2020 is a year in which many manufacturing businesses have had to show resilience and agility, just to survive. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed some significant weaknesses, this is giving manufacturers an opportunity to transform their factories for the better. McKinsey maintains that “successful companies will redesign their operations and their supply chains to protect their business against a wider and more acute range of potential shocks and disruptive events.”

If we let it, this pandemic will help manufacturers to redefine their standards: how products are supplied, how improvements are implemented and how manufacturing floors are digitised. We owe it to all of those who kept manufacturing plants open throughout this pandemic; those who learned to adapt in the face of adversity and uncertainty.

Here are three important lessons that the pandemic has thought us in 2020 and how these lessons are turning into opportunities to create more robust and dynamic manufacturing companies:

1. Supply chains don’t have to be so rigid

Covid-19 has shown companies that they need to move to more flexible manufacturing and supply chain models to avoid raw material stockouts and shortfalls in giving customers what they need, when they need it. Diverse sourcing and digitization will be key to building more robust and smarter supply chains. Here are some developing trends…

Less reliance on one major supplier: Manufacturers are identifying which suppliers are at risk of experiencing production slowdowns and are looking for alternative suppliers

Increased visibility on parts: Implementing technologies such as cargo-tracking, GPS and RFID are helping to increase visibility into nearly every part of the supply chain

Less concentration in one country or region: Many manufacturers are starting to diversify the physical locations of their supplier base. Some sectors, such as medical devices, electronics and automotive, are even considering moving parts of their supply chains out of China to the U.S. or EU. Although this increases costs, it reduces exposure to running out of stock

Bulk-buying and stockpiling: As bulk-buying and stockpiling become more common, some manufacturers are considering a change from just-in-time inventory to a just-in-case strategies. Although this is “anti-lean” manufacturing and ties up revenue, some businesses are seeing this as the lesser of two evils, to avoid the risk of running out of a product

2. Manufacturing businesses can pivot how they work very quickly

Covid-19 has shown that it is possible to significantly accelerate the pace at which improvement activity or change is implemented. A “just do it” and “can do” attitude goes a long way. There are some impressive examples of manufacturing companies pulling out all the stops to keep their doors open during the pandemic…

Rapid production floor re-layouts: Although many businesses had to close their doors or adopt a “work from home” policy to keep their staff safe, manufacturing businesses had to figure out how to keep their manufacturing operators a safe distance apart, yet still work together as a team. Many switched from a 1 shift to a 2 shift pattern almost overnight in order to ensure that employees could be positioned far enough apart on the manufacturing floor. Others erected perspex screens between workstations, staggered shift start and end times and implemented face masks and gloves long before they were the norm

Rapid kaizen events: Manufacturing work practices and processes had to be adjusted in order to ensure that they could be carried out safely in the new work environment. Kaizen events are a powerful tool for identifying and implementing improvements quickly. Many businesses realised how quickly and effectively they could implement change when there was an urgent need…and a will to do so

Short-term product pivot: There are numerous examples of companies pivoting their business in a matter of weeks to produce PPE gear and ventilators for the healthcare industry. It highlights the potential of human ingenuity when the shackles are off and the bureaucracy is removed.

3. Digital transformation can be implemented one step at a time

In less than 12 months, the COVID-19 crisis has brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions do business. According to a new McKinsey Global Survey of executives¹, their companies have “accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years”. COVID-19 has helped manufacturing companies to realise that digital transformation strategies are nothing to be scared of and will form a critical part of their future growth…

Digital transformation strategies can be implemented quickly: Most businesses implemented digital solutions during the pandemic to help them to run their business more effectively. The Mcinsey Global survey demonstrated that the pace of change was much quicker than businesses ever thought possible before the crisis.

Digital transformation is here to stay: The level of investment in digital initiatives has increased significantly and most businesses are realising the economic and operational benefits. Focus is now switching to how they can scaleup these digital solutions and embed them into how they run the business permanently

Digital transformation is of strategic importance: Businesses are realising that digital transformation goes beyond the question “how much will it reduce our costs?”. From a manufacturing perspective, the cost savings are quickly realised in the labour and material cost savings alone. But manufacturing businesses are discovering other benefits from implementing digital solutions. Take Kyzentree’s software Kt-Pulse for example. Kt-Pulse monitors any manual or semi-automated manufacturing process in real time. The analytics are helping remote workers to keep up to date with the manufacturing floor, increasing team collaboration on addressing issues, standardising how processes are monitored and identifying new ways to reduce downtime and scrap that are just not possible with the traditional paper-based systems.  

