From Henry to Taiichi to Chuck:
Manufacturing in the Custom Economy

We provide products and services to electric utility, telecommunications, tree care, lights and signs and contractor markets. A large piece of what we do is manufacture truck bodies for bucket trucks, digger derricks, mobile cranes, and the like. Which is why we are more than a little interested in how manufacturing is evolving as we move into a custom economy.

A Little History

Henry Ford is widely (and wrongly) credited with having invented the assembly line. While he can’t rightly own that distinction, he can be credited with creating the first plant to mass-produce and sell automobiles that middle class citizens could afford.

Ford built his operation around the notion of systemically lowering cost and minimizing waste. He structured his Model T assembly line in the sequence that the automobile would be built. Prior to that, manufacturing took place in batches.

Fast forward to post-war Japan. Kiichiro Toyoda, the son of inventor and early Japanese industrialist, Sakichi Toyoda, took what he had learned from his father’s automation of the Toyoda Loom Works and applied it to what was considered a high-risk venture at the time – the manufacture of automobiles.

The Toyota Production System (TPS) would spring out of a powerful tradition of inventiveness and out-of-the-box thinking. Built around the notions of: not overburdening the plant, keeping effort consistent, and eliminating waste, TPS took the notions Ford had developed to the next level. But it would be an employee, Taiichi Ohno who would fine-tune the TPS model creating the precursor to Lean Manufacturing. When asked where he found his inspiration, he laughed and replied that it had been Henry Ford’s book. Full circle.

The New Paradigm: Custom Manufacturing

As you can see, automotive manufacturing has led the way towards streamlined, incredibly efficient manufacturing systems.

So what’s next? Answer: custom manufacturing.

While there has always been a certain level of customization offered consumers in the automotive markets, (after all, you can pick your paint color and accessories package), those customizations have largely been off-the-shelf, plug-and-play solutions. In other words, the lines are already set up to produce a Sunset crimson, Ford Escape with the Light Stone interior, a 2.5L i-VCT I-4 engine, and 19″ Painted Luster Nickel Alloy wheels. But the custom economy we will see ramping up over the next few years takes the notion of “custom” to a whole new sphere. And, upon pondering, you’ll see that it’s the natural evolution of manufacturing – just in time for the natural evolution of what customers want.

So what are the factors of this so-called “evolution?”

1. The digitization of virtually all information. They’re calling it IOE, the Internet of Everything. And it’s happening fast. Already, online advertising has become personal. Already, you can use your phone to talk to your refrigerator at home. Bottom line, information is flowing at the speed of light and it’s changing the way we do everything.

2. Lean Manufacturing. Fact is, we’re just getting better and better at making things. By creating a lean and agile manufacturing approach, companies are able to be more responsive on a level unheard of just a decade ago.

3. Just-In-Time inventory (JIT). Okay, so there’s nothing really new about pursuing JIT. What’s new is our ability to achieve it at deeper levels in the manufacturing process.

The result of all of these influences is a manufacturing scenario where a customer can ask for virtually any design change and have the product (in our case, electric utility vehicles) manufactured and delivered in little more time than it takes to produce a standard model. At Altec, seamless communication between customers, our engineering department working in sophisticated 3D modeling platforms, and on-the-floor plant management have made this level of customization a reality, and it’s only going to get easier.

So, what’s next in the custom economy?

That just might be where Chuck comes in. You see, Chuck Hull invented the 3D printer, and we can only imagine where that technology will take us next.

To learn more about Altec products and services, please contact an Altec representative today.