Productivity on the machine shop floor depends on a combination of efficient employees, equipment and processes. Continuous improvement in all of these areas involves examining the current practices in place and making adjustments to systems, employee training and even the equipment used to generate parts and components.
Before you can adopt any method for continuous improvement for productivity, you will need to measure your existing output levels, create a baseline and implement solutions for measuring change. The first step is all about identifying pain points in your current workflow. Analyze the people, technology and processes required for production as well as the procedures, communication tools and resources available across the company.
Consider using value mapping as a way of identifying and monitoring projects for continuous improvement; this strategy enables managers to pinpoint issues and record how changes impact the overall system.
Share current workflow problems with project managers to develop continuous improvement plans for the manufacturing process. This could mean reassigning resources to different areas of the manufacturing floor, managing budgets or becoming ISO-certified.
Be sure to systematically evaluate performance and interpret any appropriate changes. The manufacturing and metalworking industries are constantly changing. Technological advancements often change the skills required for certain tasks, and workers will require access to regular training to keep up with more advanced specialist skills.
When identifying new technology and equipment, keep in mind the total cost of ownership and how the bottom line will be affected. A high initial expense is worth it if the total cost of ownership is lower than the technology or process you are replacing and if it solves a problem such as a clearing a production bottleneck or reducing scrap.
The fastest way to slow things down is by ignoring regular maintenance. Downtime for maintenance costs much less than downtime due to broken and worn equipment. Maintenance can be scheduled; breakage always comes at the worst possible time. Preventive maintenance ensures that your equipment continues to run smoothly without unexpected downtime or work stoppage.
Employee education and training is an ongoing process. In some industries, certain types of training are mandatory, such as daily safety training for all personnel using safety gear.
New equipment and technology requires training to get the most value. Employee education is also an excellent retention tactic; new employees take time to become proficient, causing a slowdown in production. Your manufacturing facility will run more smoothly if everyone understands your policies on workplace harassment and proper communications. Reduce travel time and distance wherever possible. If a product must be moved from one machine to another, is there a way to shorten the distance, orient the product, or move the product more quickly yet safely to the next step in the process?
Is there a software solution that could improve scheduling? Excess movement is a sign of poor organization and can cost you plenty in production time. Consider techniques such as Kanban just-in-time production to reduce delays and increase efficiency. If you have too much inventory, you need a place to store it and hope you will use it all. If you have too little, you run the risk of a work stoppage as you wait for more inventory.
Optimizing inventory is especially important if you are following lean manufacturing principles such as the previously mentioned Kanban technique. Keep track of rejection rates, declining quality, and late deliveries so you can rectify them with the vendor or find a new one. Product supply and demand changes continuously, so you should review floorplans regularly to adapt to seasonal changes.
Make it easier for your team to navigate the warehouse and for pickers to choose the right stock and reduce fulfilment mistakes. Have clear and concise rack labels, bin labels and warehouse signage. Operational efficiency is about delivering good quality products to the right customers in the most cost-effective and timely manner. There are four factors that contribute to operational efficiency:.
There are a few financial ratios that business owners use to assess their operational efficiency. The simplest way to calculate operational efficiency is:. A lower result indicates greater efficiency. This ratio can be used to assess the business as a whole or for individual areas of operations if you can identify and restrict revenue and costs to that department. You need to measure operational efficiency over time to determine how your efforts are paying off, and to identify patterns and inefficiencies.
Take a scientific approach to it: make a hypothesis before experimenting, alter certain parameters, measure the results, then compare the results with your assumptions and previous workflows. This gives you a better picture of what changes you should make. Make sure you can accurately forecast demand so you know when to place an order and in what quantities.
Learn more about purchasing. Invest in your employees, as they play a role in production efficiency and maintaining product quality.
Simplify the manufacturing process with automation so you can save time, make the best use of resources, ensure consistent product quality and more.
Before investing in an automated system, make sure that it will meet your business needs and has flexible integration capabilities.