¹ The online survey was in the field from July 7 to July 31, 2020, and garnered responses from 899 C-level executives and senior managers representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, and functional specialties

Conclusions

It’s the companies with a positive and agile attitude that will rise above the current challenges. Manufacturers now have a chance to embrace new ways of working that COVID-19 has forced upon us.

According to the McKinsey survey, digital transformation initiatives are helping manufacturers to increase output by 10% to 200%, reduce costs by 5% to 40% and decrease time to market for new products by 30% to 90%. To succeed in scaling digital manufacturing in this way, manufacturers must have a robust digital strategy with clearly defined financial and performance goals that are linked to real business needs. Manufacturers that can move quickly to digitally transform will be better placed to respond to the changes in the operating environment that COVID-19 has triggered and give them a massive lead over slow-moving competitors.

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Anthony Cahill has over twenty years’ experience in various roles within the manufacturing sector. He has primarily worked in manufacturing operations that rely on people working with their hands, fixtures and semi-automated equipment to produce discrete goods across a range of industry types. With a background in lean manufacturing and six sigma principles, he has a passion for looking at challenging manufacturing environments and working with cross-functional teams to transform them into safer and more efficient work spaces for all concerned.

The post How the manufacturing sector is changing for the better appeared first on Kyzentree.

When it comes to meetings, they are often seen as a necessary evil, and that’s no different in manufacturing. Any of these sound familiar?

• “We spend all morning talking about yesterday”
• “There is no clear structure”
• “We’re always going off on a tangent”
• “The meeting never starts or finishes on time”
• “Let’s not flag that issue – the managers will flip!”

There are some tips and tricks that can help turn meetings into a powerful tool to get everybody aligned and motivated. Here are a few of our tried and tested techniques…

1. Set the right tone

Set a positive tone that encourages team engagement…

• Focus on the positives: Nothing ever goes perfectly well. Pick out the positives even when mistakes are made. This will avoid deflating the team
• See problems and mistakes as opportunities: If the reaction to problems is to throw the toys out of the pram, don’t be surprised if a culture of cover up is created. Encourage the team to identify problems and see them as opportunities to improve
• Encourage data-based decision making: “This always happens” or “that never happens” are common reactions to problems. Insist on making decisions based on data and look for the right data if none exists. Kt-Pulse is a great way to capture and present manufacturing performance data from any manual or semi-automated process
• Switch the mindset of who serves who: If you’re a type 1 organisation (see figure below), try the gradual shift towards type 2. Type 2 organisations put their energy into helping the frontline workers in whatever way they can, bringing new levels of productivity and efficiency.

2. Set an agenda with clear objectives

If your team turns up at a meeting without a clear purpose, it will be of limited value. To make the most out of the meeting, here’s a few pointers…

• Make the overall objective very clear and visible, particularly for daily meetings (e.g. the objective of the meeting is to identify the priority actions for the day, in order to hit our planned output)
• Create a small set of questions (preferably 5 or less) that are asked every day and that are linked to the overall objective (e.g. are there any issues that are likely to prevent us from hitting our output plan today?). Time spent doing this properly can save an abundance of wasted time on poor meetings.
• Define who should attend and what their role is at the meeting and ensure that every question has an owner

3. Start on time

This is a no-brainer but very important. If the senior person at the meeting is routinely late, it creates a mindset that their time is more important than everybody else’s time…

• Set a good example by being on time, particularly if you are one of the senior attendees
• If there are back-to-back meetings, allow time to travel to the next meeting
• Everybody is late sometimes. If so, apologise and don’t make it a habit
• Start the meeting without latecomers. Try out a charity jar; €1 for each late arrival!

