1. Today’s Production in a Packaged World
By Gan Chun Chet (August 2016)
Quite remarkable that today production figures are governed by customers’ appetite. As
worldpopulationincreasesyearafteryear,thisdemandhastobe meetto serve the required figures.
In a period of economic recovery (also stability required) comes an era of rapid increase in demand,
predictionthatone wouldfigure outinvolvingstock-upof finishgoodstosatisfythe marketasdemand
are required. Increase in production hours seems promising to earn the extra bonus, withmultiplier
effectthatcouldbringprofitgains back intothe business,thus able topay investorstheirreturns.
This is a typical scenario of business atmosphere in today’s production environment which
affected investors.The risk involvedis too much in the sense where in some cases investorsare not
gettingbackthe promisedreturns.Onthe otherhand,itisa lossof investmentthat businessmanare
not able to get back its initial investmentvalue due tothe sluggishmarket inailingeconomy andthe
increased structural cost. Business closure and debt occurs amongst investors which dampen the
future.
Therefore isittooriskytobuilt-upstocks,inviewthatcustomers’ mightchange theirappetite
again for othermarketsegment. Inorder terms,organisationprofitis salesdependentbasedonreal
salesdemand. Andif the real demandforacertainproductsor services are ona maturity course,one
will knowthatthe focusshouldbe ongrowth products instead.Therefore,the notionof stock-upyour
saleable productsbasedonmarketresearchandforecastisof great importance.
Imagine the image and reputation of the particular organisation of interest at sight, are of
similar views on either side – whether you are a customer or a buyer. In fact, at point of sales, your
perception of your customer is the same as their perception on your products/services and there is
where a productispurchased.

2. Worldeconomicindicatorsshowsthatthe marketsentimenthasrecoveredwithstockmarket
trendingupwardsandindustrialoutputatitspeaklevel worldwide,afterthe greatglobal recessionin
2007-2008. The situation seemstolook good. Some Interestingpartof the processtechnologythatis
implementedinvolves fully automated technology.However,some are semi-automatic.Itreallydoes
not matter as long as the bottleneck in critical processes are identified and rectified, not affecting
those inthe waitinglist(orthroughput),i.e.toolongwaithoursordevelopmentleadtimeforinstance.
Itwasfoundthatthe bottleneckof the processmainly duetothe packagingmachineisineach
setup activity. Therefore, one of the new technology developed to meet this change requirement is
as follows:-
In a packaging machine, the glue sealer injection time is fully automated depending on the
packsize.Basedon anelectroniccampprogrammer,itisable toinject theglueonatimely programme,
precisely whenitisrequired.Thiseliminatesmanuallyadjustmenttasks. Inadditionthe compression
sectionisfullyeliminatedduetothe newglue characteristicthatsealsstronglybystationaryflapsonly.
Thisfurtherreduces the critical setuptime.
This move requireshighlyskill workforce toimplementhigherendprocesstechnologyandit
isinfactindemandwhichrequireshighlyskilledengineerstoperformthe tasks.Inpackagingmachine
only forexample,aretrofit projectoncertainexistingsectionof the productionmachine willincrease
the speedof everysetuptask, thusincreasesproductioncompetitiveness.
Is it A Changed World or Still A Changing World?
The drive for automation, whether fully or semi built-in has occurred. In the automated
productionenvironment,fullyautomatingrepetitivetasksandsemi-automateothers,will reduce the
cost of ownership eventually. However, it is unlikelyto eliminate all the manual task due to cost
matters. Therefore, perform in-house studies appropriately before embarking on the type of
technologyanditsinvolvement,costimpactinthe longterm.

3. The paradox of products/service drivenbymanufacturingcapability isnolongermakingsense
andhas changedtoa customeractive paradigm.Whatcustomersneedisafact thatcannotbe change
but justto meetthe demandinorderto staycompetitive.
InnovativeProductDesigns,Engineering
Innovative productsdesignthatallowsfrequentsetuptime are the way forward.Systematic
designs approach developed by Phal and Beitz set-off strategy that increases the probability of
technical andeconomicsuccessof the design.
Some company move forward to meet the cost requirements. Some decision might be
conservative thusnofurtherinvestmentinthisnature,i.e.the decisionis notnecessarilytoimplement
a particulartechnology.Whateverthe decisionis,the innovative technology oridea/philosophy that
are implementedmustmeetthe company’spolicyasitformsacoherentpartof the businesssolution.
Conclusion
With the available productiontechnology,whetheritisfullyor semi-automateddependson
market timing and acceptance. Solutionsthat are not necessarilyto be implemented yet have to be
deferto laterdevelopmentstage.Implementthe necessarysolution(s) thatwill benefityourcurrent
condition.Strategizeyourfuture endeavour.