Production facilities that are established without a predetermined plan usually do not take into account the basic requirements of industrial production for efficiency, ergonomics, minimal handling or elimination of waste. At some point, the situation becomes untenable. At Paul Advisory, we know what to do at such times! After several successful small projects focusing on bottlenecks in production, standardizing time consumption or screening the work of foremen, we were given a strategic assignment from the company: optimizing the production hall space. In agreement with the management, we divided the project into 3 phases: analytical, design and implementation. Right after that, we got down to work.
The analysis of the situation
The analytical part started with a detailed screening, which showed that:
- The layout of the hall and the individual workstations are not designed according to the flow of the order through production, and it is necessary to manipulate the material between workstations
- The layout of the individual workstations is not suitable in terms of efficiency and ergonomics
- Lack of standardisation and visualisation
- Individual approach to scrap production
- Non-standard storage of input material and finished production (wherever possible)
The first stage of the project continued with the collection of production data and its evaluation - screening, process analysis, calculations of logistics path lengths, need for storage and production areas...
The output of the first stage was the definition of the project brief (goal) for layout optimization:
- to improve the material flow
- shorten handling routes
- standardise storage areas
- centralise the dispatch warehouse
- optimise individual workplaces or workstations
Design part
Based on the defined task and the analyses carried out, several options were proposed. Each of them included the layout design in graphic form, capacity calculations, designs for optimal logistics routes, storage and production areas including media distribution (electricity, water, air). A change project was prepared for each of the variants. After discussion with the company management, the most optimal variant was agreed. This variant included a complete change of layout of three production halls - about thirty workplaces.
Implementation of the solution
The third stage consisted in the actual implementation of the change project according to a standardised methodology. Paul Advisory staff acted as project manager. During this stage we were responsible for meeting deadlines, resource utilization and the accuracy of the actual production move.
What did the layout optimization project bring to the company when it was willing to stop production for one week and deal with the move?
- the standardisation of the different areas, i.e. clear marking of areas for production, storage, handling
- the straightening of the material flow has reduced the time needed to load the main input material - filter media - by 60% and at the same time reduced the waiting time for material by about 10%
- handling and searching time for individual workers was reduced by 20%, which, combined with the hiring of a handler, eliminated the afternoon shift
- production lead times have been reduced by more than 15% on average (25% for type filters)
- improved ergonomics in the switching and assembly area - reduction of handling and movements by 30%
- the centralisation of the dispatch warehouse resulted in a 30% reduction in dispatch times
- overall reduction of transports and movements of all workers by almost 40% in aggregate
- other non-quantifiable benefits, such as making production more transparent, improved work organisation, improved work morale, standardisation, the possibility of setting up production data collection and not linking performance to the reward system ...