4. Be dynamic

Manufacturing meetings are best run on the shop floor. They are dynamic environments, much like the meeting should be. Here’s how you can make your meeting dynamic…

• Keep it short – maximum 10 minutes, preferably 5
• Stand-up meetings are best; around a screen or whiteboard
• Mix up who runs the meeting to keep everybody aligned on the format
• Be open to changing the format if it’s not achieving the meeting objectives
• Avoid getting into deep discussions. Factor in time for spinout conversations in smaller groups

5. Keep the language simple

Talking in acronyms might make it seem like you’re very knowledgeable but don’t assume everybody understands them…

• Keep the language simple and minimise jargon so that nobody feels overwhelmed or left out
• Avoid high tech language. As Albert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

6. Finishing up

Starting and finishing meetings on time take discipline. And finishing on time with clear actions for the day ahead is a great sign of a well-run meeting…

• Finishing on time might mean stopping the meeting in the middle of a conversation, but that sends a powerful signal that it’s not okay to run over. Nominating a timekeeper might help
• Leave the meeting with clear expectations for the day. For daily meetings, focus mainly on the next 24 hours. If a task takes several days to complete, break it into subtasks for the daily meeting
• Highlight where support is needed from peers and managers in order to get things done
• Get into the habit of assigning an owner and target date for every task
• Put an escalation process in place so that everybody knows whom to flag if support is needed
• Take issues and discussions offline, with the relevant people
• Aim to finish the meeting on a positive note every time

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Anthony Cahill has over twenty years’ experience in various roles within the manufacturing sector. He has primarily worked in manufacturing operations that rely on people working with their hands, fixtures and semi-automated equipment to produce discrete goods across a range of industry types. With a background in lean manufacturing and six sigma principles, he has a passion for looking at challenging manufacturing environments and working with cross-functional teams to transform them into safer and more efficient work spaces for all concerned.

The post Keep your manufacturing meetings short and sweet appeared first on Kyzentree.

The phrase “work smarter, not harder” was coined by Allen F. Morgenstern in the 1930s. It can be applied to any work situation, but on a manual assembly line, there is an abundance of opportunities to put this mantra into practice, and to realise new levels of productivity.

If you need to boost productivity by 10-20%, asking people to work 10-20% faster is not the answer; firstly it’s not sustainable and secondly, it usually leads to a drop in quality standards. Instead, focus on monitoring and improving the following three metrics and you will achieve more stable and predictable output numbers and a happier workforce.

Availability

Availability is a measure of how much of the scheduled shift time that production operators spend manufacturing products. In many cases, it is surprisingly low. When you add up all of the stoppages, from the small 1-5 minute interruptions through to the 30 minute+ shutdowns, each production operator on an assembly line or cell typically only builds product for 40 to 70% of their shift. The rest of the time is spent waiting for machines and fixtures to get repaired, waiting for materials, doing paperwork, counting products, labelling rejects, etc, etc.

Is this constant flood of disruptions frustrating? Of course. Imagine if your laptop stopped working every 15 minutes, just when you’re getting into a rhythm.

Are many of the stoppages avoidable? Absolutely. Concentrate on the following and you will start to recover much of the lost time and give the operators more time to hit their targets…

• Quantify all of the planned and unplanned stoppages, no matter how small
• Measure how long changeovers take
• Put an escalation process in place to reduce the impact of stoppages
• Pick a project every quarter that focuses on reducing the impact of a big downtime issue

The Kt-Pulse app enables production operators to quickly and easily log downtime and changeover events at any manual or semi-automated manufacturing process. It’s very accurate and the analytics instantly flag where resources should focus, to minimise the impact of downtime issues.

Performance

Performance is a measure of how well production operators can meet the planned output, when the line or cell is running. Targets should be based on the customer demand, but it’s important to balance the work content across all of the workstations so that production operators can consistently achieve the planned output.

A timing study is a useful way to determine how much of the work content that each workstation can comfortably manage. But don’t use the fastest operator on the line to time each workstation. Instead, the timing study data should be based on the average or median time to build a unit, based on a qualified worker, without over exertion, provided they adhere to the specified method and are motivated to apply themselves. This will set you up for more predictable output numbers, regardless of who is located at each workstation on the line. It also sets a realistic expectation for the production operators to achieve.

Here are some tips when setting up lines or cells to achieve more predictable, consistent output…

• Communicate hourly targets to the operators and teach them how to track output accurately
• Implement standard work so that all operators follow the same sequence of steps consistently
• Introduce fixtures/production aids where processes require high dexterity or guesswork
• Rotate production operators, ideally every 2 hours, to keep everybody motivated
• Manage the constraint step closely; if the constraint step requires a high level of speed and dexterity, then simplify the process as much as possible. Understand which operators are capable of running the constraint step consistently and develop a cross training plan to avoid over reliance on one or two individuals.  

