As I mentioned in a previous post, design is more than just making physical objects but also incorporates non-physical entities.
I’ve entertained the idea of starting my own business for a while and as a result have become fascinated with the idea of production planning. Basically, it involves the design of the most streamlined manufacturing process with minimal raw materials, least amount of excess product on shelves but always having enough to supply every customer with your widget.
I started by doing a bit of research on Wikipedia and it seems like the first genius to think about this was Joseph Orlicky. He observed the production at Toyota and how efficient they where with their process and whether or not there were excess cars sitting in lots that weren’t selling.
I’m interested in this process as I’d like to design T-shirts for people to wear but don’t want excess sizes laying around that don’t sell. These days production planning is mostly handled with software that analyzes all aspects of your and outputs a figure. I think that finding some good software will be the next step in my journey.