Lean Manufacturing

How to overcome common production problems

Graham Immerman

October 27, 2017

There is always room for improvement. Even if you think you are being as productive as possible, there are ways to become even more efficient. By stretching resources, thinking in silos, having low aspirations, or having high margins you may be selling yourself short. Try developing a deep process understanding of your equipment. MachineMetrics can give you visibility into your machines so you can make the most informed decisions. Bring people together and test quickly to improve efficiency. Finally, evaluate the end-to-end impact of improvements and you will see the results.

Think your production line couldn’t get any more productive? Think againSource: http://www.manufacturingglobal.com

Not long ago we came across a very experienced scientist tasked with fixing an underperforming confectionary line. He was planning an in-depth theoretical study to find a way to solve the problem. That study would take longer than a year to complete. Instead within weeks we got the information we needed. We used a range of simple off-the-shelf sensors which helped us identify and fix the problem quickly. The sweets were soon flying even faster off the production line. This is a great example of where companies can go wrong when they want to improve performance. But perhaps a bigger mistake is to decide things can’t get any better. When you think you’ve squeezed everything you can out of your manufacturing plant, I bet you can get more. Even after you’ve used traditional tools like lean manufacturing and Six Sigma, there could be untapped opportunities for improving productivity. Those opportunities could deliver tangible benefits within a short time and for a low capital investment. The current wave of consolidation in the consumer goods sector means those opportunities should be in high demand – to ease post-merger integration or ward off a takeover. Read More

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