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[转帖]虚假的“零库存”管理

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发表于 2010-12-13 14:39:18 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式
 

    “库存”通常情况下被厂商看作是一种负担,一种成本,一种资本的无效率占用。因此,如果做到最小库存,就成为了许多厂商追求的管理目标。

  但是,这种认识并不是完全的。有时,库存不是占用资金,而恰恰是一种资本储备。“囤积居奇”就是这样一种管理思路,这也是一种常规的思路。

  商场如战场。兵者,第一贵在神速;第二,不打无准备之仗。因此,有时,充足的、及时的、恰当的库存恰恰是赢得战机的有效手段。我们从来不会听说军队打仗是在弹药零库存的情况下进行的。神速,是建立在“有准备”之上的,如果没有“准备”,仓促应付,临时抱佛脚,就难以做到神速了。而“准备”之备就是“库存”,是作战的必要条件。

  管理学把一定条件下厂商追求的最小库存总结为“零库存”管理,其实有点形而上学和走极端了。且不说这种零库存能不能在现实当中有效地实现,即便是实现了,也和之上两种情况(囤积居奇和赢得时间)不符。

  有时候,库存的成本只是被转移了,而不是被真正地消除了。当原材料变成半成品的时候,通常生产厂商无法做到每一个工序都零时间间隔地连续生产,储存是一个必不可少的工序环节,只是储存的时间长短或者由谁来储存的问题。

  在生产周期比较长的生产过程当中,储存是一个大问题。例如节日商品,早在节日到来之前就存在零售商的仓库里了。西方的圣诞节礼品现在很多都在中国生产,但是生产商是在每年的春末夏初季节就接到远在十二月份的圣诞节用品订单并且开始备料生产了。

  生产服装的企业大多都是冬做夏装、夏做冬装。

  生产果蔬制品的企业,往往会在果蔬上市的季节大量采购原料进行囤积。

  在通常情况下,我们作为消费者在商场里买到的货品,都可以看作是“库存品”,否则我们会常常面临“短货”的局面。消费者不能够总是像在餐馆点菜吃饭一样站在生产线的端头等着拿刚刚包装好的商品。而餐馆里的零库存销售,也不过是成品的零库存,而在原材料和半成品方面,餐馆通常也是不打无准备之仗的。

  在许多厂商的工厂里,“仓储”是作为一个单独的部门设立的。上下工序车间之间设立一个专门的储存车间,这对于装配式生产工厂来说司空见惯。本人在管理工厂的时候,就有把仓库的归属权在生产部和采购部、销售部之间转换的经历。这要视具体的情况定夺。

  即便是一个装配线,也必不可少地要配置充裕的原材料零部件存放区域和相应的工位器具用来存放领取用于装配的零部件。还要配备足够的区域临时堆放下线的产品,而不是直接把它交付给购买者。

  如果某个生产环节被“独立”出来实现了真正的“零库存”,那么通常是以增加上下工序其它环节的库存以及增加物流成本为代价的。一些大的零售商,为了减少自己的库存成本而又不影响供货及时,往往会利用自己的强势要求供应商建立充足的库存,把自己的赢利建立在供应商的风险之上。

  中国汽车行业曾经推行过一场“零库存”的管理革新,但是,实际的实行当中却流于形式主义,根本上没有实现所谓的零库存管理。

某电视节目做了一期赞美中国重汽集团如何通过零库存管理提高企业效益的节目。却原来中国重汽的零库存管理,不过是把原来自己管理的仓库出租给自己的零部件配套厂商使用而已。这档节目把重汽的这种零库存管理列为重汽从困境中起死回生的重要措施之一,重汽的书记对着记者和镜头无不自豪地说:我们减少了成本和资金占用。

  众所周知,所有的成本最终都会转嫁到消费者所购买的最终产品上去,否则这个产业一定无法生存下去。但是,在重汽的整个产业链上,仓库还在那里,仓库里的零部件依然堆积如山,只不过现在不是由重汽亲自管理罢了,而且看上去还有租金收益,可谓一举两得,但实情不过是掩耳盗铃自欺欺人。

