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The manufacturing business
objectives potentially affected by rapid prototyping technologies
are:
- throughput time: for example,
by helping to eliminate or speed up bottleneck processes;
- flexibility to support product
development: for example, by being quickly able to develop models,
prototypes and tooling;
- unit costs: for example, by
reducing the costs traditionally associated with customising
products;
- delivery to schedule: for
example, by exploiting time savings to manufacture products faster
to meet due date promises;
- labour productivity: for example,
by eliminating time-consuming processes involved in making models
and tooling;
- flexibility to introduce new
products: for example, by being able to quickly create new tooling
for new products;
- flexibility to customise products:
for example, by developing specific tooling for each customer;
- flexibility to change product
specification: for example, by being able to quickly modify or
create new tooling in response to specification changes; and
- flexibility to change production
volumes: for example, by being able to quickly create additional
tooling in response to increased demand.
These are just a few examples
of strategic issues discussed in the Management
Report |