If it has been a while since you reviewed your manufacturing and assembly processes it’s time for a review. There is a wealth of knowledge from long standing manufacturing companies who have developed some solid practices to make improvements. You may think your processes are as good as they can get but unless you are consistently reviewing your practices you don’t know for sure.
The benefits of improving your manufacturing and assembly processes
Ultimately the goals are to increase productivity, increase efficiency, decrease waste and decrease costs. Investing time and energy into continuously reviewing and improving your processes is the best way to ensure your manufacturing practices are as good as they can possibly be at any given time. You may be subjected to health regulation changes which impact your production, seasonal fluctuations, new product lines, staffing changes, technology advancements. Continuous revisions is the best way to respond swiftly to the external and internal factors impacting your production.
You may have issues with quality control or excessive waste. You may have personnel performing tasks that could be automated or even simplified. Let’s work through some questions to get started.
Review your Current processes
We are going to begin with some broad questions and then break it down to look at specific areas that may need improvement. Once you get an idea of what you need to focus on you can then choose the best strategy to refine your processes. Address the below questions:
- How are tasks / jobs completed from start to finish? Document the entire process, including the personnel and applications involved.
- What exactly is involved in the process? Break it down into every single detail including roughly how much time each step in the process takes.
Once you have completed this broad outline of each process we then need to:
- Identify any problems
- Find areas for improvement
- Choose a method or combination of methods that will work for your organisation
- Continually evaluate your process and solutions
Identify the Problems
Consider these questions to identify where you can improve:
- Are there any quality control issues?
- Are the customers happy with the turn around?
- Conversely, is there a surplus of produced goods waiting to be sold?
- Are there supply chain issues for specific parts that hold up your entire process?
- Are their bottlenecks in your process?
- Are customers satisfied with the time it takes for them to receive their order?
Where can Improvements be made?
- Does the physical layout help the staff complete their tasks in a timely manner?
- Could you reduce the amount of waste?
- Are there waste products that could be used for something else or even be recycled?
- Is your machinery used to the most efficient capacity?
- Are their tasks that could be automated or simplified to make the most of staff time?
Let's Explore some Methodology to Refine your Processes
In order to address and improve your processes, we need to explore some different methodologies you could implement. There may be a specific methodology that applies perfectly to your organisation or you may find a combination of different strategies is more suitable for your needs.
These are the methods we will be exploring:
Business Process Management (BPM)
Starting with the business as a whole you can use the BPM methodology to break down what you do and how you do it. BPM uses three categories to assess your processes and they are human-centric, document-centric and integration-centric. If you are not using the right tools in the right places within your organisation there is absolutely room for you to improve. The main area I would focus on is how you can use integrated systems to make your processes more seamless and where human-centric and document-centric tasks could be simplified.
- Human-centric: What parts of the processes are reliant on people?
- Document-centric: What documents do you need and use frequently in your manufacturing processes?
- Integration-centric: What integration capabilities do your digital tools and applications have that help you with your manufacturing processes?
Lean Production
We have explored lean concepts before with our article on lean distribution. When it comes to lean production or lean manufacturing, the basic premise is to reduce as much waste as possible. The concept of lean production originally came from the car industry and was heavily used by Toyota. Toyota basically used lean methodology to gradually improve and transition their production using more efficient techniques, without compromising on the quality.
The main points you want to consider with lean production is:
- Be aware of the physical spaces being used and the movement between tasks within the factory or warehouse. Is the most effective layout being used or do staff need to waste time moving from one space to another? This time could be spent on more production.
- Do your staff spend time waiting between tasks for something to be completed? If they do, what could they be doing instead? Idle time ultimately just costs money.
- Some products can be over-processed. In that, some steps in the production are unnecessary and do not add value for the end user. Ultimately you would like to reduce any unnecessary steps if they don’t add any value to the actual product.
- Are there quality issues in your production that lead to defects? Reducing the risk and frequency of defects will help make your production more efficient.
