times" depicts workers working in mass production as machines, performing simple, boring, repetitive and mechanical work. Workers here do not need to think, they only need to work subconsciously. Time consumes life and the original meaning of life, and hinders the development of human vitality and power potential. In this mode of production, workers are "forged" into "partial people" or "partial people" who do not know how to think. When the labor supply with lower wages appears, they face a large number of unemployment, and due to their low skills, they are unable to complete the upgrading and transfer of jobs. We have to be deeply worried that in the process of more globalization of the world market in the future, these people in our country will How do workers with extremely one-sided skills adapt to changes in the world market and how do they compete with multi-skilled workers who know how to improve? The macro accumulation of this pattern is the overall competitiveness of the Chinese economy, and it is also the "stamping power" of China's economic development. question. Thinking deeply about the problem, in fact it is also related to the combat effectiveness of future military wars. The organic composition of modern warfare is getting higher and higher, and the role of weapons is getting bigger and bigger. With a large number of "complete people" workers, they will undoubtedly exert more power than "parts people" when operating weapons. We know that many Japanese companies are engaged in both war and peace. They produce civilian products in peacetime and military products in wartime. The transformation is very rapid. In the same way, for workers who transform into soldiers, multi-skilled workers will undoubtedly have inherent advantages over single-skilled workers. How should we respond to Japan’s “Canon Revolution”? In fact, the raising of the problem itself clearly indicates the direction of dealing with the problem - we must quickly join the historical trend of changing the mode of production.
The unit production method can transform a large number of "single-energy workers", "partial people" or "parts people" into "complete people". It has social significance of achieving, cultivating and creating people, and provides benefits to the entire society. The society provides enough high-quality workers with comprehensive skills, which liberates blue-collar workers from traditional mass production methods and becomes thinkers, decision-makers and executors who manage flexible changes independently. Due to their multiple skills and high labor efficiency, they can It has more weight when negotiating wage levels with employers. At the same time, high wages create demand and market on a macro level, slowing down the shock of the economic cycle.
To achieve the goal of unit production, we must achieve: single-piece production (one-piece-flow: one flow), multi-stage engineering, leveled production, abandoning conveyor belts, and establishing workload in each process The easy-to-transfer operating mechanism is transformed into a U-shaped pulley with consistent entrances and exits; the requirements for operators and the training of multi-skilled workers are implemented, and walking operations are implemented; standard operating procedures must be established for work instructions; human resources must be implemented Manufacturing with fewer people, unit collective piece-rate wage system; the production load and production plan arrangement of each process are leveled multiple times; the same production rhythm of each process section is synchronized in time; in order to reduce inventory, implement rapid In manufacturing, in order to cope with the requirements of multiple batches, small quantities and multiple varieties of orders, rapid conversion operations should be implemented. Spatial classification is carried out based on products, so that each process of processing and assembling the product occupies a closed factory space, forming a process integration of a production unit; the production unit has functions such as planning, design and management, and the pyramid style is abolished The bureaucratic organizational structure adopts flat management to reduce the loss of information transmission and implement functional integration in the organization; it requires specialization and miniaturization of equipment; it carries out TPM activities and pursues zero equipment failure. For products in process, one-flow production with the goal of single-piece production is required.
Unit production is a lean production method that is relatively easy to implement. Through it, the company can manufacture a variety of products that meet customer needs at the lowest possible cost. In cell production, equipment and workstations are arranged in a specific sequence so that materials and parts can move smoothly through the process with minimal handling and delays. Cell production is an important part of the lean production approach.
Manpower, equipment or workstations required in the process constitute unit production, and their arrangement is based on the order of equipment arranged to meet the process. Placing people and equipment in the same unit helps companies achieve one-piece flow and flexible production.
Single-piece flow refers to a state in which products complete the entire process one piece at a time, and the rate is determined by customer demand. One-piece flow operations help companies quickly ship goods to customers, reduce storage and transmission requirements, reduce the risk of damage, and quickly expose problems so they can be taken seriously.
Cell production can save unnecessary materials and intermediate assembly links, and provide employees in the same unit production line with an implemented process and quality feedback production environment. Unit production has been proven in practice to not only improve production efficiency, but also improve the adaptability of the production line to changes.
Cell production allows companies to be more flexible in providing products that customers demand. He can classify similar products that use the same equipment. He also encourages companies to reduce the time of changing lines and change product types more frequently.
