Printed Crt

PRINTED CIRCUITS COMPONENTS FOR A JIT FACTORY Mr. Carl Burger, supply manager at Acacia Company, is faced with a problem of researching several electronic components for a new graphic plotter, manufactured in a just-in-time environment. Acacia Company is a major producer of graphic plotters, renowned for top-quality and innovative products. The newest unit in the product line is the 440A, a relatively inexpensive eight-pen, A-size (8½” x 11”) plotter, designed for use with personal computers. Thoughtful design of the component parts, along with a dedicated value engineering effort, resulted in substantially fewer component parts required for assembly. Extensive market research indicated that the plotter was priced lower than most of its competition and provided more features, such as greater accuracy at higher speed. The marketing forecast estimated annual volume to exceed 60,000 units, far more than any other Acacia model. The combination of few component parts and very high volume made the 440A an excellent choice for implementing a JIT process. Supply managers at Acacia were traditionally organized by commodity, such as raw materials and motors. In an effort to improve the supply process, supply managers with technical backgrounds (such as Carl Burger) are now assigned to new products during product development, and are responsible for buying all parts unique to their instrument. Although this means that a motor manufacturer might interact with several Acacia supply managers (one commodity supply manager and one or more new product supply managers), Acacia is satisfied that any confusion or overlap is more than compensated by significant improvements in new product procurement. Many of the 440A’s components are identical technically to components purchased by commodity supply managers for other Acacia plotters, but have separate part numbers to differentiate JIT packaging and delivery requirements and to identify higher costs when they