Process variability and its effect on plant performance

This report presents the preliminary findings of a research study to determ ine the factors which enable a manufacturing plant to simultaneously achiev e high labour productivity, fast, reliable delivery and high quality consis tency. the conclusion are based on analysis of a database containing detail s of 953 manufacturing plants in the UK. Based on the performance measures mentioned above, a composite performance measure was calculated for each pl ant in the database. The plants were than divided into groups of high perfo rmers, medium performers and low performers. Using statistical analysis, th ose differences between the high and low-performing plants that were signif icant were identified. The main factors differentiating high-performing pla nts from the rest were those associated with low process variability, high schedule stability and more reliable deliveries by suppliers.