  有些厂商不是把原来的仓库租给零部件供应商,而是“邀请”供应商在自己的装配线附近自建仓库,以保证随时随地地提货需求。

  汽车行业普遍推行的4S店服务网络,如果4S店内经常告知用户没有配件,要等待工厂安排生产之后才可以提供维修服务的话,相信不久生产工厂会陷于真正的无须库存的局面——没有客户买车,用不着生产了。

  在终端产品兴隆的时候,零部件供应商通常会“乐意”接受下游龙头企业租用其仓库或自建仓库的“邀请”,但是当整个产品链的销售终端出现问题的时候,或者供应商的资金被占用过大难以负担的时候,他们也会做出真正的“零库存”管理——停止供货。重汽就在低谷时期遇到过这种墙倒众人推的情况。当供应商告诉装配厂商自己的仓库里是真正的“零库存”的时候,以零库存管理为骄傲的装配厂商就再也“骄傲”不起来了,整个一个叶公好龙。

  如果你也是一个供应商,如果你的客户要推行“零库存”管理,那可不见得是一个好事情呢。







发表于 2010-12-16 11:30:58 | 显示全部楼层

同意楼主

发表于 2011-7-10 09:54:56 | 显示全部楼层
是的。很多情况是这样。
发表于 2011-7-10 10:42:27 | 显示全部楼层
零库存是一个目标,这个目标是建立在不影响销售和服务的情况下才适用,这需要企业有一个相对成熟的环境和对自身产品相对合理的评估,不能一概而论。
一家之言,欢迎拍砖
发表于 2011-7-22 09:38:54 | 显示全部楼层
喊了几年“零库存”管理,但真正做到了的,估计也都倒闭了。
发表于 2011-7-23 10:30:15 | 显示全部楼层
同意4楼的看法,学习中
发表于 2011-7-25 16:54:41 | 显示全部楼层
零就是没有。所以所谓的零库存的管理,就是压根没有这么回事。就像零缺陷管理一样,这永远都是一个美丽梦。可以做梦,可以有追求,但不能痴人说梦。
发表于 2011-7-25 20:48:42 | 显示全部楼层
产品个性化需求日益强化,产品本身的模块化、标准化在技术上、管理上成了瓶颈,零库存,找死。
发表于 2011-8-9 21:28:19 | 显示全部楼层
理论是是不错,不过如果有些具体上的实例说明就更好了
发表于 2011-8-11 15:26:43 | 显示全部楼层
每个企业的实际情况还是不一样的,当然也有做的好的。How to Go to the Gemba: Go See, Ask Why, Show Respect
Shook, John
6/21/2011
Everyone who has caught the lean bug shares at least one symptom: we love to observe work. We love to go to the gemba and watch the value creating work, the real work of the business.
Since joining LEI less than a year ago, I have accepted invitations to visit your gemba on five (whew!) continents. Concluding a recent gemba walk, the question came up, "What do you look for ... ?" Here are some guidelines I use when doing a gemba walk as an outside advisor.
Go See, Ask Why, Show Respect
The words of Toyota Chairman Fujio Cho, "Go see, ask why, show respect" are now famous as basic lean principles. I first heard the words from Mr. Cho himself when I was deputy general manager during the early 1990s start-up of the Toyota Supplier Support Center in the USA. Each week began with a meeting with Mr. Cho, who was acting as advisor, to discuss activities, progress, problems, and plans.
Go see, ask why, show respect is the way we turn the philosophy of scientific empiricism into actual behavior. We go observe what is really happening (at the gemba where the work takes place), while showing respect to the people involved, especially the people who do the real value-creating work of the business. So now let's do a job breakdown.
Go See
It starts with "go see," so how do you go see? What do you look for?
We want to understand every gemba from the standpoints of Purpose, Process, and People. Asked most simply and directly: is management working to align people and process to achieve purpose? Are processes designed to enable people to work toward achieving organizational purpose? Here are some questions to dig deeper into this:
What is the purpose of this gemba and of the broader organization? Are they aligned? Can you see that alignment in the process and the people?
Are processes designed consistently to achieve the purpose?
Are people engaged in working to achieve the purpose, and are they supported in this work by the processes?
Although purpose ostensibly comes first, I usually focus first on process when walking a gemba. I often begin by asking just a few simple, direct questions about purpose. What is the organization or individual trying to accomplish - objectives and problems - in general, and/or TODAY. After this we immediately begin our walk, observing and asking questions focusing on the process. Later, I always circle back to deeper questions of purpose, objectives, and problems.
Observing for process and people dimensions means seeking to understand the gemba (whether the specific gemba being visited or the broader organization) as a socio-technical system. I personally like to try to understand the technical side first. Though I observe both dimensions in parallel, if I can first understand what this gemba is trying to accomplish technically or mechanically - grasping the technical side of their problem - then I can easily conceive the best questions to ask to help them better understand where their real problems are what they need to do next.
So, based on the current situation of your gemba, I can begin to consider exactly what this gemba and these people need to learn. Then, I can think of how I can help them learn it.
Ask Why
Having gone to see, now standing at the gemba, how do we go about understanding or analyzing the technical or process side of understanding the gemba-as-system? First, a thought-question for you:
