Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The Process of Scheduling as Part of Lean Certification

By Charles Wheeler


In a production business, scheduling refers to the rate that units flow through the manufacturing line. Lean certification includes an analysis of scheduling, to modify the flow of items according to demand, and to enhance the flow with a high quality output.

There are numerous factors that go into the scheduling of a manufacturing line. Each factor needs to be identified and analyzed as an element of lean training. Demand is one of the inputs when considering scheduling rates.

Demand can be established by the consumer sales of buying a product, or it might be based on a basic requirement within a complex manufacturing process. For example, if a part is needed to be produced at a certain rate, it is said that there is a demand for that part within the production process. There are overall demands, and there are singular demands.

In the old manufacturing model, overall demand drives the complete production line. Consumer demand is told to the marketing department, which must communicate with other departments, and finally the information arrives at the production line. The complex communication path adds to the inefficiencies of this particular model.

One inefficiency is the communication flow from department-to-department. Another inefficient quality is the distance from the source of the information to its destination. Each department adds its own interpretation to the original data, and passes on its version of the information. By the time it reaches production, it can be quite different from the initial marketing data.

In lean manufacturing, the assembly line is split up into cells. Each cell is responsible for scheduling. Each module, therefore, must locate a source of data concerning demand for their unit, whether it's from the outside world, or from another cell. The module and the demand data are only one step away from each other in this model. This enables very precise scheduling.

Another essential component of scheduling is switching over from making one item, to creating another item. This creates downtime, or a period where a portion of the production line does not produce anything. Scheduling downtime, and minimizing it, is a necessity in a production line. There is no way around downtime. There are ways to minimize its effects on the overall production process, however.

Being aware of changes in demand allows the scheduling of downtime to be done at low demand periods. This is one of the ways to reduce the unwanted effects of downtime. Another is to use a statistical analysis done to determine the most efficient time to schedule downtime and to make changes.

Often the ideal moment is not determined by actual demand, but by mathematical modeling. Sometimes it is better to break up a production run into halves or thirds, which might be counter-intuitive, but it can cut downtime by a significant amount, and therefore benefit the production output, overall.

Using data analysis to assist with scheduling is a key factor in the lean manufacturing process. Putting into place feedback mechanisms and being close to the source of demand are examples of ways of making scheduling very efficient.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment