Chasing the sun

Citation

Purdum, T. (2007), "Chasing the sun", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 15 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2007.04415gad.004

Chasing the sun

Chasing the sun

Purdum T. Industry Week (USA), April 2007, Vol. 256 No. 4, Start page: 36, No. of pages: 5

Purpose – To explore the challenges of running a global 24/7 manufacturing operation. Design/methodology/approach – Acknowledging that 24/7 manufacturing is nothing new in the traditional sense of running three shifts, considers the realities of running three shifts on three different continents – global 24/7 manufacturing. Drawing on the experiences of AK Steel Corporation, supply chain practice Accenture, and window fittings manufacturer RollEase Incorporated, discusses a range of issues affecting global 24/7 manufacturing and its management: the importance of maintenance practices which correlate with machine uptime and productivity and profitability; and the scheduling of outages resulting from a planned switch in product mix in addition to maintenance outages. Explores the need to designate appropriate enablement tools such as manufacturing process management tools, common design tools and global change tools; and the problem of managing change across multiple time zones; quality and safety issues; the challenge of maintaining control over far-flung employees, and the importance of succinct communication and managing the level of information given to third-party vendors; and the need to be able to retain control in the event of proprietary issues, natural disasters and tax opportunities. Originality/value – Gives an illustrated and detailed account of 24-hour manufacturing at the global level. ISSN: 0039-0895 Reference: 36AN439

Keywords: Manufacturing, Hours of work, Shiftwork, International trade