The Kt-Pulse app enables production operators to quickly and easily log output in real-time at any manual or semi-automated manufacturing process. The analytics clearly show if output is on track in real-time, and motivates production operators to hit planned output much more consistently.

Quality

Process Quality is a measure of how frequently a production operator can produce a product at the first attempt. If a product is defective it may be scrapped or reworked. It is justifiable to rework a unit rather than bin it when the cost of rework is low compared to the cost of building a replacement product.

When resolving scrap or rework issues, sometime it’s a case of simply changing a work practice or putting a poke yoke fixture in place to prevent an error from occurring. Other times, it is more complex to solve and a small team is put in place to follow a structured problem solving process. This will help to understand the problem and to root cause it more easily. Once the root cause is known, the solution is normally straight forward to implement.

Here are some useful guidelines when the quality level of your manual or semi-automated processes needs to improve…

• Understand defects or rework properly by tracking quantity, reason codes and where they occur
• Train the operators to flag unusual levels of defects or rework early
• Put poke yoke solutions in place to prevent defects or rework from happening
• Include production operators in problem solving investigations; they are a wealth of information

The Kt-Pulse app enables production operators to quickly and easily log defects and rework in real-time at any manual or semi-automated manufacturing process. It tells you precisely when and where the defects and rework are occurring, which is very powerful data for problem solving investigations.

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Anthony Cahill has over twenty years’ experience in various roles within the manufacturing sector. He has primarily worked in manufacturing operations that rely on people working with their hands, fixtures and semi-automated equipment to produce discrete goods across a range of industry types. With a background in lean manufacturing and six sigma principles, he has a passion for looking at challenging manufacturing environments and working with cross-functional teams to transform them into safer and more efficient work spaces for all concerned.

The post The 3 key metrics that influence productivity on the manufacturing floor appeared first on Kyzentree.

At the peak of his powers, would Usain Bolt have trained without a high precision stopwatch? Or would Lewis Hamilton have won seven Formula One titles without monitoring his car throughout the races? Absolutely not! Then why run the manufacturing floor without good data?

Peter Drucker, the famous business consultant, is credited with saying “what gets measured, gets improved”. In other words, if you don’t measure it, the opportunity to improve something remains hidden, and inefficient work practices get baked into how we do things.

Running a manufacturing floor that is heavily reliant on production operators is challenging. Doing it without good data is almost impossible. Here are 4 steps to getting the insights you need to run a more productive and efficient business.

Select the critical processes and set targets

Monitoring every process on the manufacturing floor is overkill, particularly if you have a diverse range of manual and semi-automated processes. Measuring every process will just lead to too much data…analysis paralysis. Choose wisely. Select the processes that will dictate how well the manufacturing floor is running; critical assembly processes, critical inspection processes and end-of-line packaging processes are a great place to start.

Once you’ve identified the key processes, set realistic targets so that you can tell, from the start, if they are performing well or not. If the operators are clear on when they are falling behind target or when defects and downtime are higher than expected, then they will know the right time to ask for help.

In addition, if you are hitting targets much too easily or not coming close to hitting them at all, then don’t be afraid to adjust them. Just bring the production operators on the journey with you.

Capture the basic data as accurately as possible

Whether you are managing a highly automated manufacturing cell or a labour-intensive assembly line, you must clearly define how data is captured from the process. In automated lines, you may have the benefit of machine sensors to describe how well the equipment is running. In manual assembly, on the other hand, it’s not so easy to quantify how well the processes are performing.

In saying that, you do have one very powerful “sensor” at your disposal; the production operator. In fact, they have 5 senses that they use every day to build products and to observe everything that goes on within and around their process. They are a wealth of information when it’s harnessed correctly.

If you track output, defects and downtime properly, then you are well on the way to better understanding your processes. Make it as easy as possible for the production operators to log this information and you will avoid missed schedules, delays in solving problems and confusion over why targets are not met. Collecting the data through an app-based platform, like Kt-Pulse, takes a lot of guesswork and manual input out of the process.

Visualise the data in a way that everybody understands

Visual management is a key component of lean manufacturing. The more visible you make the information, the quicker you can convey the right information to the right people and improve response times to issues.