What did you look for last time you went to the gemba? What do you look for whenever you go to the gemba?
Here are four ways people view work through very different "lean lenses":
1. Solution view
Look for opportunities to use lean tools
You must be careful here. Use of a tool for the tool's sake is one of the most common reasons for failure of lean initiatives large or small and once the pattern has been set is most difficult to overcome
Remember that lean thinking is about never jumping to conclusions or solutions, so the solution view isn't really a lean view at all. But, it is a very common amongst well-intentioned and even highly experienced practitioners.
2. Waste view
Look for waste
The seven (or eight) types
Especially overproduction
Other types
3. Problem view
Start with the worksite objectives.
Confirm: "What are you trying to achieve?"
Ask: "Why can't you?"
Focus on system, quality, delivery, cost, morale
Problems: the presenting symptom or problem in performance
Causes: points of cause in the work
4. Kaizen view - seek patterns, forms, tools, routines, "kata"
Apply at the system level - "system kaizen"
Value-stream mapping plus material and information flow for system design
Apply at the system level - "point kaizen"
Standardized work and daily kaizen
Both the kaizen view and problem view are solidly founded on PDCA (plan, do, check, act). The problem view is flexible and requires no specific lean knowledge. But, it can take a long time to see results, and the path may be very uncertain. It is enabled by a robust problem-solving process that can take many specific forms. Toyota's eight-step (Toyota Business Process - TBP) process is a very good one. Seek it out and give it a try.
Like the problem view, the kaizen view embodies PDCA, but it also looks to establish specific (whether new or well-understood) patterns of behaviors. These patterns - kata - lead to learning, continuous improvement, and innovation of new patterns. The concept is to "enter through form" - to master the behavior patterns to make them habitual in order to learn the thinking. Take a look at Mike Rother's book, Toyota Kata.
To observe with a kaizen view, it is useful to start your gemba walk as close as possible to the customer and work your way back, considering "what would flow look like?" throughout. Think system as well as individual process. The patterns, routines, and tools of the Toyota Production System are designed to be structures for improvement and learning. They help us see clearly and understand and also help us teach and mentor. That is, they are just the things (solutions and means of deriving solutions) that we teach, the vehicles through which we can ask questions to teach and mentor.
Unfortunately, I still find the kaizen view to be sorely missing in most gemba walks I observe. And yet I am pleased that more lean thinkers are moving beyond the "solutions lens" (which is not really lean thinking at all), past the simple waste lens (yes, we don't want waste, but we need to seek understanding of WHY the waste is there and WHAT we can do about the CAUSES of the waste), and many are working firmly within a problem-solving framework. This represents great progress for the lean community.
Asking Questions at the Gemba
Although it is the second element of "go see, ask why, show respect," "why?" is not actually the first question we want to ask at the gemba. First ask what, then why, then what if ... and, finally, why not.
The purpose and process of asking why:
Stand and observe. Your car has a GPS; you need a GTS - a Grasp The Situation process. We need to train our lean eyes to see and minds simply to ask what first. Asking why - to diagnose - comes later. As David Verble says, "Ask no "why?" before its time." (Check in with David and the other sensei in the new A3 Dojo on lean.org.)
Show Respect
When going to see, lean thinking mandates (yes, mandates) that we show respect to all the people, especially the people who do the value-creating work of the business, the activities that create value for customers. When visiting any gemba, through showing respect for the workers we also show respect for customers and the company, analyzing for evidence of disconnects between stated objectives, perhaps expressed in the organization's "true north" visions statements, versus what we actually observed at the gemba.

