What exactly do I mean when I state that production employees must operate like surgeons? Well, when you think of a doctor operating on a patient, think of how all their tools are in close proximity to them. Think of how efficient they are with their time and how everything they need is right beside them. Can they afford to wait? Can they afford to have periods where nothing is happening, when the patient is left idle, where they are unable to proceed because they lack the essential tools or information? Of course not! If that were to happen, the patient would die. It’s the exact same thing when it comes to manufacturing.
The Importance of Eliminating Work Stoppages
So what does it take to make sure that your production employees are able to minimize the impact of work stoppages? To answer this question, think of the ideal manufacturing work station. Think of how production employees perform better when they have clear assembly outlines and drawings, well-defined bill of materials and work orders that are clear, concise and easy to understand. Think of how easily production flows from one work station to the next. Think of the importance of having the proper tools, the right training and the ability to decipher universal instructions. Finally, think of how well employees perform when they work in an environment where personal and professional development is encouraged, and most importantly, one where production bullies are segregated and never rewarded for bad behavior.
When I work with manufacturers, the best and brightest have all these areas covered. Unfortunately, the ones who encounter multiple work stoppages are the ones who rationalize the lost time due to these aforementioned issues. In essence, they are not allowing their production employees to operate like surgeons. So what's involved in helping make that happen?
1. Design the Ideal Work Cell and Work Station
There are a myriad of causes of lost time, but the only way you’ll know what’s causing them is to see production in person. As such, don’t rely upon your ERP or MRP system to tell you what the cycle times are in a given work cell. These systems can tell you the times, but they can’t tell you how to lower them and increase production throughput. For that to happen, you must see production happen in real-time and in person. Ultimately, this involves capturing the causes of work stoppages, eliminating them as going concerns and redesigning the entire work cell.
Three Simple Lean Manufacturing Work Cell Designs
I've included three simple work cell and work station layouts, in addition to a video explaining how important it is for manufacturing employees to have free access to tools and instructions within these work stations. There is a link to an article that explains how to design these cells.
U-Cell Design:
T-Cell Design:
Z-Shaped Design:
The above video and work cell design are from the post: Manufacturing Work Cell Optimization: Design, Layout and Analysis
2. Reducing Transit Times and Analyzing Cycle Time Variances
Those “few seconds here and there” add up. It’s essential to understand that every product has a total cycle time. There is a cycle time for individual operations in each work station, and a total cycle time for the finished good. That includes the transit time between production stations and how work flows from one work cell to the next. Tracking transit times is an essential aspect of eliminating work stoppages in manufacturing.
To get a better perspective of how important it is to minimize transit times, please read this example of a customer I worked with whose overall transit times were simply too high. Minimizing Transit Times Between Production Work Cells
The video, table and graph above is taken from the post: Cycle Time Tracking & Variance Analysis in Excel for Small Manufacturers. The post allows you to track your cycle time variances in individual work cells on an excel sheet. The graph then depicts these times for you, thereby allowing you to pinpoint areas of concern.
3. Proper Tools & Resource Utilization
One of the biggest issues I see when I work with manufacturers is how much they rely upon shared resources. In most cases, they rationalize those “few seconds here and there” and assume that sharing tools equates to saving money. If there is one thing you must take away from this post, it’s that sharing tools and resources when you don’t have to, doesn’t save money; in the end, it costs money! Do away with this antiquated view that sharing tools and resources is a means to reduce costs. I have never seen it work.
4. Clean Bill of Materials, Outlines and Work Instructions
When you analyze a given production work station, you’ll become astonished at the amount of lost time due to incomplete bill of materials, poor assembly outlines and confusing work instructions. To truly have a mobile work force, your company must not allow lost time to repeat itself due to these issues. These are easily corrected.
Granted, it takes some time to correct these problems. However, once you do, you’ll notice an immediate impact on your productivity rates. Make it a point to clean up these work instructions. In addition, make sure that there is a universal language spoken on your production floor. This means that everyone understands how to read, decipher and identify issues pertaining to work orders, bill of materials and assembly outlines.
Using the Substructure Analysis
A sub-assembly and substructure analysis allows you to isolate your most common raw materials, sub-components and consumables across your entire product portfolio. This will help you eliminate redundant parts and help to limit the number of inventory skews and counts your company must carry.
The above is taken from the post: Bill of Materials Essentials: Substructure & Sub-assembly Analysis. The post explains how you can isolate your most common consumables and parts in order to reduce costs, streamline your bill of materials, reduce your inventory skews and eliminate downtime.
5. Be Mindful of the Production Bully!
Don't ignore the production bully and his or her influence on coworkers and other production employees. These bullies must have the best of everything. They insist on the best tools, the best work and the most important responsibilities. They don't warrant their roles or responsibilities by virtue of a hard work ethic. Instead, they secure it by bullying those around them. If you don't think this is an issue, you're dead wrong! Production bullies aren't just resigned to intimidating coworkers; their influence can extend to managers as well. I've seen the impact of production bullies first hand, and I can promise you that their impact on lost time is quite substantial.
When companies hear me explain why their production employees must operate like surgeons, it immediately begins to resonate with the issues they’re having on the production floor. When I finish a given project, most customers are surprised at how the solution means taking simple steps to reduce down time. This involves identifying the root causes of downtime, putting a plan in motion to reduce their impact and having a work force that can immediately identify issues. Granted, it takes time. However, the best and brightest enterprises don’t make this a onetime thing. They continually raise the bar on increasing their productivity rate and eliminating lost and idle time in production.
To read about dealing with such issues, please read Manufacturing Change Management: Isolating Enemies of Change
To get a better idea of how you can use workflow diagrams to better manage your production floor, please read: Reducing Production Work Cell Transit Times with Workflow Diagrams
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