Plasti-Brack Productivity

Plasti-Brack Productivity

TO: George Washburn

FROM:

SUBJECT: Plasti-Brack's Productivity Planning Process

REVIEW OF THE CURRENT SITUATION

This report provides the necessary information regarding the productivity planning of the manufacturing project in the Plasti-Brack Production Group, per your request. There are several problems noted within the general yearly planning process which has occurred over the last several months. The situation has reached a point where action is required.

The current situation has evolved into one where there is a gap between the amount of time the machines are available to run versus the time they are actually producing quality parts. Reduction builds and processes are not in place to lessen human efforts, space, capital, and time in order to make products and services far less costly with fewer defects. Management hasn't focused on team empowerment, brainstorming and or problem solving in making improvements to a specific area or process. Tangible results and motivation for ongoing continuous improvements must be incorporated within the planning process of Plasti-Brack Production Group for it to be successful.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Continuous improvement is a series of actions taken to identify, analyze and improve existing processes within an organization to meet new goals and objectives. In order to reach the goal of 5%, small things must be in place to reach lean efficiency in the company. Some of the problems noted are for instance, the processes for Blanking & Packing: if it takes 1 person working 2 machines in blanking and it takes 3 persons to pack, then people hours in blanking must be reduced. Secondly, analyzing the assembly area suggest that there may not be enough parts to make a complete assembly which is a contributing factor in having non-productive time for employees within the assembly area. Thirdly, Plasti-Brack's will incorporate line schedules to reduce uncleanliness and nonproductive hours. This will streamline production to better fit the plant's cleaning schedules.

ACTION PLANS

A lean enterprise produces more with existing resources by eliminating non-value added activities. Lean establishes a systematic approach to eliminating these wastes and creating flow throughout the whole company by reducing cycle time, inventory, work-in-progress, and costs while increasing capacity, lead times, productivity, quality, and profits. The lean analysis of Plastic-Brack will be discussed throughout the action plans for recommendations/suggestions for improving their company manufacturing/production processes.

Utilization of Space:

The inability to utilize space contributes to nonproductive hours. For instance, the plant layout is congested which requires employees to move plastic resin to the molding machine which is dumped into the feeding hoppers and assembled tubs are moved to the Bulk Pack area and Finished Goods Warehouse waiting to be picked up. The plant layout should be structure in a flow manufacturing layout approach or U-shape design that will help equipment and workstations arrangement to flow in a smooth transition through the manufacturing process with minimal transport or delays. Flow Manufacturing is the linking of manual and machine operations into the most efficient combination of resources to maximize value-added content while minimizing waste. This will create a balance in their process, maximize value-added by each worker, minimize part movement and inventory, reduce lead times, cycle times, and wait times, improve productivity and quality performance, free up floor space, improve efficiency of cross-training workers, increase communication, and increase flexibility.

The company can introduce the 5S system which will improve workplace organization and standardization. This will allow the employee to sort through all items and remove unneeded items. Especially, providing continuous inspection and cleaning work areas to reduce nonproductive time. Management can set limits, create temporary location indicators and set in order remaining items by establishing self-discipline, training, communication and total employee involvement. By implementing the 5S system, it will improve quality, achieve work standardization, decrease changeover time, improve safety, reduce storage costs, reduce cycle time, reduce machine down time, and boost employee morale as well as work environment.

Plasti-Brack's bulk pack processes moves the tubs to the finished goods warehouse where it waits to be picked and packed in a large shipping container to the customer. This is wasted time where as if Plasti-Brack incorporated a Pull System, this would eliminate waste in handling, storing and getting the product to the customer in a timely manner. The tubs wouldn't have to wait in the shipping area to consume workspace.

Changeover Time:

Changeover time contributes to the nonproductive hours between each different product. For instance,