To ensure plant performance and productivity, all you need to do is ensure that the flow flows naturally and without friction through the manufacturing stages.
As soon as something is missing, we stop-and-go, and this deteriorates operational performance. We’re missing something, we have to put aside what we’d planned to do, we stop to solve the problem, and any interruption alters productivity, and perhaps jeopardizes our ability to deliver on time.
Everything must be done to ensure the availability of all components, so that production operators can concentrate on creating value: producing the products expected by customers.
As players in the supply chain, we focus on making components available. For example, we have set up processes for preparing component kits, or small trains that replenish line-side supplies as they come in. Supermarkets and DDMRP buffers are just some of the mechanisms we use to ensure continuous availability.
However, it’s not just the availability of components or the completeness of the previous routing operation that can have an impact on the production flow. In fact, to produce, we need not only components, but also tooling, qualified personnel, a program for the CNC machine, a documentary lot file authorizing the next step, and so on.
The technique is well known: the pilot of an airliner will go through a checklist to make sure everything is OK before starting up the engines.
The same logic applies on the shop floor, but it needs to be equipped, as these checks need to be carried out frequently, several times per shift. They must be carried out by production operators, settlers or supervisors, and must be transparent to the support functions involved, through visual management.
To facilitate this, Intuiflow lets you define a list of prerequisites for a manufacturing step, and share the status of each of these criteria live. For example, for the operation below, we’ll track the status of the series changeover, the availability of documentation and the machine software.
Of course, most of the checking of this checklist will take place ahead of time, to ensure that when we need to start production, the full kit is available.
This allows you to see at a glance the current status of your production program. In the view below, the status is clear:
- The documentation is ready
- The required software is available but not yet loaded
- The changeover has not yet started
- The previous production step has not been completed (the “ready” box is not checked).
- There’s no risk of delay (the order is in blue status, ahead of the dispatch queue it’s heading for).
Making it obvious at a glance what’s going on in the work environment, what’s ahead / behind, what’s missing to move forward, is an essential element for the workshop – to facilitate intuitive flow, the core of Intuiflow…
