There is not a manufacturing business in the world that does not keep a close eye on its production rates. Indeed, there is nothing more desirable than having high production rates, low rework rates, and solid profit margins.
Unfortunately, there is in most businesses room to improve, increase and decrease these important figures.
Improve workflow for your workers
Too much time is wasted in manufacturing environments by employees waiting around for their work to arrive or for parts from a warehouse facility. It is important to keep workloads flowing as time is money. By installing conveyor belts that connect your warehouse to your production lines you will be able to cut down on the time that your employees are left standing or wandering around waiting for their work to be handed to them and they will be able to receive their work at their bench so will be able to start work right away. If your warehouse teams are well organised they will have the workloads already loaded and ready to go at the start of the working day and keep it topped up throughout so that your workers do not lose their momentum.
Although your business premises may not be set up for installing a standard conveyor belt, there are businesses such as fluent conveyors that specialize in designing, supplying, and installing conveyor belts so that their customers can get the best use and all the advantages from their conveyor belts. Their commitment to their customers does not stop there; they also provide replacement parts so that the conveyor belts that they fit will go on serving their customers for many years to come in pristine condition.
Introduce the 5 S system
If you do not have the 5 S system in place you may want to introduce it to your workers as it will definitely have a positive effect on the way that they work, even if they do not think so initially.
The 5 S’s stand for sort, set in order, shine, standardise and sustain. In short, you are looking at your worker’s workstations and areas that they work in. This system can work and is beneficial throughout the whole of your business and not just at your factory floor level.
In sorting their area, you will be asking employees to remove any items that are not relevant to their working day or that they do not need, these are personal items as well as items of clutter. Setting in order is to organise not only workstations but also communal tooling areas so that everything has its place and can be found easily. Shine is to make sure that everything is kept clean, so you will need to provide your workers with 10-15 minutes of tidying time at the end of each working shift. Standardise is to put in force procedures for every stage of every job to make sure that it is performed in a uniform way. Sustain is to make sure that these steps are performed regularly and that they are fully sustainable for your workers to follow.
