How can you increase agility and flexibility in manufacturing operations?

To enhance agility and flexibility in manufacturing operations, strategic measures can be implemented. Firstly, invest in advanced technology such as automation and robotics to streamline processes and adapt quickly to changing demands. Additionally, foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging employees to propose and implement innovative ideas. Establishing a responsive supply chain with close collaboration with suppliers ensures swift adjustments to market fluctuations. Lastly, invest in employee training to create a skilled workforce capable of handling diverse tasks.

The first strategy is to cross-train employees and implement lean practices. This allows for a versatile workforce and streamlined operations. Creating a flexible production layout is essential. Educating front line managers on the importance of continuous improvement is crucial. By fostering a culture of learning and improvement, manufacturers can identify and address bottlenecks, reduce waste, and enhance overall efficiency. Empowering frontline employees is another critical factor. By involving them in decision-making processes and problem-solving, their expertise and involvement can lead to innovative and efficient solutions. Effective communication and collaboration are fundamental in fostering agility.

It may seem like simple but before investing in tech and fill multiple template of lean manufacturing tools, go seat in your factory, follow your product and observe is usally a good start. Try to notice: - product manipulation - operators intervention for product movement - operators/working station ergonomy - documentation/training availability - parts and sub assembly storage, availability - quality gates - paperwork associated with operation - .... All the non-value that impacts efficiency: time and non quality (or over quality)

One of the very first steps you need to take is to optimise the workflow, make sure that everyone in the facility is aware of the optimisation especially the sales team, and build a set of expectations that can be met and will satisfy customers. If your process is transparent and well set up everyone knows what needs to be done and they can work as a team together to complete each project.

Increasing manufacturing agility and flexibility involves embracing lean principles, employing advanced tech like IoT and AI for automation, and adopting flexible manufacturing systems for swift changes. Training employees in diverse skills, optimizing supply chains, and using agile project management techniques are vital. Data-driven decisions, collaboration, and a culture of continuous improvement, along with robust risk management, enhance adaptability to market shifts and unexpected disruptions.

Previously, our production floor lacked transparency, making it difficult to detect and react to existing and potential problems. This resulted that bottlenecks, downtime, overproduction, over motion, unnecessary internal transportation, defects and inventories (too high or too low) became almost invisible. To improve transparency, we first removed all panels between production lines and made the entire production floor visible from all points. The next step was to redesign input points of our production lines to have only necessary number of boxes with the parts for production lines daily production.

While there are many quality improvement programs available one of the most important things to understand is the "Theory of Constraints" once you are able to understand your process, are able to identify bottlenecks that can be fixed and understand what is the "timer" in the process you will be able to set up a predictable process that will allow you speed and flexibility.

If you don’t have it, one solution can be creation of customized database integrated system which includes all processes. Beside it’s not expensive and we make it internally for you, it is much appropriate comparing with the “Excel kingdom”. That enabled more: • Reduction of paperwork time in production • Free time for Team/ Shift leaders creative work (problem solving, preventive/ on time reactions and CI)

Yes live data is very useful in monitoring the process and giving early warnings of possible problems. Remember that collecting the data is going to be a process that will change as the bottlenecks are removed.

One needs to be careful about your supply chain, there is a school of thought that diversification is good, however this can introduce complexity to the process. A method I prefer is to back the 6sigma or theory of constraints into the suppliers process, the more up the supply chain you can back the process the less likely you are of getting faulty supplies which in turn means a more efficient manufacturing process with less wast.

It is obvious a non-trained pilot won't succeed even if he drives a F1. Same thing in manufacturing operations. Training is where to start. If you can, it is always better to build your training process/tools with all the stakeholders: operators of course but safety team, product team, engineering, logistic, etc... From my opinion, the feedback you will get from training tools creation will lead to the next phases of lean manufacturing.