Converting factories to unit production means reducing waste in processes and operations. A process is actually a continuous flow process, during which raw materials are converted into finished products through a series of operations. The point of the process is that it is the path that turns materials into the final product. Operations are all activities in which workers or equipment transform raw materials, WIP (semi-finished products), etc. into finished products.
In unit production, by reducing costly transportation and delays in the production process, shortening product delivery times, saving factory space so that it can be used for other value-added purposes, and by forcing companies to pay attention Solve the problem of high inventory to make the company more competitive.
Unit generation helps you increase the reliability of your work by strengthening your company's competitiveness. It also makes the daily operations of production smoother - removing excess WIP (semi-finished products), reducing handling and various control costs, reducing the time required to move around, and strengthening the elimination of the root causes of defects and machine failures.
The unit production method can quickly adapt to changes in the variety and quantity of market orders, and is suitable for the market demand of multiple varieties, small batches and short delivery times. Unit production has a very obvious improvement effect in reducing inventory and shortening order lead time. Many cases of unit production transformation show that the lead time (demand-side procurement cycle) before and after improvement is several times different. The unit production method also has considerable benefits in reducing costs, reducing expenses, ensuring quality, and improving productivity. Competition in domestic labor-intensive industries is becoming increasingly fierce, and profits are becoming increasingly meager. In fact, the waste caused by these enterprises due to backward production methods is staggering, and there is huge room for improvement.
There is a great need for management innovation and the introduction of excellent production methods and means such as unit production methods. Nearly 90% of Panasonic Group's factories adopt the unit production method. Canon and Sony have also introduced the unit production method in recent years and achieved expected benefits. The Cell-Production unit of Dell Corporation of the United States is a good example. Dell changed the production method of the assembly line and established a flexible production line with "production cells" - units as the core, thus transforming the production model of the PC industry into an order-driven one, achieving large-scale customer customization and greatly reducing product inventory. . Unit production has inherent advantages in meeting the needs of customized users and special users.
The zero inventory and just-in-time supply chain management of large companies will also put pressure on small and medium-sized suppliers to change their production methods. The earlier a company changes, the more proactive it will be. An ancient saying goes: "The sun and the moon are new every day; the sky is healthy, and a gentleman should constantly strive for self-improvement." It warns us that the world is changing rapidly. We must respond to the changes in the current situation with continuous and new contingency actions. Today's business environment is changing so much and so fast that it is unprecedented and even worse. . After our country joins the WTO, the fierce competition faced by enterprises has extended from domestic to the whole world. The way of operation and production can no longer cope with the ever-changing changes, but must respond to the great changes in value, innovation and speed. , and the way to respond is to comprehensively improve competitiveness as the primary production innovation. Domestic pioneers have set an example. For example, Dongguan VTech Electronics Company generated economic benefits of 50 million yuan in the first year after introducing unit production. In Japanese, Korean, and American-owned factories in China, the unit production method is spreading everywhere. Midea's large-scale customized flexible production line shortens the supply cycle by two-thirds. Many Japanese and Korean factories in China are doing their part and taking the lead in implementing advanced production methods, causing domestic counterparts to feel unprecedented competitive pressure. Implementing changes in unit production methods requires a certain amount of investment, and the financial return should be far greater than the investment.
The unit production method not only has economic efficiency, but also has social and environmental benefits. "Multi-skilled workers", "functional integration", "process integration", "synchronization" and "fewer people" make employees more autonomous, make their work more challenging and have a sense of responsibility and accomplishment, which enhances the work efficiency Fun reduces monotony and increases worker well-being, so the unit production method has certain social improvement functions. Unit production reduces waste such as inventory and transportation, reduces material and energy consumption, and also produces certain environmental benefits. Therefore, the unit production method is known as the double-E (Ecology-environmental protection, Economy-economic) production method in Japan.
The Toyota Production System is the accumulation of improvement bit by bit from the bottom up, and is more in line with the ubiquitous all-employee improvement culture of Japanese companies. However, the unit production method is a leapfrog transformation from top to bottom, which is more in line with the national conditions where the quality of front-line workers is not high enough and the elite needs to promote change. The Toyota Production System is a gradual improvement that achieves quantitative changes to qualitative changes, while the unit production method converts tangible and intangible waste into corporate profits through revolutionary mutations in production methods. For our country, which has been in a seller's market for a long time in the planned economy and whose economic enterprises are accustomed to mass production and extensive operation, the model concepts, technologies, and methods of the unit production method are very important for our country's enterprises to move towards intensive operations and survive and develop in the buyer's market. Growth has important practical significance.