Small manufacturers must track their actual production volumes relative to their production goals in order to define their percentage in
attaining those goals. In this case, a column bar graph fills the role of being
both a production schedule and a production report. This provides insight
into the ups and downs of a company’s production volumes on a monthly,
quarterly and yearly basis.
This report helps a small manufacturer summarize their quarterly and yearly production volumes. The information can be used to address possible concerns and issues in-between these periods. So, what does such a report look like and how can small manufacturers use it in order to identify potential issues in manufacturing?
A Simple Production Report
A production report is meant to track a manufacturer’s production rates by comparing actual production volumes to budgeted production volumes. The report helps companies define their production rate percentages in any given month, quarter or year. They are then able to isolate potential issues from the previous month and address those issues head-on for the upcoming month.
Unfortunately, manufacturers can’t just produce the report and glance over their results. Instead, they must analyze results, look for trends and identify immediate causes of work stoppages. Ultimately, the report doesn’t merely define a company’s actual production volumes versus its budgeted volumes; the report also aims to provide guidance on why one month or quarter was better than the previous month or quarter.
Identifying Work Stoppages
So, the report aims to summarize a company’s production volumes in order to help it identify potential manufacturing issues. However, what could these issues include? Answering this question doesn’t merely involve listing multiple potential causes of downtime. The reality is that there are far too many reasons for work stoppages to occur. Instead, it’s a question of listing the specific causes the company is encountering on a monthly and quarterly basis and then itemizing what needs to be done in order to remove them as going concerns.
This points to the importance of setting up a benchmark review period, one where the production team can review the prior month’s totals and plan for the upcoming month’s production needs.
Identifying work stoppages and idle time comes down to understanding proper work cell layout and design.
The Production Schedule & Report
The following production schedule outlines a small manufacturer’s month-to-month totals for one year. The grey columns represent the company’s budgeted or expected production volumes. The light blue columns represent actual production volumes. The red fluctuating line, or scatter series line, represents the company’s month-to-month production rates.
You can access a similar report by going to: Production Tracking Excel Sheet With Tables for Small Manufacturers
The above production schedule and report is drawn from the table below. The company has tracked its attained production volumes relative to its goals for each and every month of its fiscal year. Next, it defines its “percentage attained to goal” by taking the “attained volumes”, or volumes it produced in a given month, and dividing them by the “production goal” for that month. For example, January’s budgeted production volume was 500 units. However, the company only produced 450 units. In order to determine the company’s percentage attained to its goal, it would take its 450 units divided by 500 units. This would give them 0.9 and they would multiply it by 100 in order to derive the 90% for the month of January.
Summarize Quarterly Performance
Just as there are reasons to review manufacturing performance from one month to the next, there are an equal number of reasons why small manufacturers must sit down and review their quarterly performance. In fact, in some industries it is far more advantageous to review production volumes quarterly because these volumes are evened out. In essence, analyzing quarterly performance allows a company to offset the highs and lows in any given month. Now, this doesn’t mean that companies don’t track their day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month production volumes. It just means that more emphasis is placed on quarterly reviews.
The above table defines the company’s quarterly performance for the same year. Calculating the quarterly percentages merely involves totalling the three months inside the quarter and dividing by the number of months. Therefore, the first quarter’s 90% is based on January’s 90%, February’s 96% and March’s 85%. These totals combined divided by three gives us 90% for the quarter.
Capturing Work Stoppages
Some of the issues your company should pay close attention to include the following. First, it’s important to itemize the causes of lost time. Are some of these issues self-inflicted or merely a result of operating in your given market? For instance, it’s not uncommon to have a number of work stoppages caused by a lack of material. In this case, material shortages can be a result of a lack of supply, or caused by improperly purchasing the wrong quantities.
Second, define the reasons work stoppages occur. For instance, are there stoppages occurring because of your machinery and equipment? Finally, define the costs of missing your company’s production goals. In some cases, falling short isn’t that big of a deal. However, in other instances it’s incredibly costly. In this case, are your forecasting production volumes based on actual sales volumes or potential sales volumes? Be willing to analyze the impact of coming up short on your production objectives.
The above video is from the post: Capturing Work Stoppages in a Work Cell: Tracking Cycle Times and Defining Benchmark Times in Manufacturing
The best use of this report is for it to be positioned in a high-traffic area on your shop floor. Some of my customers combine this report with a detailed corrective action report. This report outlines what steps were taken to eliminate those aforementioned work stoppages. The idea is to provide constant feedback on what issues have been identified and addressed.
To read more, please go to:
Simplifying Lean Manufacturing: Work Cell Output, Cycle Time Variances & Production Volumes
Cycle Time Tracking & Variance Analysis in Excel for Small Manufacturers
Manufacturing Cycle Times: Use Pareto Charts to Graph Lost Time
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