Conveying the data through numbers and colours makes the important information stand out much more clearly than written text. The gold standard is the 1-3-10 rule…

• within 1 second, you should know if performance is on target or not
• within 3 Seconds, you should know what the problem is, if not on target and
• within 10 Seconds, you should know what to do next, to focus on fixing the problem

This is difficult in manual assembly environments, where data is typically shared through checksheets, whiteboards or clunky spreadsheets. These are time consuming and cumbersome methods to maintain and therefore, the information is often delayed in getting to the right people. Visualisation software, like Kt-Pulse, automatically displays the data on easy-to-understand dashboards, which frees up your resources to focus on running the manufacturing floor.

Have a clear plan for how you use the data

Visualising the information is critical to monitoring the manufacturing floor. But acting on the data is where the magic happens. Follow these basic rules and you will transform how your manufacturing floor reacts to problems…

• Put an escalation process in place and teach everybody how to use it. This will drastically reduce the impact of downtime
• Run short, sharp team meetings every day to discuss and agree priorities, based on the manufacturing data
• Foster an environment where problems are highlighted, not hidden. This will ensure that the most critical improvement projects are delivered first
• Realise that you can’t solve everything at once. Focus on solving one problem at a time, preferably starting with the biggest

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Anthony Cahill has over twenty years’ experience in various roles within the manufacturing sector. He has primarily worked in manufacturing operations that rely on people working with their hands, fixtures and semi-automated equipment to produce discrete goods across a range of industry types. With a background in lean manufacturing and six sigma principles, he has a passion for looking at challenging manufacturing environments and working with cross-functional teams to transform them into safer and more efficient work spaces for all concerned.

The post So, you’re running your manufacturing floor in the dark: 4 steps to enlightenment appeared first on Kyzentree.

The first thing that springs to mind for many people when they think of manufacturing is hi-tech equipment and precision fixturing. In some highly automated environments, equipment can largely run themselves, but in manual production environments, high skilled workers are required to set up and run the machines and to operate the fixturing.

In these manual, labour-intensive production environments, a cross-functional team is necessary to ensure that products are manufactured on time, to the required quality level and within budget. The information they use to make decisions and their ability to work as a team is critical to how effectively and efficiently the manufacturing floor operates. But who makes up the manufacturing frontline team and what can be done to ensure that they perform at their peak?

The most critical members of the team are the production operators. Without them there is no product, there are no sales, there is no revenue. They are responsible for manufacturing, inspecting and packaging the products that the company sells. They are directly supported by team leads and supervisors who are mainly responsible for ensuring that they have the tools, materials and information that they need to do their job effectively. Process technicians and engineers are there to ensure that the equipment, fixturing and materials operate as intended. While quality technicians and engineers ensure that everything is produced to the required quality and regulatory standards.

There are many things that can go wrong throughout the production shift. That’s normal, that’s life. But how the team responds to these issues can have a huge bearing on how the manufacturing floor operates. Here are 5 ways that middle and senior management can help their manufacturing frontline teams to hum like a finely tuned premier league football team.

1. Switch the mindset of who serves who

The traditional structure in an organisation shows the CEO at the top and the production operators at the bottom, as in figure 1a. Each line of the organisation reports upwards to the next level. This can create the cultural mindset that each layer of the organisation is working for the next layer up, rather than working together to serve customers better. This can have negative consequences in terms of driving improvement where it matters most; on the manufacturing floor.

Now let’s imagine an organisation with the production operators at the top and the CEO at the bottom, as in figure 1b. In this structure, the CEO has the mindset to ask how he or she can help the senior management, who in turn ask how they can support middle management and so on. In effect, everybody is working together to figure out how to streamline all of the processes that affect manufacturing across the entire organisation. This can have huge, positive effects on how the manufacturing floor is run, by constantly looking for opportunities to remove the barriers that are causing inefficiencies on the manufacturing floor.

2. Give the production operators a voice

Production operators live and breathe the problems on the manufacturing floor every day. And not only that, they are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to potential solutions. Okay, so they may not have the expertise to implement solutions alone, but very often there is an abundance of opportunity to implement simple solutions that they can take ownership for. Hear their voice and include them in decision making and they will feel ownership for turning those decisions and improvement opportunities into sustainable successes.

