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August 2017 • The PCB Magazine 31 CROSS-TRAINING CYCLE TIME REDUCTION THROUGH W.O.R.C. For example, due to weight, size and special controlled environments, it would not make sense to create a cell with all the critical process- es needed to build a PCB (drill/rout, plating, im- age, lamination). These are the cases that fit the virtual W.O.R.C. cell model—allocating a single piece of equipment in each of these critical de- partments specifically for W.O.R.C. jobs. Virtual cells require much more discipline than physi- cal cells in keeping this equipment set dedicat- ed only to W.O.R.C. jobs. W.O.R.C. Cell Cross-Training This is the beauty of W.O.R.C. cells, and it applies to all three models. Unlike tradition- al department functional silos that usually re- quire a specialized person for each task, they can be fully operated with a minimum of high- ly skilled workers (Figure 1). There are two col- lateral benefits of this structure: 1) being both flexible and lean allows rapid adjustment to de- mand and mix changes, and 2) the cell is totally self-sufficient. Two key points here: 1. Managers underestimate the value of cross-training. 2. Managers overestimate the difficulty of cross-training. Autonomous This is another concept that takes a while for traditional production managers to accept; the W.O.R.C. cell members need to be totally auton- omous, and I mean totally. They order their own raw materials and supplies, manage the mem- ber's time/hours/overtime, are responsible for equipment maintenance, and schedule the jobs through the cell. The good news is, once the managers responsible for the rest of the shop see how well this works, they embrace it 100% be- cause it makes their job so much easier. Myth-Busting Traditional Thinking Traditional Thinking • Everyone will have to work faster, harder and longer hours to get jobs done in less time • To get jobs out fast, we must keep our machines and people busy all the time • To reduce our lead-times, we must improve our efficiencies and utilization • Installing a Material Requirements Planning (MRP) System (or ERP) will help in reducing lead-times • Since long lead-time items need to be ordered in large quantities, we should negotiate quantity discounts with our suppliers • We should encourage customers to buy our products in large quantities by offering price breaks and quantity discounts • We can reduce lead-times by forming teams in each department • The reason for reducing lead-times is so that we can charge our customers more for reduced lead-time jobs W.O.R.C. Cell Thinking This will be the part that challenges your fi- nancial folks to think outside of the proverbi- al box and move outside of their comfort zone, financially speaking. It will mean moving past everything they learned in business school and have been applying throughout their business careers. However, the good ones with open minds will usually see the wisdom in W.O.R.C. cell thinking where it is appropriate in their Figure 1: The magic of cross-training.