How to implement pull-production to decrease waste

First of all, what is pull-production, and how can it help to eliminate waste? Let's go through this thing slowly. Pull-production is the idea that a company only produces something according to the demands of the customer. In other words, if Johnny X only needs one pair of sweet black shades, you only make one pair of sweet black shades, not ten. Ah! cries out the businessperson. But what if Johnny X's break in the meantime? Well, it might not be a bad idea to make a backup pair of Johnny X's shades when you make the first. Pull-production does not mean that you make a thing then break the mold. It does mean that you become more sensitive about waste, about making way, way too much of a product knowing you're not going to be using it most of it anyway.

The idea behind making way, way too much of a product is that it's less expensive to make it all at once than to make it in part and then go back later and make more. This is true, of course, but it also has its downsides. Not only are you adding waste to the environment, you're filling up precious storehouse space, and your spending money that you don't have to. If you only make enough of a thing to meet a demand, you win in every way possible.
The next question is, well, how do we know how much of what to make? That's a good question. You can't just guess, obviously, how many people will want a certain kind of coat this year. But what you can do is advertise in such a way that lets people know that their input is valuable to them. You can say, in effect, "Look, we have this coat, Coat W, and we know that we sold so many of them last year. We were thinking of doubling the amount this year, but rather than be wasteful we thought we'd try to get a feeling of what people actually want." That's one element of pull-production.
But pull-production is usually most effective in those companies that are developing a specific product for a specific business, say, paper for a publishing house. You see how it would get a little easier in that situation. Your representatives would contact the publishing house's representatives, and you'd say, "We made too much paper last year, and this year we're focusing on saving trees. Let's try to work out a deal where you tell us exactly how much paper you'll need, exactly how much you'll need just in case, and we'll meet those needs exactly, and not have mountains of unused paper at the end of the year.
The great thing about pull-production is that it works in at least two ways. By works, I mean you're able to pull it off in at least two ways. One, it's just a practical solution, no one can argue much with it. I mean, they might say, but we don't want to have to figure that sort of thing out, but it's really not all that difficult to do, giving how carefully accounts are made these days. Two, the environment is looming as a crucial element in the future of mankind, more so than ever. People for the first time are really become environment conscious. And businesses, who want to stay on good terms with the public, who want to remain attractive to the public eye, are jumping on chances to show how earth-friendly they are.
What way to prove one's earth-friendliness than by involving oneself in pull-production? Now, there has been a lot written on pull-production, and it's up to you to seek it out and read as much as you can of it. Thanks to the Internet, thousands of sites on pull-production are available. You can read about other companies attempts and failures, you can read about important new developments, you can search and try to understand how pull-production can work best for your company.

Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

---

Categories: Management,

Help others find this article:
Socializer, Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, StumbleUpon

Favorites: Add to favorites
Tags: Pull-production_pull-production_ideas pull-production_Q&A