HOW TO MANAGE A PRODUCTION WITH MULTIPLE PARTS:
YOU NEED A TIPTOP RECIPE – COOKING SKILLS ARE NOT ENOUGH
Some time ago, an old and well-established company (Aasted) approached us with a challenge. One of their devices, a ChocoMeter, had numerous problems at the time – could we take care of the development of an updated version? Of course, we could!
The ChocoMeter is a complicated device with a lengthy parts list, and it’s rather costly, implicating that it shouldn’t look cheap. Producing a device like this is of course much more complex than the production of alone parts, I think it consists of maybe 35-40 components.
This really is a puzzle sometimes. All parts come from different suppliers and have to be in our hands at the same time, when it’s time for assembly. If one is missing, the project will be delayed.
Maybe one of the parts is only accessible in amounts of 500 or more. What are we to do? We can’t be left with a giant surplus stock of 475 of something we have no use for in the future. This can be dealt with, for sure, but it has to be taken care of.
I’ve seen a good many projects like production of the ChocoMeter end up in chaos. And why?
It’s much like cooking, really. It’s no problem if all ingredients are in the fridge, and you have a proper recipe, then most people can get a decent dish out of it. But here he situation is different. We do all the shopping for you and most importantly: we make the recipe.
A great deal of our efforts is precisely developing the recipe, or the work instructions as we call them. We describe every little detail – all are important, because it only takes one misunderstanding to ruin the entire product.
We end up having an advanced user’s manual leaving no unanswered questions. At EA-Connect we love this kind of work. Especially when high quality chocolate is the outcome…
The ChocoMeter developed by Aasted allows the customer to measure a small sample of the chocolate mass to test the quality of the tempered chocolate. You lower a cup into the fluent chocolate and transfer the lot to the ChocoMeter on which you can check and monitor the viscosity of the chocolate solution.
