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.
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How many manufacturing operations have a system to regularly review their processes to see if there is continual improvement? Also, to see if, when a change occurs, it is measured in light of the historical process output? Do any readers of this blog have unique insights or situations you would want to comment about?
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