Blog For Noob Random thought of a Noob Blogger
As time goes on, it is likely that you are going to want to improve your business’s overall efficiency; whether it is purely to cut down on the amount of rework, or whether it is with deadlines in mind. However, knowing what you want to gain from the exercise is not necessarily going to help you understand where you need to start on your journey to improve efficiency.
#1 Understand Scheduling
Understanding scheduling and getting your manufacturing timings correct is a major factor in having an efficient manufacturing business. Many manufacturing businesses have based their timings on operatives that not only know the procedures but have been carrying out that specific job role for several months, if not years.
This provides the business with ‘false’ timings for their schedules because, if for some reason, another operative must take over that procedure, they will not be able to achieve the same results within the desired time and throwing out the fragile timings that have been laid down for them.
It is, therefore, far more prudent to work out timings with an operative that has some knowledge of the role but only a very limited amount of time performing it.
#2 Cut Down on Rework
There are various ways you can go about cutting down on the sheer amount of rework that your manufacturing business is faced with. For instance, you can employ a quality inspection team to point out areas where your employees may require a little more training to hit desired goals and targets. In addition to this, you will be able to teach your employees what they will need to look out for in their own work, or you can invest in better and more up-to-date technologies to support your workers and, therefore, have them able to work more proficiently.
Another way to make your business more efficient is to heighten your employee’s morale by recognizing their hard work and rewarding them for their efforts.
#3 Don’t Make Do with Machinery
Although when money in business budgets is tight, you may feel that your workforce needs to make do with the machinery and tools that they have, this can be a false economy. Making do with either the wrong machinery or tools for a job, or for that matter inferior tools and machinery, could be costing your business in time and effort, as well as in maintenance expenses.
Alternatively, investing in good quality tools, machinery, and equipment, such as cutting power tools from the renowned OSL Group, for instance, could mean that your operatives that use such items will get their jobs done to a much higher spec and faster than operatives working with an inferior product, which will create either rework or a below spec item.
To Wrap It All Up
You are likely going to want to make your manufacturing business even more efficient than it currently is, especially when the cost of living is on the rise, which affects all businesses, as well as members of the public.
As with all things, there are ways in which you can get ahead of the game. You may need to look at your scheduling first off to make sure that you are not expecting the moon on a stick from your employees. Instead, ensuring that the targets you are setting down can be obtained by the majority (if not everybody) is a good place to start.
With your employees not rushing to obtain an unreachable target, you could very well find that rework is reduced, but to reduce it further, you may have to employ a quality team to oversee your employee’s work, so that they can suggest training ideas for your operatives, as well as help you to see employee value when working with quality tooling and machinery.