Manufacturing operations often involve heavy machines and equipment. If someone gets injured on the production floor, the whole process must stop immediately. Along with the initial trauma and injury you may also need to delay production and miss customer deadlines.
Workplace accidents can also increase insurance costs, damage production equipment and more. Prioritise workplace safety so your staff can work to the best of their ability without worrying about their health and safety.
Equipment failure can throw production off course, causing delays and serious issues down the line. Take a proactive approach and schedule regular maintenance for high-use equipment so you can sustain efficiency. If you manage your supply chain well, you can benefit from better negotiating power and get the best rates and products in the shortest possible time. In turn, this reduces inventory costs and improves your production efficiency.
Make sure you know how supply chain management affects manufacturers:. How well you manage your supply chain affects the timeliness of raw materials arriving at your production site. Poorly managed supply chains can bring production to a halt — late raw materials set back production schedules, leaving employees idle and the company unable to fulfil time-sensitive orders.
Good supply chain management lowers transport costs. Manufacturers with cost-efficient supply chains have lower overheads and direct sales costs. Manufacturers want a balance between fully-owned distribution systems and contractor services.
In-house distribution systems are costly but manufacturers have full control over the process. Relying on contracts can be more affordable but manufacturers risk giving up control. Keeping competitive in the global marketplace means maximising supply chain efficiency. Manufacturers who opt for continuous quality improvement programs like Six Sigma will have different supply chain dynamics — they will need to collaborate more with customers and suppliers than normal.
Manufacturers with a Just-In-Time system, or who serve customers using JIT, need to digitally integrate with their upstream and downstream contacts, which will minimise interactions. Make sure to not confuse it for supply chain effectiveness. An effective supply chain has knock-on effects on all areas of the business. Here are five proven strategies to improve supply chain efficiency:.
Commit to scheduling regular meetings to give your team a chance to address upcoming logistics concerns ahead of time. Face-to-face meetings are another great way to avoid miscommunication and clarify misunderstandings. More transparency in the supply chain improves efficiency for your business and has further benefits to your workforce and your clients. Review your process to see where you can use automation to boost efficiency. Discuss with your team and upper management, taking into account your business needs, current goals and future ambitions.
Your workforce can be a major operational cost component so make sure your staff have the chance to upskill. Improving supply chain efficiency is a continuous process. One way to improve productivity is to reduce production costs. Production costs are the costs incurred in manufacturing a product or providing a service. These can include expenses such as raw materials, labour, suppliers and general overhead. Production costs can also include government taxes and royalties. There are four important types of production costs: variable costs, direct costs, indirect costs and labour costs.
As production increases so do these costs; as it falls variable costs drop too. Packaging costs are a good example of a variable cost — the more products made, the more packaging is needed. Direct costs are expenses that a company can easily connect to a specific product, department or project. This includes items such as software, equipment and raw materials. Even so, small business owners in the manufacturing industry should still prioritize the improvement of their productivity in order to ensure that those survival statistics remain high!
Going over the processes in your manufacturing business means considering several factors, including the employees, the hardware they use, as well as the physical action of production.
Replacing manufacturing equipment can be very expensive, which is why maintenance should be one of your utmost concerns — especially when it comes to manufacturing productivity. Business equipment loans are helpful in covering those costs — but while keeping machines operating at full capacity is important, so is making sure that employees are competent operators of those machines.
If your employees are unable to troubleshoot for bugs and recalibrate the equipment accordingly, improving productivity in the manufacturing process will be significantly harder. Keeping up with the latest manufacturing tech trends is one of the best ways to improve productivity in the manufacturing industry. Among those technological trends that are currently popular in the industry are the Internet of Things IoT , machine learning, augmented reality AR , and much more.
This is also a useful technique to include in your strategy for overcoming labor shortages in the manufacturing industry. This is one of the more obvious manufacturing process improvement ideas. Organizing equipment, tools, and materials properly will not only improve manufacturing productivity but will also help to keep the workplace a safe environment for employees to do their jobs.
Having too much stock on hand costs money to store, and that can harm your net profits.
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