Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1524755
AUGUST 2024 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 39 Finding Hidden Capacity in Your Factory Applying the five points above will help you build good foundations of robust pro- cesses and management systems to ease the squeeze on your team. However, your business still may be prevented from growing by a lack of capacity. Increas- ing production capacity in a manu- facturing business is oen a costly exercise. It can involve the purchase of new soware, new machinery, employment of additional staff, and renting or buy- ing additional buildings. However, before investing in these costly options, ensure you are using all the capacity in your exist- ing buildings, machines, and people. In our experience, most businesses have hid- den production capacity they don't realize they have, starting with these three. Downtime Many years ago, a production manager who reported to me presented a spreadsheet dem- onstrating that his department was out of capac- ity. e department was running 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and was not keeping up with customer demand. Our office was in the middle of the factory, so I asked him to step outside his office door with me. We then observed his eight blow-molding machines, only two of which were running. While this was not a particularly scientific approach, it illustrated that there was, poten- tially, a lot of hidden capacity to be exploited. Over the next few months, we focused on dis- covering why the machines stopped and elimi- nating the causes of downtime. Our measure of downtime was overall equip- ment efficiency (OEE), which we improved from 45% to 80% over the following year. is delivered another three to four machines' worth of additional capacity and meant that we could catch up on customer demand and stop working on weekends. I frequently visit factories and see many machines stopped without any clear expla- nation. While breakdowns may be a factor, the biggest reduction in downtime usually comes from simple process and organizational changes that are quick to implement and cost nothing. You can make dozens of improvements to reduce downtime and liberate hidden machine capacity. e starting point is to measure your downtime and analyze the potential causes. You then chart these on a Pareto chart and start by focusing on reducing the top two or three causes to have the biggest impact. Wasted Space We oen get approached by clients who have run out of factory space. is is particu- larly true in businesses that make large bulky products such as modular buildings, furniture, and heavy machinery. ey oen consider the difficult and expensive option of relocating to a larger factory. Aer all, most businesses do outgrow their premises at some point. Before making the decision to move, how- ever, you need to challenge how your current Figure 3: (Left) Before, heavily congested with high level of work-in-process (WIP) stored on pallets, creating exces- sive work for the team, multiple handling of stock with potential for costly damage. (Right) After a massive reduc- tion in WIP with custom-built transport and clearly marked, Kanban-controlled areas, creating space and a better working environment.