Applied Technology and Science, Inc. is now providing a 37 point no-cost assessment of the Opportunities for Improvement in your production operations. This assessment focuses on making you competitive in your industry. To schedule this free assessment or to understand how we can help you troubleshoot production problems, contact us directly at 610-850-2769 or Click Here To Send an Email.
Discussions of the status of the economy and how manufacturing enterprises are responding. (Click on name of article to view article)
The Save Energy Now® program of the Department of Energy is a national initiative that aims to drive a reduction of 25% or more in industrial energy intensity in 10 years. All around the country, assessments conducted at energy-intensive manufacturing facilities are helping U.S. companies uncover ways to save energy and money, enhance their competitiveness in global markets, and improve their bottom line. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) offers several options for energy- and cost-saving plant assessments. You can read about how to get started on your assessment in this Department of Energy brochure.
The Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Centers publish a worthwhile trade journal for manufacturing companies, PA Manufacturer. It is available online at www.pamanufacturer.com. In the most recent issue there are a number of important articles on the future of manufacturing; however, this one that I found most interesting. Another worthwhile article in the same issue, “The Next Generation of Manufacturing” reviews how Pennsylvania manufacturers view the future in manufacturing and the important strategies.
Discussions of the methods and practices to improve manufacturing operations. (Click on name of article to view article)
Operations is that part of a manufacturing enterprise that is concerned with the making and distribution of the product or products. You can get ulcers and loose sleep over making this part of an enterprise function smoothly. Operations include the functions of Purchasing, Manufacturing & Production Control, Quality, Maintenance, Warehousing and Shipping.
Lack of focus, unexpected developments, inexperienced people, insufficient people or making improvements in these areas can all result in missed shipments and unhappy customers. Operations Facilitation is the grease that smoothes over these rough spots that creep up from time-to-time in the Operations side of a company. These rough spots are what result in missed shipments. The grease is provided by a person experienced in the Operations side of a manufacturing enterprise.
Clearly, if you are happy with the performance of your company, if you already have a program in place that is improving your metrics everyday, if these popular programs can’t meet your goals or if you just plain “don’t have the time” (maybe because you are busy solving the problems), well then don’t invest in a Lean or Six Sigma program.
You ask yourself, “Should I invest in using bar coding on my plant floor? What is the payback?” The payback for such a system is usually between 9 and 12 months. Read more to understand how to get this benefit for your company.
What do you know about the status of your production floor? What is the status of the current jobs that are on the floor? What are the holdups? Are there yield or scrap problems that you don’t know about? Are your production lines and machines operating as defined on the router? In many companies, this information exists in manual logs and notes on the shop packet paperwork and is usually gathered by the Production Supervisor/Manager at the beginning of the shift. So if a rush order comes in, what’s done? Is the same information gathered again? Unless someone goes out on the floor and gathers that information again, the current status of a job is unknown. If you don’t gather the information after the job has been released to the floor and you wait until it is completed … there’s an Information Black Hole.
Long changeover and setup times kill productivity and increase costs especially when there are small lot sizes. There is a solution! Back in the 50’s and 60’s, Shigeo Shingo developed what has become known as the SMED System. SMED stands for Single Minute Exchange of Dies. Not every changeover can be done in 1 minute, but by using Shingo’s ideas, changeover times in many industries have been reduced from hours to a few minutes.
Sustainable Manufacturing is defined as “the creation of manufactured products that use processes which minimize negative environmental impacts, conserve energy and natural resources, are safe for employees, communities, and consumers and are economically sound.” However, right now in this economy for many manufacturing companies the more significant issue is sustaining the business, period. Do you realize that implementing the Lean Manufacturing practices will not only help you sustain your company, but also minimize its negative environmental impacts?
Once you have identified what problem to starton in the “Hidden Factory,” the fix for the problem can be obvious, but often it is not. When the fix is not obvious, an effective and efficient method of attack is needed. There is a proven process to finding what in a production process changes and results in defective parts in a production process.
The “Hidden Factory” as a cost generator. Knowing about this factory, the question is “Where do you start in eliminating it?” The answer lies in the 80-20 Rule with which most all of us are familiar. That is 80% of your hidden factory comes from only 20% of the defects causing rework or scrap. Gathering the data to perform this Pareto analysis is where you get started towards eliminating the "Hidden Factory."
Most companies will have some idea of the level of scrap associated with their production. Fewer companies will have an understanding of the amount of rework required to get the product out the door. Rework is often called the hidden factory! Reducing the size of this hidden factory is one key to controlling and reducing production costs.