Development of Quick Response Manufacturing

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Development of Quick Response Manufacturing

The term Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) was first developed in the late 1980s by Rajan Suri, at the time professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He utilized the academic research in Time-based Competition (TBC) with his own studies from various lead time reduction projects. Suri envisaged QRM as a concept representing a persistent focus on lead time reduction that has a lasting effect on every facet of the company.

In 1993, Suri, along with a few U.S. Midwest companies and academic colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, launched the Center for Quick Response Manufacturing, an association commited to the development and execution of QRM principles in an industry environment. As suggested by Suri, the newly coined term “Quick Response Manufacturing” (QRM) denotes the new strategy.

QRM extends basic principles of time-based competition while including these new aspects.

• Singular focus on lead time reduction
• Focus on manufacturing enterprises
• Clarification of the misunderstanding and misconceptions managers have about how to apply time-based strategies
• Companywide approach reaching beyond shop floor to other areas such as office operations and the supply chain
• Use of cellular organization structure throughout the business with more holistic and flexible cells
• Inclusion of basic principles of systems dynamics to provide insight on how to best reorganize an enterprise to achieve quick response
• New material planning and control approach (POLCA)
• Specific QRM principles on how to rethink manufacturing process and equipment decisions
• Novel performance measure
• Focus on implementation and sustainability
• Manufacturing Critical-path Time (MCT) metric to measure lead times

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