Manufacturers of Bare and Insulated Wire and Cable
Though production of high volume commodity products is an important
aspect of the industry, many wire and cable manufacturers are moving
to more complex and sophisticated products that have specialized
high performance characteristics. These products are often jointly
engineered with customers and suppliers to meet the demands of particular
applications. In this environment, wire and cable manufacturers
must be able to:
- Quickly develop, quote, and produce new products to specific
customer specifications
- Effectively manage the complexity of having many customized
end products for different customers
- Rapidly and efficiently produce products in both low volume
and high
- Contain costs and effectively utilize expensive capital equipment
Real World Issues
Leading wire & cable companies are recognizing that these
goals can only be achieved by integrating management of the entire
business around a common base of information and streamlined business
processes. But there are fundamental product and process issues
that make this industry unique, and that must be effectively addressed
by an enterprise management system in order to be successful. Some
of these real world issues are:
Product specification involves considerable data
The specification of products from raw materials through finished
goods requires the centralization of material, process, machine
and quality control data. This data must include the attributes
and characteristics of each item, such as gauge, number of conductors,
jacket, length, and put-up.
Tracking units are containers
Inventory must be tracked at the container level (e.g., reel, gaylord,
spool, coil, etc.) since quantities, attributes, and locations can
be different for each container produced from a given production
order and for the same part number (e.g., two reels produced from
the same order may have different lengths). Some form of numbered
tags must be produced to uniquely identify each container.
Length management is a key issue in production planning and
control
For most make-to-order cable products, customer-specified lengths
must be planned and managed through multiple levels of production.
For this reason, the planning system must take into consideration
the actual length of inventory as well as length-related factors
such as twist loss
Semi-finished material often flows directly into next stage
orders
Semi-finished material such as bare wire is often apportioned and
immediately routed to multiple next-stage orders in a continuous
process (e.g., bare wire to one or more extrusion lines). The material
dispatching process must be fast and efficient with minimal transaction
requirements in order to keep production moving.
Scheduling is critical to productivity and cost control
All wire and cable manufacturers must effectively utilize their
capital equipment in order to achieve throughput and profitability
goals. Because of this, scheduling is driven by numerous factors
in addition to customer request dates. Production is usually sequenced
by product characteristics and attributes (e.g., color, gauge, jacket
type, etc.) in order to reduce set-up time, queue time, and scrap
(e.g., due to bleed-out). Many plants must also schedule around their
biggest bottleneck (e.g., extruders, cablers, etc.).
Units of measure are variable
A given item may be sold, purchased, or inventoried in multiple
units of measure (e.g., feet or meters), while production is usually
done in a different unit of measure (e.g., thousands of feet (MFT),
etc.) and scrap is typically recorded in pounds. The various quantities
must be easily converted when processing transactions.
Inexact quantities are a way of life
In purchasing, manufacturing and selling, exact planned order quantities
are virtually never realized. Shipment or receipt of a quantity
that slightly more or less than the order quantity is a normal practice.
Customers often specify quantity tolerances that are acceptable
to them.
Selling prices often fluctuate with commodity prices
The price of copper (or other high value commodities) can change
daily. Since copper represents a significant element of cost in
many cable constructions, when its price has a significant change,
that change must be quickly reflected in the selling price of end
products in order to maintain profitability. Actual selling prices
may be set based on copper prices at either order or shipment time.
Reel management is important to profitability
There are many types and sizes of reels. Selecting the reel that
has the least cost while satisfying customer requirements and product
specifications can significantly affect profit margins. Many reels
are reusable and returnable, therefore managing and tracking who
has what reels can save the company significant money over time.
In addition to these issues, bare wire producers also have many
of the characteristics of the metals industry described in that
section.
The AXIOM Enterprise Resource Management System has been designed
with all of these issues in mind. And it has the special capabilities
needed by individual segments within the industry as well. For a
brief description of some of the special features provided by AXIOM
to address the specific needs of various segments, see:
Then see the Solutions
section for a more complete description of AXIOM's functional
scope and capabilities.
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