3. Base decisions on good data

W. Edwards Deming once said “without data you’re just another person with an opinion”. And this couldn’t be more relevant than on the manufacturing floor. In manual production environments, operators are required to track manufacturing performance, often using basic tools like tally counters, checksheets and whiteboards. With these tools, it is difficult to get an accurate, real-time picture of how things are going and where the biggest issues lie. As a result poor decisions are made or valuable time is lost in addressing the biggest issues of the day. The impact of this is lower productivity, late shipments and higher costs. To improve decision making and deliver better outcomes, consider investing in digital solutions that will help to…

• Capture much more accurate performance data
• Present the data in real-time without any effort from the frontline team
• Teach everybody how to interpret and respond to the information day-to-day

4. Have daily production meetings with a set structure and time

Okay, so a lot of manufacturing plants have a daily cadence around meetings. But how structured are they and, more importantly, how effective are they? The questions that are asked, the quality of the data being reviewed and the mindset that everybody should leave the meeting with a clear understanding of priorities are all critical to a successful meeting. Throw in some rules like starting and finishing on time and avoiding deep discussions and you are on track to start every shift off on the right note. We’ll talk a lot more about how to run effective daily production meetings in a future blog.

5. Encourage issues to be highlighted

Nobody likes hearing bad news, but it’s inevitable on the manufacturing floor. Accepting this is key. Manufacturing performance data should not be seen as a stick to beat the frontline team with. If the first response to hearing about an issue is to look for a culprit, then don’t be surprised if you create a culture of cover up and fear. Very few people set out to willingly make a mistake, so killing enthusiasm and desire with negative comments is a sure way to de-motivate an otherwise high performing frontline team.

Instead, focus on the positives. Even if the assembly line has an off day, focus on what can be done to improve things in the days ahead. See the “negative trend” as a tool that highlights improvement opportunities. By encouraging the frontline team to identify and quantify issues as early as possible, this will help to drive an open and honest culture of highlighting issues without fear of consequence, which will foster a stronger culture of improvement in the long run

If you want to create more rounded and loyal frontline managers, invest time and effort in helping them to grow. This will foster a culture of honesty, empowerment, positivity and willingness to improve. Ultimately you will create a world class frontline manufacturing team.

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Anthony Cahill has over twenty years’ experience in various roles within the manufacturing sector. He has primarily worked in manufacturing operations that rely on people working with their hands, fixtures and semi-automated equipment to produce discrete goods across a range of industry types. With a background in lean manufacturing and six sigma principles, he has a passion for looking at challenging manufacturing environments and working with cross-functional teams to transform them into safer and more efficient work spaces for all concerned.

The post 5 ways to maximise the efficiency of your frontline manufacturing team appeared first on Kyzentree.

A lot has been written and said in recent weeks about how things will never go back to the way they were, before Covid-19. And in many ways that might be true. Who wants to fly from Europe to the US for a 2 hour meeting anyway?

Digital transformation is, without a doubt, helping to automate many archaic business processes, and manufacturing is no exception. But what about the role of the frontline manufacturing operator? Are robots and machines about to spell the end for this honourable craft?

If Elon Musk’s recent quote is anything to go by then the answer is a resounding “no”. The technology entrepreneur, who is bringing us everything from electric cars to space travel, recently commented on his own manufacturing philosophy: “Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated”.

The manufacturing operator has many names; operator, product builder, production operator, assembly line worker, I could go on. But one thing is for sure; they are a vital cog in the production of many of the goods we need to live our lives. They are the true value-add workers in a manufacturing organisation. After all, if it wasn’t for them, there would be no product, no customers, no revenue. But does that make them indispensable?

Before we get into that, it’s important to acknowledge that there is certainly a case for automating many manufacturing processes. Processes that are repetitive, monotonous, low in complexity and easy to replicate should at least be considered for automation. It’s a no brainer to produce goods like computer chips and plastic bottle caps with machines and robots. They are high volume, easily repeatable processes that will give you a return on your investment in no time.

But what about complex medical devices, delicate electronic goods, ever-changing clothing lines or even high value jewellery? Will they too fall to the mercy of automation?

