“Taktical Manufacturing" is a lean manufacturing hybrid that involves coordinating and integrating logistics and assigning resources that span the strategic and operational levels of manufacturing. In practice, Taktical Manufacturing is the ability to quickly alter the manufacturing process by employing a mix of personnel and flexible equipment that lends itself to either rapid change or removal from the production line while maintaining best lean practices.
Similar to a military operation, “Taktical” manufacturing’s core logic is based on re-configuring, re-positioning and re-using fixed assets to react to the vagaries of market demand.
In Manufacturing, this thought process is very different from the past. Companies have had large capital budgets to build large equipment to produce a specific product. When this product has low schedules, the equipment takes up valuable floor space and isn't available to produce other products.
Flexible work cells are not a new idea and term has been used for a quite some time. The ability to develop and utilize a flexible work cell has been slow to catch on. Old school thought process can be hard to change. For those who have adapted to Taktical Manufacturing, they are seeing the benefits immediately and see their production floor in a much different light.