Manufacturing Improvement – Reduce Variables to Improve Scheduling Performance
Successful manufacturing requires effectively bringing together resources, including materials, labor, and machinery to produce something of value. The manufacturing equation can get complex, so finding effective ways to reduce complexity is always a good priority.
A leading indicator that there are problems managing manufacturing variables is if production schedules are not being realized. Rather than looking at more expensive Manufacturing Software to solve the problem, a more effective approach might be a periodic dusting off of the ‘Lean Toolbox’.
One of the main Lean priorities is lead time reduction, and when included with other cost related benefits, lower lead times can also result in fewer variables and overall complexity to be managed. Let’s say that a factory averages 100 released production orders with a lead time of 14 days each. With every day there is the potential that some planned resource gets impacted, such as labor, materials, or machinery - any of which could require complicated adjustments to the plan, …not to mention the impact of the urgent order that was injected unexpectedly!
Now let us say that the average lead time is 7 days instead of 14 days. Without even factoring in any efficiency gains, the same production output of 100 orders in 14 days could be achieved with 50% less concurrent orders. Fewer orders in the hopper means fewer variables and therefore fewer scheduling changes to manage.
The following Lean Value Stream Map (source: Wikipedia) indicates that there is plenty of potential to reduce lead times. In this scenario, the Value Added time of 585 seconds is a small fraction of the 14-day duration spent in production…
The idea of reducing complexity by decreasing the amount of work on the shop floor while still maintaining the total required output of the operation is a great way of positively improving the overall manufacturing operation. If you have any questions or would like to investigate Lean improvements in your organization get in touch with us here at Central Nervous Systems.
Matt.