Demand Flow® Technology (DFT) is a scalable, mathematically-based business strategy, specifically designed to allow manufacturers to respond faster and more efficiently to the needs of their customers and the marketplace.
Simplicity
DFT is a strategy designed to keep the methodology of manufacturing goods and servicing the customer as simple as possible. Attention is directed at using mathematically-based tools to design production lines that are balanced and flexible.
Tools & Flexibility
Employees in all aspects of the business from Sales and Marketing, Finance, Engineering and Employee Relations to IT and Information Systems are provided tools and proven business models that facilitate the most responsive, flexible and lowest cost method of meeting customer demand requirements.
Proven Methods
DFT provides a method of addressing issues such as how to balance batch processes and link them into downstream processes without unnecessary inventory investment; how to flatten bill of material structures without sacrificing planning and design capability; how to pull material utilizing Kanban while still maintaining inventory integrity, revision control and lot traceability.
Traditional, Scheduled Production vs. DFT
Is your factory still operating as a traditional, scheduled production environment driven by forecasts and MRP principles? If so, it likely doesn’t have the flexibility and speed in response to keep pace with changing market dynamics. You may be meeting customer requirements ultimately but at what cost?
Traditional scheduling techniques are still entrenched as the manufacturing method of choice at many companies. The master schedule, overly reliant on inaccurate forecasts, mirrors the unresponsive nature of the factory floor, where work content of seconds, minutes, or hours is frequently dwarfed by planning time measured in days or weeks.
As customer demands become increasingly more stringent, delays in manufacturing can’t help but further distance actual customer demand from daily plant performance and execution in the scheduling world. Over-reliance on forecasting to populate the factory pipeline causes inordinate amounts of in-process and finished goods inventory because of the disconnect between customer expectations and production capability.
While planning methods are still needed for long-range direction and necessary communication to suppliers, only by putting in place a capable, predictable, repeatable process that optimizes the manufacturing response can a business grow profitably within customer-defined mandates. This, in essence, is the dilemma facing manufacturing entities seeking to satisfy their customers now and in the future.
Utilizing a specific set of implementation steps drawn from DemandPoint’s extensive background in manufacturing and engineering, Demand Flow’s impact begins in the factory, removing it as the key variable causing inadequate customer response. Production facilities are driven to actual customer demand in a flexible environment that changes mix and volume on a daily basis by implementing mixed-model lines and cells.
These same specific tools are also incorporated in support organizations such that the production area can be properly understood and managed predictably and effectively. The end result is dramatic improvements in:
- Operating margins
- Delivery cycle time and performance
- Inventory levels
By dramatically reducing premium freight and labor costs as well, DemandPoint helps solves manufacturing’s customer service vs. profitability challenge.