- How much inventory do you stock and is it the most effective use of your time and space? This is where you tap into an inventory management system like Jiwa and evaluate whether you’re holding dead stock or not holding enough of what you actually need. If you’re dealing with seasonal stock, this article might help you out.
- If you are not aware of your stock and demand you run the risk of overproducing a particular product. This is not effective use of your production time or resources. The simple answer is to be aware of product demand, supply, and stock levels. The right software can help you do this quite easily.
- Are products and supplies transported in the most efficient way? Ordering the right things at the right time and using delivery run systems to plan and map out deliveries can really help with transportation improvements.
Kaizen
Similarly to lean production, Kaizen focuses on waste reduction but with some important considerations not addressed with the lean methodology. Kaizen aims to address:
- Muda (wastefulness). Referring to a process that consumes resources but doesn’t add any extra value. This was some-what addressed with lean but is more broad than evaluating whether something is ‘over-processed’. Are there steps involved in your production that simply absorb time without adding anything to the quality of the product? Consider what you could change to simplify the process.
- Mura (unevenness). Similarly to overproduction and stock management, investing time and resources into products that aren’t selling is a big problem that should be addressed to make the best use of your time and equipment.
- Muri (overburden). Is there any strain on the organisation’s resources? You need to consider that as well as overproduction being a problem, it’s also a problem to have an excessive amount of demand on your manufacturing processes including overused machinery and overworked employees.
5S Methodology
The 5S methodology can be used to simplify your process from start to finish. This approach is about ensuring the physical space is organised and optimised for efficient production.
- Sort (seiri): Identify tools and equipment that are necessary for production and remove anything that is not needed.
- Set in order (seiton): Organise the tools and equipment so they’re easy to access and use.
- Shine (seiso): Maintain clean and tidy workspaces.
- Standardise (seiketsu): Ensure these steps are conducted each and every day.
- Sustain (shitsuke): Apply this methodology to achieve continued improvement.
Just In Time (JIT) Methodology
Just In Time methodology is an offshoot of lean production but can introduce its own problems if you don’t use it effectively. The basic premise of Just in Time methodology is that items are produced when they are demanded and not in advance. This reduces the amount of idle stock and means the time spent on production is directly linked to a customer and their needs.
Agile Methodology
The basic premise of agile methodology is to be responsive. Agile methodology considers all stakeholders in your process, including the customer, and is focused on adjusting and adapting what you do and how you do it. An agile approach means you respond to change rather than simply follow concrete plans and documentation. Your organisation collaborates with customers to ensure their needs are met, and individuals within your organisation to ensure your processes can adapt and be modified as needed.
An agile approach is best suited when you have smart integrated software that can help you stay on top of everything as changes occur, rather than rigid documentation that needs to be reviewed and modified every time changes need to be applied.
Continuously Review and Refine
Hopefully you have explored the above methods and found what is relevant to your manufacturing and assembly processes. Many of the methods already include the concept of reviewing and revising the processes because it is a vital piece of the puzzle. If you are not regularly discovering problems or exploring areas for improvement you are missing a crucial opportunity to push the achievements even further. Remember, the goals are to:
- Increase Productivity
- Increase Efficiency
- Reduce Waste
- Reduce Costs
The Benefits of Integrated Systems for Manufacturing Processes
Integrated systems like Jiwa have a huge impact on your manufacturing processes. Here are just some parts of manufacturing and assembly processes that benefit from an integrated system like Jiwa.
- Parts management – To make sure you order the right quantity of parts at the right time to reduce the risk of production delays and inventory issues.
- Production capacity – With a full grasp on parts ordering and production times Jiwa can help you identify your maximum production capacity at any given time.
- By-product management – Identify, classify and manage the storage and sales of by-products easily with integrated systems like Jiwa.
- Full build costing – This includes all parts along with the true landed cost for each part, and all labour components.
- Stock management and predictive demand – Make sure you’re only producing what you need, when you need it. Jiwa can help make sure you’re not producing too much of what you don’t need, or too little of what you do need.
- Product serial number tracking – Really important particularly in food industries to make recalls more manageable.
Want more information about how Jiwa can help you refine your manufacturing processes? Contact us today.