Optimizing a process

A recent small assembly job was reviewed for the potential to optimize the profit. There were 3 manufacturing operations all performed by one person. After Op #1, this person turned around and walked 3 steps to Op #2. He then walked to his left 5 steps to Op #3. To pack the part, there were 3 more steps, plus 3 more steps to return to op #1.

Total cycle time was 80 seconds with 14 seconds devoted to walking (17% of the time). The job elements were broken down by Operation number and various theoretical cycles were generated by utilizing a 2nd head for portions of the process. Finally, a new process was developed in which a 2nd person performed all operations after Op #1 and still had some time (inherent delay) to prep material for Op #1. A significant factor was that the time to walk station to station was utilized by the inherent delay (extra time) in the 2nd person's tasks.

A financial analysis of the new process showed that the cost of the added person was more than off-set by the increased revenue due to reduced cycle time.

Conformance to Specification vs Target Value

One view of manufacturing quality is that all measured characteristics must be within the specification or tolerance ranges. There is another view that value of the average of a number of measurements should be as close to a specified "Target Value" as possible. I am a strong proponent of the Target Value system for a lot of reasons.

What system do you favor and why? Is there an opportunity for readers of this blog to initiate a dialog on this topic?