Lovair
Washroom Fittings & Systems
Washroom Fittings & Systems
To provide mentoring support to company Operations Director to
guide his implementation of Lean Manufacturing tools and techniques into his assembly process. |
Project Description:
Operations Director, Murray Boyt, knew that the theory behind his implementation of a flow line Production methodology should improve efficiencies in the manufacture of their wash trough product range. However, the results were not as dramatic expected and Murray turned to IW Process Solutions to help him understand why. Initially, the mentoring focused on truly understanding the data supporting the flow line concept. This exercise unearthed flaws in the process timings for the products which then led on to the grouping of products into four categories based on the manufacturing assembly times once all the necessary data had been collected. With the categories determined, Murray was encouraged to develop a revised takt time for the process using more detailed historical Sales data to understand the demand for individual products and, following that, for the categories. This brought to light that the Production Planning system needed to be altered in order to maximise efficiencies and modified the planning process to develop weekly Production plans (or buckets), sequencing products based on their category from highest assembly times down to the lowest. These weekly plans were based on the available capacity within the assembly department and it was recognised that, if the base data of the product timings was accurate, then adherence to this weekly plan would equate to maximum efficiency. Therefore, the plan also provided a Performance Management aspect as adherence to the plan could be assessed at any time during the week. |