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 !