PFEP Happens...
Every company already does have a Plan for Every Part. Unfortunately, for many companies the "Plan" is to let the employees figure it out. Since you are reading this, I am assuming that your company is moving away from that original plan and towards a Lean Manufacturing system. As a part of that process, you are building a PFEP system in order to reduce inventory costs, prevent part shortages on your assembly lines, facilitate worker efficiency by streamlining workcenters, etc. That's great, but you don't want to make work more dificult for some of your people while making it easier for others. A PFEP system is much more than simply a table of PFEP data: Part Numbers, quantiites, storage locations, etc. Usability and Accuracy are critical issues here! Your PFEP system should be your quiet, but vital assistant, making everyone's job easier. It needs to support a material flow strategy that is clear and consistent, that covers all of you needs in a way that is understandable to everyone involved. Jobs change, people come and go - a good system will allow tomorrow's workers to perform as well as today's experts.
For some help in developing your own PFEP system, follow the ever expanding chain of Tutorial pages. They are linked
together by Next and Previous buttons on the bottom of each page.
For some help in developing your own PFEP system, follow the ever expanding chain of Tutorial pages. They are linked
together by Next and Previous buttons on the bottom of each page.
The Case Against PFEP
If you have a small operation and just a few long-time employees that are experts in what they are doing and how they want to do it, then maybe a PFEP system is not for you. A PFEP system lets you scale your operations, but if your goal is to just do a limited amount of business and your company is good at what it does, then much of this is needless overhead. A good independent auto repair shop might be a company like that. On the other hand, a nationwide chain of brake or muffler shops is basically a factory and warehouse with multiple assembly lines. They need a PFEP system to keep track of all of their parts, as well as to enable a kanban system for replenishing certain parts at certain locations, as needed.
What are your options for a PFEP system?
There are many options, but some work better than others.
1 - Do nothing.
2 - Have an existing employee build a PFEP system based on spreadsheets. This seems reasonable. Many of the books explain the basics of a PFEP system in terms of spreadsheets.
3 - Have an existing employee build a PFEP system based on Microsoft Access. This is potentially a good option, if the employee is extremely knowledgeable in the areas of Lean Manufacturing and Microsoft Access database development as well as Usability and User Interface design.
4 - Have an existing employee build a PFEP system based on some combination of traditional programming tools, such as Java, C, C#, SQL Server, Oracle, Visual Basic, SharePoint and/or web-based development tools, such as Flex. (As stated above, this employee will need to be extremely knowledgeable in the areas of Lean Manufacturing and software development as well as Usability and User Interface design.) Unless your employee is an expert in these technologies, then this solution is probably overkill. Microsoft Access allows for faster iteration of changes and easier updates later on, if someone else needs to maintain your PFEP system.
5 - Buy a canned system. Unfortunately, most canned systems are likely to do a lot of generally useful things that you don't need (thus slowing you down) and do not do a few critical things that you do need (like talking to your specific ERP system).
6 - Use a PFEP "module" that's a part of another system that you already have, like SAP. This is basically another variation on using a canned system. It is still likely to do a lot of generally useful things that you don't need (thus slowing you down) and not do a few critical things that you do need (like printing the right kinds of labels or Kanban cards for your facility).
1 - Do nothing.
2 - Have an existing employee build a PFEP system based on spreadsheets. This seems reasonable. Many of the books explain the basics of a PFEP system in terms of spreadsheets.
3 - Have an existing employee build a PFEP system based on Microsoft Access. This is potentially a good option, if the employee is extremely knowledgeable in the areas of Lean Manufacturing and Microsoft Access database development as well as Usability and User Interface design.
4 - Have an existing employee build a PFEP system based on some combination of traditional programming tools, such as Java, C, C#, SQL Server, Oracle, Visual Basic, SharePoint and/or web-based development tools, such as Flex. (As stated above, this employee will need to be extremely knowledgeable in the areas of Lean Manufacturing and software development as well as Usability and User Interface design.) Unless your employee is an expert in these technologies, then this solution is probably overkill. Microsoft Access allows for faster iteration of changes and easier updates later on, if someone else needs to maintain your PFEP system.
5 - Buy a canned system. Unfortunately, most canned systems are likely to do a lot of generally useful things that you don't need (thus slowing you down) and do not do a few critical things that you do need (like talking to your specific ERP system).
