Every manufacturer knows that there is a cycle time for the finished product, and individual cycle times for each operation. A finished product's cycle time also includes the transit times between production work cells. Lower the transit times, and the company has effectively increased its production throughput. Granted, some companies have effectively reduced their cycle times, and don't see any additional way to reduce them. However, what about using workflow diagrams that outline point-to-point transit times? Is there a way to reduce overall times by reducing the time it takes to move physical parts? Yes there is!
Lowering production work cell transit times on parts and materials enables manufacturers to streamline their process, improve efficiency, increase productivity rates and most importantly, lower their cycle times.However, workflow diagrams aren’t merely suited to streamlining manufacturing. In fact, they can be used in any situation where a group of individuals have a dependant relationship on work. In essence, the work of one individual or department, must move to another. Reduce the transit time, and the company improves efficiencies.
Many view this approach as being similar to business process mapping. However, there is a distinct difference between the two. Business process mapping outlines a company’s business processes. Workflow management discusses the physical layout on the production floor and how reducing transit times improves production throughput. So, what would a workflow diagram look like? More importantly, what can be done to reduce the transit times between these work cells?
To answer these questions, consider the workflow diagram below and the ‘spaghetti” lines that depict the movement of parts to and from “Shipping & Receiving”. In essence, parts and materials are received, are moved to QC for inspection before being entered into inventory. Once they are received in inventory, the company issues a work order and the parts or materials move onto the next stage of “cutting cast & clean”. The lines indicate the paths of both semi-finished and finished parts as they progress from one stage to the next. Minimizing the transit times between these work stations will eventually lead to a lower overall cycle time and increased production throughput.
Start by outlining your existing production floor layout. Next, track the progress of work from one cell to the next. If lines are crisscrossing far too much – going from one end of the production floor to the next – then your current layout needs to be changed. For cycle times to be reduced means to effectively reduce the time it takes to move parts from one chain to the next. Granted, not all of these steps happen in sequence. Parts received in inventory may take a while before they called out on work orders. However, a natural progression from one cell to the next not only reduces cycle times, it also reduces the impact of damage during transit.
The video above is taken from a more recent post entitled Manufacturing Work Cell Optimization: Design, Layout and Analysis
Reducing work cell transit times with workflow diagrams is very simple and straightforward. Unfortunately, a number of my customers question the validity behind reducing transit times between production work cells. These customers chalk up high cycle times as simply the cost of doing business. In essence, they rationalize these transit times and ignore their impact. To them, what’s a couple of seconds here and there? Well, take those ‘couple of seconds” and see what impact they have daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Once you do, you’ll see those “couple of seconds” add up to minutes, hours and days of valuable production time. Reducing cycle times means to effectively reduce the time it takes to move parts from one cell to the next. Do this successfully, and you've minimized lost time in each of those cells.
To read about business process mapping, please read:Small Manufacturers Making Custom Parts Need Business Process Mapping
To read about a simple approach to reduce bottlenecks in operations, please read: Does Your Company Know How to Identify Bottlenecks in Operations?
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