Transparency in Manufacturing

The craftsman begins an object and finishes it to the end. He knows what to do, how long it takes approximately.

He does everything himself. When there is a supporter, let´s call him A, who works for him, the craftsman sets the pace. In case of doubt, A must wait. But if the craftsman has to wait, he helps A so that the work progresses faster.

When now a second supporter, let´s call him B, works for the first one, A, it becomes complicated. Then, instead of direct communication, something else pops up: inventory.

B does their part, and provides enough material for A. A works for the craftsman.

If  A is the bottleneck, B will help him. The craftsman may have to take a break. But since the craftsman is the most expensive, he does not want to wait. That is why A now must be careful to always provide enough material. And always a little too much for safety reasons. This is how workshop production works. Each department provides the necessary material for the next department and preferably always a little more.

This is to account for “anything can happen”, and in order not to be the cause of delays. Just exactly when “a little more” is “too much” remains unclear. By the way: no one from the downstream sectors has to help out anymore. Production companies organized according to the principle of workshop production are characterized by:

• a lot of material in circulation (or too much)
• overcapacity: each department must always provide enough for itself, while overcapacity is not used.

The following questions help with the assessment:

1. Do you know how big the inventory is for the next department?
2. Does the master / foreman move the material for the employees?
3. Can the employee start his next assignment alone, or does he receive it from the master / foreman?
4. Is it clearly defined for each workplace where the input material is and where the processed material goes?

Based on these questions, we look at your production-site. Production, where inventories are not clearly defined, where foremen spend days moving material and assigning orders to employees, and where material is often “driven from” instead of “driven to”, offer great potential for improvement.

The improvement will take place step-by-step: – first with the definition of input and output stations for material – then with the visualization of order sequences – finally – not infrequently – with the rearrangement of workplaces.

The result:

1. You – and everybody else – can see how much workload there is.
2. You no longer have to ask the manager to see if there are bottlenecks at individual workplaces.
3. You can see how the material flows faster through production.
4. Your foreman no longer moves material, but knowledge. He works on the continuous improvement of machines and organization. He translates the “knowledge in the minds” into improvements of reality.

Be inspired! Bring transparency to your production! Get in touch !