With enough time, money, determination and effort, any manufacturing process can, in theory, be automated. But, in many cases it’s just not feasible to do so. There are, in fact, many advantages that people hold over their metal friends in these types of manufacturing environment. Here are a few…

Dexterity

The hand is one of the most complex and beautiful pieces of natural engineering in the human body. It gives us a powerful grip but also allows us to manipulate small objects with great precision. This versatility sets us apart from every other creature (and machine) on the planet. However, assembling something like a complex medical or electronic device takes more than a skilful hand. It takes careful hand-to-eye coordination to manipulate delicate components into position, and this is not easy when those same flimsy components can sometimes have a mind of their own. Try teaching a robot that the component may be flat or round, tacky or smooth and may bend left or right and you will face an uphill battle to produce a viable automation solution, particularly for low to medium volume products.

Intuition

During quality inspections, manufacturing operators rely on hi-tech equipment and training, but they also rely on their instinct and reasoning. This helps them to make the best possible decision about the quality of the products that they produce. No two products are exactly the same and many contain some sort of abnormality. Sometimes the abnormality is okay but other times it needs to be evaluated further, to determine if there is a risk to the end user. Robots can detect what they’ve been programmed to do very well, but what about those unexpected deformities that pop up on the manufacturing floor every day? That’s where human intuition is vital, particularly in the manufacture of high quality, high value products.

Flexibility

The flexibility of people is crucial to many manufacturing environments. And I’m not talking about the ability to touch their toes! Agile manufacturing is where an organization creates the processes, tools, and training to enable it to respond quickly to customer needs and market changes, while still controlling costs and quality. High skilled operators can switch from one type of manufacturing setup or flow to another with minimal effort. This is particularly important in low-to-medium volume or mixed model assembly lines and cells, where people must adapt to the changing needs of the business rapidly. Contrast that with our metal friends that work best when they are set up to run high volume, repeatable, consistent processes over and over again.

Feedback

People have 5 senses and for high skilled manufacturing operators, 4 or 5 of them come into play on the production floor every day. What they see, hear, smell, touch and even taste can give insights about the entire manufacturing environment, not just the process in front of them. Machines will tell you how they are doing, but not very much else. So, with the right tools and know-how, production operators can provide a deeper level of feedback, that leads to greater insights about how manufacturing is performing, where the problems lie and how to resolve them.

In truth, there’s a place for people and automation on the manufacturing floor of the future. But understanding where operators have a distinct advantage over automated machines is an important consideration in optimising any manufacturing environment. It’s often far more beneficial to focus on streamlining the manufacturing processes and flow to maximise the effectiveness of the operators, rather than automating for the sake of it. Couple that with simple digital tools, that allow the operators to quickly and easily quantify downtime and productivity, and you have a recipe for a much more streamlined and efficient manufacturing environment.

People may be susceptible to a virus right now, but our metal friends have been prone to one or two viruses over the years too! So, to all those highly skilled workers out there, sleep safely. Your dexterity, intuition, flexibility and feedback skills look set to keep you center stage in many industries for the foreseeable future, so you won’t be exiting stage left any time soon.

Request a free demo: Capturing manufacturing data through the production operators will greatly enhance your understanding of the manufacturing floor. Kt-Pulse is the first app-based product that captures data directly from the production operators in real-time, thus quantifying and visualising productivity and problem areas on easy-to-read dashboards. If you’d like to see for yourself how Kyzentree’s software, Kt-Pulse, can help you to measure productivity and quantify waste on your manufacturing floor more effectively, book a one-to-one, no obligation consultation today and we’ll showcase the benefits to you.

About Kyzentree: We are a recognised leader in improving productivity by making it easy to visualise and manage manufacturing operations. We specialise in operator-driven processes. We have brought together a team of manufacturing, lean-sigma and technology experts to bring you our flagship product Kt-Pulse™. Kt-Pulse is an app-based software solution built exclusively for monitoring any type of manual assembly, inspection or packaging process.

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Anthony Cahill has over twenty years’ experience in various roles within the manufacturing sector. He has primarily worked in manufacturing operations that rely on people working with their hands, fixtures and semi-automated equipment to produce discrete goods across a range of industry types. With a background in lean manufacturing and six sigma principles, he has a passion for looking at challenging manufacturing environments and working with cross-functional teams to transform them into safer and more efficient work spaces for all concerned.

The post The unsung hero on the manufacturing frontline appeared first on Kyzentree.