Today’s difficult times amidst the coronavirus are putting an immense amount of pressure on many businesses. Demand fluctuation, supply chain disruption, illness, and fear of illness are keeping the workforce at home. As a result, the need to implement lean manufacturing is more essential- and has the potential to be more helpful- than ever.
Significant improvement can be achieved quickly, contrary to what many people think. Once the gains are realized, leadership can rally the organization to sustain and increase the improvements.
Clients of lean manufacturing consultants typically benefit from:
· Daily overtime elimination
· Line staffing requirements reduction by 20%
· Daily production output increase by 50% or more
How?
1. Define the problem that needs to be solved. Typically, the area of focus is ‘closest to the customer,’ which in most cases is final assembly. There are often several problems that need to be addressed but a targeted, organized approach is required if significant improvement is to be achieved. Often, many of the other problems will be solved while being laser focused on the ‘big problem’. For example, if the focus is on labor reduction, a company will find that in order to reduce labor, quality defects must be eliminated.
2. Determine objective measures. For example, perhaps current output of 100 units per day must be increased to 200 units per day, or 10-hour shifts must be reduced to standard 8-hours shifts, etc. Of course, objective measures are useless without corresponding completion dates.
3. Establish an output target. Define the required total output over a given time frame, then calculate the required production pace. For example:
· 10000 units required in a 4 week time frame.
· 4 weeks is typically 20 working days (do not include weekends, scheduled holidays, etc)
· Determine the number of production shifts to be utilized, i.e. for this example, assume 2 shifts.
· Determine the actual working time per shift, for example and 8-hour shift with a 20 minute lunch, 10 minute break, 10 minute startup (meeting, calibration time, etc), 10 minute end of shift clean up time results in 7 hours and 10 minutes of production time or 430 minutes.
· Based on two shifts per day there are 860 minutes of production time (2 x 430 minutes)
· 500 units per day (10000/20=500)
· Required production pace (Takt Time or TT) is 1.66 minutes per unit or 99 seconds per unit (830 minutes/500 units=1.66 minutes per unit)
4. Determine the required work content per unit. This is done by measuring the time is takes to actually produce a product for the area in question. The tool used is referred to as a ‘time observation’ which is a detailed measurement of the time required at each step in the operation. This is slightly different than traditional Industrial Engineering time studies. It is important to recognize that in measuring the work content we do not include operator wait time. Every operation contains waste, and in the beginning the most obvious waste is operator wait time. Recognizing the waste of waiting early in the process and eliminating most of it is where significant initial gains are made.
Examples of wait time in operations:
· People waiting on people (work is not balanced to the required pace, or there is no pace)
· People waiting for parts/materials (some type of delay in the process)
· People waiting for machines to cycle (“watching the washing machine”)
Once the total work content is known (∑CT) we can calculate the number of people required (Team members or #TM);
The number of team members required (#TM) = total work content (∑CT) divide by the pace (TT)
#TM=∑CT/TT
5. Distribute the required work to the number of required team members, another specific but basic technical tool of Lean Manufacturing.
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Improvement will result when the new process is implemented, and most importantly, many opportunities for improvement will be exposed in the process. The new process likely won’t be 100% effective at first, because of the numerous problems that already exist in the operation. These problems have been hidden by adding resources to the operation in order to meet demand (adding hours, adding people, adding equipment). With Lean Manufacturing, we expose the problems (waste) so they can be eliminated. This is the core concept of Lean manufacturing based on the Toyota Production System (Toyota Production System, Taiichi Ohno, page 3).
To learn more about the TPS, click here. And don’t forget- we want to hear from you! What areas of opportunity have you identified in your operation, but aren’t sure how to fix? Click here to contact us.
A comprehensive, committed approach, the courage to try, and the right work ethic will save your business millions with lean manufacturing.
Are you looking for a lean manufacturing consultant? LJ OKeefe Inc is a premiere lean manufacturing consulting firm with over 30 years of experience based in Atlanta, Georgia. Contact us today to discuss your challenges and learn how we can help you stop wasting so much time and money. Or, check out our client's real results, our approach and services, and other helpful lean manufacturing blogs.
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