Visual work instructions for fast takt time manufacturing assembly
Visual work instructions for fast takt time manufacturing assembly
(OP)
I'm looking to see what others are doing w/r/t creating work instructions (visual, textual, or both) for a fast takt time manufacturing process.
In the area I support our takt times run anywhere from about 9 minutes to 12 minutes. More than likely we are running three or four workbenches and the mechanics are paging thru more than 10 pages of visual work instructions.
Issue we have comes in when we have to rebalance the production line to meet an increase or decrease in demand, which changes the takt time significantly. Seems our current way of creating visual work instructions is static, and does not expand or contract easily. These instructions are simply PowerPoint pages with digital pictures.
In the area I support our takt times run anywhere from about 9 minutes to 12 minutes. More than likely we are running three or four workbenches and the mechanics are paging thru more than 10 pages of visual work instructions.
Issue we have comes in when we have to rebalance the production line to meet an increase or decrease in demand, which changes the takt time significantly. Seems our current way of creating visual work instructions is static, and does not expand or contract easily. These instructions are simply PowerPoint pages with digital pictures.
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Fighter Pilot
Manufacturing Engineer





RE: Visual work instructions for fast takt time manufacturing assembly
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Visual work instructions for fast takt time manufacturing assembly
Tested instructions
8.5" x 11" laminated
Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com
Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.
RE: Visual work instructions for fast takt time manufacturing assembly
Can you break up the task set?
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Visual work instructions for fast takt time manufacturing assembly
A couple of questions to put some boundary conditions on the problem. First, are you confined by budget and or other constraints from investigating a paperless solution? There are several database packages on the market that offer paperless deployment options which greatly simplify the issue of line rebalancing. The better interfaces present information in a graphical process tree format that allows you to drag and drop from one operation to another to rebalance the line. Second - when you say your operators are leafing through 10 or more pages of visual instructions, how many steps does this entail per workbench? 10? 20? The reason for this question is that even if you go paperless, you are talking about the same number of "mouse clicks" or other interactions to step through the instructions. Since you are military, I would assume that it is a requirement that the workers follow the instruction process during the build. Are you collecting signatures on a paper router as well? Again, this is an area where a paperless deployment with electronic signature capabilities might streamline both the manufacturing process and the line rebalancing issue. Lots of possible ways to skin this cat and make your life easier. Really depends on your constraints, ability to change and ultimately, the consequences of not changing coupled with the benefits of moving to a new system. Several solutions can be found by searching Google for "work instruction software."
Best,
Barry Lucas
www.sequencesoftware.com
RE: Visual work instructions for fast takt time manufacturing assembly
Bill