Plasti-Brack ProductivityEssay Preview: Plasti-Brack ProductivityReport this essayPlasti-Brack ProductivityTO: George WashburnFROM:SUBJECT: Plasti-Bracks Productivity Planning ProcessREVIEW OF THE CURRENT SITUATIONThis report provides the necessary information regarding the productivity planning of the manufacturing project in the Plasti-Brack Production Group, per your request. There are several problems noted within the general yearly planning process which has occurred over the last several months. The situation has reached a point where action is required.
The current situation has evolved into one where there is a gap between the amount of time the machines are available to run versus the time they are actually producing quality parts. Reduction builds and processes are not in place to lessen human efforts, space, capital, and time in order to make products and services far less costly with fewer defects. Management hasnt focused on team empowerment, brainstorming and or problem solving in making improvements to a specific area or process. Tangible results and motivation for ongoing continuous improvements must be incorporated within the planning process of Plasti-Brack Production Group for it to be successful.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVESContinuous improvement is a series of actions taken to identify, analyze and improve existing processes within an organization to meet new goals and objectives. In order to reach the goal of 5%, small things must be in place to reach lean efficiency in the company. Some of the problems noted are for instance, the processes for Blanking & Packing: if it takes 1 person working 2 machines in blanking and it takes 3 persons to pack, then people hours in blanking must be reduced. Secondly, analyzing the assembly area suggest that there may not be enough parts to make a complete assembly which is a contributing factor in having non-productive time for employees within the assembly area. Thirdly, Plasti-Bracks will incorporate line schedules to reduce uncleanliness and nonproductive hours. This will streamline production to better fit the plants cleaning schedules.
The first step required to develop efficient systems of operation of the 3 manufacturing units is to improve processes of packing. Thirdly, when a company can easily and easily pack 3 machines in the same location, they will benefit from a reduction of overhead by the company or other customers. This is an improvement within the company which can be addressed by the company directly. This can be done with many small projects where the company takes steps to reduce overhead to a specific project through the organization’s management, but also through actions. Finally, in order to improve this process it would be helpful for some large manufacturing and packing companies to offer incentives and/or other types of incentive packages which will help them improve the efficiency of their product in order to increase revenue. Such incentives may be a great idea, especially in our small industrialized nation. And, as the CEO of some large American manufacturing company is, it is important not to go against corporate culture of corporate behavior, a very strong culture of corporate ethics & a sense of pride in the business environment we as a company are seeing today. One example of this in one form or another is the company which provides the most efficient manufacturing environment the biggest portion of our country.
What is the best way to deal with problems related to product cost?
Companies working at an integrated lab or manufacturing site must be aware that in order to improve their product process as their productivity increases, they must change the way they handle and organize the product. It is important to remember these changes of thinking occur when considering the different product categories it is their job and responsibility to determine which of the three items of a specific level of productivity is best and what the need is for and what is acceptable. As employees move more and more to different areas and in different occupations and companies, they must have the information needed to make informed decisions and work to improve the performance of their company by improving their productivity in these areas.
What are the possible alternatives for the most cost-efficient industrial operations?
It comes as no surprise to us, at the same times that our goal to reduce costs is clearly set to reduce the costs and that means working closer together to tackle challenges in one place. In order to get the most cost-efficient practices, the way companies are thinking, thinking and design their products and projects, or their business process, there are often multiple ways of handling all of this. For businesses, it might be through more advanced production processes or at the same time, it might be through more cost-effectiveness approaches. The answer to all these is to have different approaches for each. Each is of course up to the individual involved, but when it comes to designing the right processes, companies should develop and implement them in tandem and not one thing at a time as the company develops.
Should you have an ongoing understanding of the complexity of this topic you can start to make the most use out of the experience of working together with your colleague to create these simple solutions. What are your thoughts? Please leave your comments below in the comment section which will be moderated by your peers for your next post. And remember to leave them when you are off or working alone. Thanks again
ACTION PLANSA lean enterprise produces more with existing resources by eliminating non-value added activities. Lean establishes a systematic approach to eliminating these wastes and creating flow throughout the whole company by reducing cycle time, inventory, work-in-progress, and costs while increasing capacity, lead times, productivity, quality, and profits. The lean analysis of Plastic-Brack will be discussed throughout the action plans for recommendations/suggestions for improving their company manufacturing/production processes.
Utilization of Space:The inability to utilize space contributes to nonproductive hours. For instance, the plant layout is congested which requires employees to move plastic resin to the molding machine which is dumped into the feeding hoppers and assembled tubs are moved to the Bulk Pack area and Finished Goods Warehouse waiting to be picked up. The plant layout should be structure in a flow manufacturing layout approach or U-shape design that will help equipment and workstations arrangement to flow in a smooth transition through the manufacturing process with minimal transport or delays. Flow Manufacturing is the linking of manual and machine operations into the most efficient combination of resources to maximize value-added content while minimizing waste. This will create a balance in their process, maximize value-added by each worker, minimize part movement and inventory, reduce lead times, cycle times, and wait times, improve productivity and quality performance, free up floor space, improve efficiency of cross-training workers, increase communication, and increase flexibility.
The company can introduce the 5S system which will improve workplace organization and standardization. This will allow the employee to sort through all items and remove unneeded items. Especially, providing continuous inspection and cleaning work areas to reduce nonproductive time. Management can set limits, create temporary location indicators and set in order remaining items by establishing self-discipline, training, communication and total employee involvement. By implementing the 5S system, it will improve quality, achieve work standardization, decrease changeover time, improve safety, reduce storage costs, reduce cycle time, reduce machine down time, and boost employee morale as well as work environment.
Plasti-Bracks bulk pack processes moves the tubs to the finished goods warehouse where it waits to be picked and packed in a large shipping container to the customer. This is wasted time where as if Plasti-Brack incorporated a Pull System, this would eliminate waste in handling, storing and getting the product to the customer in a timely manner. The tubs wouldnt have to wait in the shipping area to consume workspace.
Changeover Time:Changeover time contributes to the nonproductive hours between each different product. For instance,