6 - Use a PFEP "module" that's a part of another system that you already have, like SAP. This is basically another variation on using a canned system. It is still likely to do a lot of generally useful things that you don't need (thus slowing you down) and not do a few critical things that you do need (like printing the right kinds of labels or Kanban cards for your facility).
What is your best option for a PFEP system?
7 - Have a PFEP specialist come in and create a custom PFEP for your company. This the best solution, not only because it might mean some income for me, but because of the results for you. This custom-built PFEP system will cover everything that you need and not waste your time with things that don't apply to your company.
The other big advantage that we bring to the table is something that at first seems like overhead - your people will need to explain how all of the relevant parts of your operation work in order for us to build a PFEP system for you. It is highly likely that we will raise questions about various aspects of Lean Manuafacturing and automation that your people may not have thought of. Likewise, we may have good solutions to problems that your people are already aware of. There is a problem with any business when key operations can only be understood by a few people. When people have been working around the same issues for years, it's hard for them to pull back and think through how things really should be done. If you are reading this, you are already probably involved in improving your operations. An outside expert, with experience at many other companies, will probably be able to offer some valuable new insights into how things can be done.
The other big advantage that we bring to the table is something that at first seems like overhead - your people will need to explain how all of the relevant parts of your operation work in order for us to build a PFEP system for you. It is highly likely that we will raise questions about various aspects of Lean Manuafacturing and automation that your people may not have thought of. Likewise, we may have good solutions to problems that your people are already aware of. There is a problem with any business when key operations can only be understood by a few people. When people have been working around the same issues for years, it's hard for them to pull back and think through how things really should be done. If you are reading this, you are already probably involved in improving your operations. An outside expert, with experience at many other companies, will probably be able to offer some valuable new insights into how things can be done.
Does a PFEP system have to be based on Microsoft Access?
No. Of course not. Your PFEP system needs to be accurate, efficient, flexible and maintainable. The implementation details are less important than those goals. Your PFEP system needs to be implemented correctly by people who are knowledgable in the tools that they are using. Likewise, your system needs to be maintainable by your people in the future. When used correctly, Microsoft Access can do a lot more than most people think, but the final implementation decisions are up to you - if your company standards call for everything to be web based, written in Java, with an Oracle database back-end, that can be done. In a case like that, Microsoft Access might only act as a prototyping tool, allowing us to quickly develop a working model, before investing the time in implementing your PFEP systems design using more expensive technologies.
With that said however, we do believe that it is likely that Microsoft Access is the best platform to build your PFEP system on because of it's balance of power and usability when used correctly. Our company president, Steven Kovitz, spent six years working for Microsoft developing Microsoft Access from pre-release through it's current feature set, so we do know how to use it correctly.
A common mistake is to assume that since it's easy to start using Microsoft Access, at first it seems logical to have someone who already knows your company build the PFEP system. Unfortunately, like most Microsoft Office products, Microsoft Access will allow new users to do all sorts of things that will cause problems for themselves later. This problem is made worse by offical examples of simple concepts using bad programming techniques. (Along the same lines, it's easy to start using Microsoft Word, but are most of your employees qualified to write a good book about either your company or your industry just because they can write memos in Word?) A PFEP system built by us will out-perform any "homemade" system, with significantly better usability and accuracy, not just becuase of our expertise in Microsoft Access, but because of our expertise in software development and logistics systems.
With that said however, we do believe that it is likely that Microsoft Access is the best platform to build your PFEP system on because of it's balance of power and usability when used correctly. Our company president, Steven Kovitz, spent six years working for Microsoft developing Microsoft Access from pre-release through it's current feature set, so we do know how to use it correctly.
A common mistake is to assume that since it's easy to start using Microsoft Access, at first it seems logical to have someone who already knows your company build the PFEP system. Unfortunately, like most Microsoft Office products, Microsoft Access will allow new users to do all sorts of things that will cause problems for themselves later. This problem is made worse by offical examples of simple concepts using bad programming techniques. (Along the same lines, it's easy to start using Microsoft Word, but are most of your employees qualified to write a good book about either your company or your industry just because they can write memos in Word?) A PFEP system built by us will out-perform any "homemade" system, with significantly better usability and accuracy, not just becuase of our expertise in Microsoft Access, but because of our expertise in software development and logistics systems.
