Manufacturing techniques

I am working in a big messy company that needs to reduce costs and improve the quality of the product. (I know everybody wants this) so, please suggest me of all the manufacturing techniques available, what are the more suitable to implement in order to achieve this goal. Be concious that after make a suggestion my next question should be why and I'll ask tip on how to implement it to expect favorable results.
Thanks for your help, and congratulations for this site.

simonsay

 

[dsi]

It may help if you were to describe the product being manufactured. What processes are currently used in the manufacturing of the components? DimensionalSolutions@Core.com
While I welcome e-mail messages, please post all thread activity in these forums for the benefit of all members.

 

Thanks for your response, and this is a brief description of the company I work for:
We are an aftermarket radiators assembler. We got all the parts from a different company and we put all the parts toguether, that is make the panal, solder it to the tubes (inside an oven) put the tanks, connections and finally paint it and packaging. It's not a clean job. The building is almost 30,000 sqrft and we are in my area almost 300 people. There are 4 more buildings but I have no part in them. Based in your experience, what can you suggest me?
Currently there is not a well defined manufacturing process, that is why my interest to put some order...
Thanks a lot!
simonsay

 

[dth]

With such a large facility improvements are more likely to be found from your own employees. I would suggest to you a book titled " The Goal " . The reading does not tackle specific manufacturing techniques rather it addresses plant capacity and maximizing product through put. Reading it , you will find it helpful.

 

[Raulz1]

By experience I can only suggest: 1)divide the elements of the unit and place them in cells. A flow chart would breakdown the elements as, raw material, cutting, punching, breaking, sub assembly, soldering, cleaning, testing, reworking, re-testing, packaging and shipping. 2)the departments involved would be, manufacturing engineering, quality control, material handling and the proto-type deparment. If the firm is driven by the sales department forget all iv'e suggested. Hope this sheds light for you.
Raul

 

Since the major part of your work in your plant is assembly, in my opinion, the first step is to gain control of the incoming components.
Being able to determine what are the acceptable variable limits, create a procedure to inspect, and have discipline to follow the procedures.
Once you have full characterization of the incoming materials, involvement of your workforce, communication and goals that apply to everyone involved will give you all the important information to guide the manufacturing.
In my opinion, the most important aspect of manufacturing management is the ability to listening and the desire to find the unknown.
Antonio Reis
reis@vitrom.com

 

[asdfgh77]

First of all divide the system into subsystems as, raw material, cutting, punching, breaking, sub assembly, soldering, cleaning, testing, reworking, re-testing, packaging and shipping. After that I think you must apply work/time study activities to gain the standart times of these subsystems. This will help you if there is a problem you can easily see where it is. And then you must prepare a new inventory control system for your assembly line. Do not forget that Inventory control is very important for assembly lines.

 

[Abbyster]

I hope this will help you.

My company implemented Lean manufacturing with the help of University of Tennessee one year ago, the result is beyond our expectation. It will take a total commitment for upper management and across-the-board training. Every one in your company should buy into it. Believe me it will work.

The following article was written by Jim Womack.


I recently had a request from a Detroit newspaper to write a brief piece for
the Motor Show on how American car companies can get turned in the right direction.
In reading it over, I realized that my advice would be the same for any company
in any industry in any country, so I thought I would pass it along. If you are
not in automotive, just substitute your industry and product whenever you see
"automotive", "cars", etc.

We're Back to Basics. So...What Are the Basics?

In every economic boom, American car companies forget what they really
are and start to think they are something else, seemingly much more exciting.
In recent booms, these dreams have included financial institutions (The Associates),
data systems providers (EDS), airplane makers (Gulfstream), high-tech electronics
outfits (Hughes), car dealers (Auto Collection), and "e"ntrepreneurs (FordDirect.com).
Then the boom ends and they discover that they are really just...car companies.
So, as we slug through the 2002 recession, everyone agrees that the American
companies should get back to basics. But what are the basics?
Here's my short list, based on the thought process of my ideal company. (You
guessed right. It's Toyota.)

- Focus on the product by installing a real chief engineer for every platform.
Even when Toyota publicly advertises the role of their chief engineers - like
Kosaku Yamada for the new Camry/ES300 - no one in Detroit seems to get it: Put
someone permanently in charge of making money and growing share for each product,
make sure that person knows a lot about cars, give that person lots of responsibility
but little staff, and have the CEO tell all of the functions to get behind the
chief engineers or else.
- Rethink purchasing to focus on the actual process of engineering and making
components, and look at the entire value stream of activities running from raw
materials to complete vehicles. Then jointly remove the wasted steps and co-locate
the remaining value creating steps to pursue big cost-downs (rather than margin
shifting) and make-to-order vehicles.
- Rethink assembly to make it much more flexible and ask why OEMs should even
do assembly. Toyota has always outsourced up to half of its assembly in Japan,
and its specialist assemblers are also experts in body and manufacturing engineering.
As a result, the chief engineer often has a choice in who is best suited and
most eager to assemble the product.
- Rethink the links between the factory and the customer to find a constructive
role for dealers. As we get serious about build-to-order, there shouldn't be
any metal on car lots for dealers to move. What dealers should be doing instead
is helping customers solve their mobility problems by delivering, maintaining,
repairing, and recycling vehicles as needed, using brilliant processes. This
can be a win-win-win for driver, dealer, and manufacturer.
- Rethink the location of production and engineering for price-sensitive products
to co-locate most steps in low-cost locations that are still close enough to
customers to permit build-to-order. This means Mexico for North America, Eastern
Europe for Western Europe, China for Japan.

Note that this list does not include firing all the deadwood at every company,
eliminating the union, getting rid of fuel economy regulations, terminating the
dealers, squeezing the suppliers, or convincing Wall Street to cut the car companies
a break for a few quarters. It does include the central task of converting the
value creating steps in product development, production, purchasing, and sales
into a consistent, rigorous process.
And this is where Detroit falls down. In the most striking recent example,
Jac Nasser expended his best energies on finding brilliant outsiders to manage
broken processes at Ford, while average insiders got brilliant performance from
bullet-proof processes at Toyota.
So, as the economy begins to turn the corner, let's unleash our chief engineers,
focus on the key processes, and get creative about the fundamental value-creating
relationships. And, for a change, let's stick with these basics through the
next cycle and far beyond.

Jim

Jim Womack
President and Founder
Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc.

P.S. We get back to basics every month in our LEI workshops, which are offered
next in Seattle, WA, on April 17-19. Just go to

http://www.lean.org

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http://www.lean.org/Lean/Events/index.cfm>>

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[stirl]

Try 5 m's manufacturing
- men
- material
- methods
- machines
- motivation
3 basic tools
eyes, ears and brain, your mouth is for smiling even against all adversity.
Use these before you endevour on off the shelf &quot;systems&quot;