CLEVER! Manufacturing Processes

“Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” –Judy Garland

What an amazing quote, one certainly worth pondering!

Judy Garland was clever: she had to be to come up with a saying like that.

What about CLEVER Manufacturing Processes?

All of the great (very profitable, robust, and, reliable) processes I have seen have some aspect or feature that is obviously (to the trained eye) compellingly clever or ingenious.

These are the kind of things that make one think…“Who thought of that?”

The ingenious aspect of the process is the “secret sauce”. This makes the process completely different and not able to be copied.

The inability for competitors to copy a clever process is a big advantage for the owner of the clever process. It may keep competition limited or out, a huge and very desirable advantage.

The process related intellectual property is usually protected by being kept a trade secret or by patenting the process.

The “most clever” process innovations have fundamentally superior process and physics fundamentals. These novel processes can completely eliminate downstream steps or create brand new materials.

Usually, multiple clever things have to be done simultaneously to make a new but very ingenious process production-ready. However, this can be fiendishly difficult to accomplish.

So, when (in the innovation cycle) and how do we build these clever manufacturing processes?

Some “Clever Process” rules/ideas follow.

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Rule #1

Manufacturing is WAY TOO LATE for dramatic process innovation

When manufacturing commences, it becomes much harder to change equipment or the process. Some changes may be possible, depending on the exact situation. In all cases, making changes in manufacturing is harder, slower, and MUCH more expensive than making them earlier.

Rule #2

The Equipment is NOT Enough

Apple found this out with their synthetic sapphire effort in 2014. The process was not ready for manufacturing, but they built the equipment anyway. Apple’s losses were significant (even for Apple), in excess of $500 million USD!

Rule #3

Manufacturability Assessments…Early & Often

Manufacturability must be assessed ruthlessly and fearlessly for new processes and products, with criteria agreed to beforehand. This will help avoid the building of equipment that does not serve the process, aka expensive boat anchors.

Rule #4

Over the HORIZON Thinking

A mindset (and associated relevant actions) designed to surface unresolved (so far) manufacturability issues as early and cheaply as possible, before they are clearly visible, so they can be most effectively dealt with.

Rule #5

Spectators Do Not Build Great Processes

Great and profitable manufacturing processes are built by curious and interested participants who have initiative…not by spectators. Figure out who are the process builders and who are the spectators.

Rule #6

The Research -> Production TANGO

Understand the situation of your partner. Understand how money is made for the corporation.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T your partner.

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My main learning from this line of thinking is how much experience (both ours and other’s) can help us to view things in hindsight, which can be extremely valuable. These are the kind of learnings that can be painful at the time, but that we can profit handsomely from on future projects. Motivated process builders learn as much as possible from each process innovation project. The resulting applied learning both accelerates velocity on and de-risks future projects, a winning combination!

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CHALLENGE TO READERS

Please think about the most strategic and important process innovation projects you and your organization have undertaken over the past 5 to 10 years…

• How smoothly have these projects gone? Do any of the above rules seem helpful to you, based on your experiences?

• What is the annual commercial impact of your process innovations over the past 10 years? To increase your ROI, you should know this number and try to improve it over time.

I’m very interested in your thought about the idea of “clever” processes. What are your relevant experiences and learnings? If you email us, we will get back to you promptly. Thanks!

All the Best,

Marty

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