Always look for signs of disrespect toward:
Workers - especially muri or overburden
Customers - poor delivery or poor quality - especially from controllable mura or fluctuation and variation
The enterprise itself - found in problems and muda or waste, in all its forms
But, the worker is the first and best place to look. Think of this flow:
Respect People -› Rely on People -› Develop People -› Challenge People
We respect people because we believe it's the right thing to do and simply because it makes good business sense.
Think of building your operating system from the value-creating worker out. Observe the worker and steadily take away each and every bit of nonvalue-creating "work." Continue doing that, engaging the worker in the process, until nothing is left except value-creating work, until all the waste has been eliminated and non-value-creating work isolated and taken away, distributed to support operations.
To achieve that level of lean-ness, you will find that you will simply have to engage the hearts and minds of the people doing the work. You will have to rely on them, just as you have to rely on them to come to work and do their job so you can get paid by your customers.
Once we've recognized that we have no choice but to rely on our employees, it is easy to see the next step, which is that we need to develop them. As the lean saying goes, "Before we make product, we make people."
Which leads directly to the most characteristically lean dimension of respect for people: challenge. Respect for people is often mistaken for establishing the enlightened modern democratic workplace in which everyone is treated with great deference, politically correct politeness. Yet, respect demands that we challenge each other to be the best that we can be. The skill of setting challenging expectations is one of the most important skills of lean leadership.
Most of all, respect means doing what we can to make things better for workers, which starts by not making things worse. And we still find leaders doing more of their share of damage even as they try to help!
Which leads to the first rule of gemba walking: "Do no harm!"
A Note on Gemba-Based Leadership
Everywhere we go, we still find overwhelming evidence that the conventional view of leader as answerman (or woman) - the leader who always has a ready answer and whose answer always right - remains strong. And, certainly, the leader's role in providing vision, direction, showing the path to true north is foundational to lean success.
But, we also see overwhelming evidence of the damage done by the broadcast of executive answers that reverberate negatively throughout the organization. I should emphasize that the above guidelines were my own, based on doing gemba visits as an invited, outside observer. It's vital for each of us to consider first, depending on where you work in your organization, where is your real gemba? It's easy for leaders to cause more trouble than they alleviate - CEOs who try to directly eliminate waste often cause more waste than they prevent!
Here are two simple sets of questions for you:
We already asked: "What did you look for the last time you went to the gemba?" "What do you look for (generally) when you go to the gemba?"
Then ask, "What did you do?"
And the subsequent set of questions:
"What will you look for next time you go to the gemba?" "What will you look for (generally) when you go to the gemba?" "What will you do?"
In other words, ask what will you do to help?
Whenever prescriptions are issued from afar, bad things are likely to happen. The best antidote we know? Confirm what is actually happening, as it is happening. Diagnose and prescribe as close in time and place as possible to the work. We think it's one of the most important principles and practices of lean management.
John Shook
Chairman and CEO

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