Improved labor performance after waste reduction in production line

Right size team for improved productivity and safer relieving - overprocessing elimination:

THE PROBLEM / OPPORTUNITY

Like in many manufacturing/production lines we came across multiple roles dedicated to performing visual product inspection looking for defects, these roles sometimes are considered necessary at the launch of a new product as a reactive countermeasure to find variations in the value-creation due to not understanding the root cause of the problem, this was the case for multiple products with similar line configuration as well as employee positioning in the production line.

OUR APPROACH:

In Lean Manufacturing we understand that adding employees to catch product defects is a reactive measure considered waste caused as a by-product of a deeper problem in the value creation. To make that transition possible the first set of steps were to perform series of analysis to understand the frequency of the issues and the specifics of the defects, perform management of change with all employees who are part of the process from line workers to supervisors and manager, this engagement creates awareness, desire and knowledge to improve and more importantly why this is necessary for the growth of the company.

THE SOLUTION

After teaching employees about the 8 waste and performing observations in the roles dedicated to inspecting and comparing defects against value-added activities, we discovered that above 72% of the defects came from the container dispensing machine and 14% defects happened after plastic changes on the sealer machine.

• Dispensing machine was re-built after finding a defect on one of the infeed systems that was causing damage in containers after the full chain on the line completed a cycle.
• Variability on the process of plastic change was reduced by creating centerlines and standardized work instructions to ensure steps were followed preventing defects.
• Employees who were dedicated to inspections were moved to other product lines with value added tasks increasing productivity.

RESULTS

• Labor reduction of 6.25% across multiple lines with similar product and employee layouts.
• 1 Quality and 8 Safety improvements.
• Balanced critical employee time utilization during relieving times from 100% to 85% leading to more flexibility and less stress/motion.
• Employee knowledge on root cause analysis and 8 waste identification.

CONCLUSION

Based on the success of the project other improvement opportunities with similar non value-added activities were found. Mindset towards inspection roles was challenged to really understand the value added and further create a root cause analysis approach for defects seen in the day-to-day operations that were considered part of the process in the past.

“Quality is built in and not inspected in”