Design and Modification of Production Systems - Part 1.

With today's companies being forced to react very quickly to incentives from their customers and vendors, they need to find effective ways of responding to these incentives that trigger changes.

There are many ways to adapt the production facility to possible capacity requirements, to integrate automation elements, to reduce or, alternatively, to obtain additional resources, to change the technological procedures ... One task, however, emerges first - to clearly define the direction of change in the production system.

Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, Industry 4.0, ...

So what direction to go? Most of us read on a daily basis the successes of companies that have implemented lean, TPM concepts and are not less busy presenting achievements associated with Industry 4.0. Introducing collaborative robots, SMART sensors, working with big data and many other solutions contribute to change, but ...

These solutions often require huge investments (unfortunately, such means are usually not available), a suitable return is required (usually it can not be declared because the control system is not set up), special resources need to be required (eg automation specialists , workers who know how to work with 3D documentation), etc.

Ideally it would be if everything was introduced itself and immediately. Unfortunately, this is not possible. However, our experience from many years of experience speaks clearly - the first step:

1. Knowledge of customers and their requirements determines the direction

Most of our clients say at first that this is clear - "we know who our customer is and what he wants" (although most manufacturing companies do not have a separate sales department that would detail sales analyzes - forecasts, etc., they already understand that end customer for a company can be, for example, a central external warehouse that also has to meet certain requirements and has its rules and rules).

However, as soon as we require data for previous years and at the same time looking at other (if any) to test them (both from quantitative and qualitative point of view), clients themselves are surprised by the results. However, in times of difficult operation, sometimes it is not time to stop and see how real and influential society is.

Fortunately, today, it is possible to get access to interesting databases and, in cooperation with new progressive tools, process a lot of data (and this does not have to be only artificial intelligence).

It is interesting to link aggregated data to simulation to identify bottlenecks, but still the potential potential of the production system, to develop possible strategies for periods of lower or higher demand, etc.

The analyzes performed by our clients confirm many times that overpriced deliveries have been exceeded, the quality requirements for the product have changed several times, originally dedicated technology was not available, it had to be manufactured in a different way,

The biggest problem, however, is that companies do not have a "guardian of the production system" that would point out the need, changes in the production system. How many factories do you know that change their production facilities during the day (according to the current customer / production program requirements)? I personally do not know them in Slovakia, and if so, it is a move of max. 10% technology.

Here, however, the philosophy of the new production system begins. Setting the flexibility of the production system affects its efficiency and growth potential.

A few years ago, together with our colleagues, we were advised to consider so-called flexible and self-configuring resources. Flexibility is often taken into account only as an option to produce multiple product variants - yes, but also the possibility of a simple move from point A to point B, as well as the possibility to connect to a business information system that automatically adjusts machine parameters and other .

Many companies are then trying to solve their flexibility by automating a tight space where they automatically look for higher output and a solution to the system. The view of flexibility is therefore different. It is therefore appropriate to jointly define what flexibility is and what the limitations are for society. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to solve the flexibility by adjusting inventory - input material, finished production as well as the final product.

All this is related to the knowledge of customer requirements and the building blocks of the "vision of a manufacturing company". But what next? From experience, we can say that it is best to define basic production and information flows based on these analyzes. Their number will later affect the whole philosophy of society, and thus the limits of society.

Ale o tom radšej nabudúce … v ďalšej časti a možno aj u Vás na káve 🙂

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