This is my second post on the excellent Fendt Cabin Plant in Asbach-Bäumenheim, which impressed me a lot with their efficiency and general organization. In my last post, I looked at the plant and the line in general. In this post I will go deeper into the topic of efficiency, line balancing, and shop floor management. My last post will then look into their good digital dashboard as well as their blue collar–driven continuous improvement process. Read on!
Efficiency
Effects on Efficiency—Group Size, Line, Location, Product
In my last post, I started to look at factors that affect the efficiency of your line, in particular the percentage of value-added time by the operators. For this I have a good data set with fifty-three different observations. One major factor was the speed of the line. Faster lines are not only easier to optimize, but they also yield more benefit for the optimization. In this post I will look at group size, as well as comparing Japan and Germany, final assemblies with subassemblies, and passenger cars with commercial vehicles.
Effects on Efficiency—Takt Time
Whenever I visit a factory where manual work is done, I try to estimate the percentage of value-adding time. This brings up an interesting question: What factors do affect the percentage of value-adding time? Let’s dig through my data to see what matters.
On the Benefits of Putting Your Processes Close Together
Putting your processes closer together in manufacturing obviously saves space. However, there are many more benefits of putting processes closer together. Let me give you a run down of the benefits:
What Percentage Value Add to Expect for Manual Work?
In my last post I described a quick-and-dirty approach to estimate the percentage of value add (i.e., the efficiency) of manual work. While the value is only an estimate, it is a measurement that you can take quickly and easily even in passing for a manual workplace. You simply count when a person is adding value and when not (i.e., waste). This post will look into more detail on what numbers to expect, and what to do next if you want to increase this percentage of value adding time. Let’s have a look:
How to Estimate Value Add for Manual Work – How to See Waste!
One of the necessary tasks in becoming leaner and improving your industry is to eliminate waste. I like to use a simple approach for measuring waste in manual work to know how good (or bad) the current situation is. To explain my approach I commissioned a few animations. Let me proudly present my approach and my animations, so you can also estimate the efficiency of manual lines when you are on the shop floor.
More Reasons for Working Less
You probably hate long drudging hours working in the office and feeling really worn out at the end of the day. Maybe you’re sitting in an office working right now (and of course your reading my blog means you are working 😉 ), knowing that you will be worn out at the end of the day. This post is especially for you, looking at work hours and productivity. The good news is: Less is more, but don’t overdo it!
Diseconomies of Scale
The economy of scale is well known. The larger a company gets, the more efficient it becomes. However, this trend does not go on indefinitely, and eventually turns into a diseconomy of scale. In this post I will look at the diseconomies of scale, and also the very related Parkinson’s Law.