Customer Profile: A medium scale manufacture of process equipment involving metal fabrication, electronic control systems and integrated manufacturing.
Problem: The client had three manufacturing units all of which were a part of the production process in order to arrive at the final product. The entire production process was ad hoc and the work distribution on the shop floor was done on a day to day priority basis leading to a chaotic work environment which led to a lot of inefficiencies in the way the production process was done.
Solution: We did an in depth study of the production process, based on which we arrived at the workflow. The workflow was then mapped onto the floor plans of all three units, due to which we were able to identify the most productive optimized production flow. Once this was done the entire organization alignment to this new way of working was secured and once there was agreement with everybody, the first step that we took was to sort the shop floor and move whatever was unwanted out of the production path. Once the sorting was done scrap was removed from the working area and items that needed management OK, were identified and marked separately for reuse or scrap. And finally items which were of use were moved into clearly identified work locations, racking systems were implemented with labeling so that everyone knew here to find what, as part of the day to day working. A cleaning schedule was implemented so that the shopfloor could be kept neat and clean at all times. Once this was done a weekly audit was initiated by which each unit head would get audited and a score of his performance on cleanliness and orderliness would be communicated to him and a dashboard was presented to the management on the performance of each unit.
Benefit: Because of the realignment of the shopfloor and reduction of clutter on the shopfloor, a significant reduction in efforts required was observed which was seen in the reduction in the form of manpower which was required to perform the same jobs as compared to earlier. A video of this transition is also available at the link below.
Improving Service Workshop Efficiencies