When it comes to manufacturing your products, the more you produce, the more revenue you can bring in. If you’re like most, you likely focused your efforts on the big changes that can enhance your manufacturing efficiency. However, you should never underestimate the power that small details can have in the overall efficiency of your manufacturing process.
Multifaceted Productivity Measures
When you think about enhancing manufacturing practices, your main performance measure is the amount of output you can produce per hour. However, that’s not the only type of measure that you should use to measure your efficiency level. Rather, you should opt for multifaceted measures. This includes measuring materials used, waste materials, and capital utilization. When you use multiple measures to gauge your performance, you can ensure that any changes you make to enhance efficiency are done so without hindering another area of your performance.
Maintenance Tracking
The sad part about many manufacturing machinery breakdowns is that they could’ve been prevented through regular maintenance. Many business owners are so focused on churning out products that they forget to take the time to do the proper maintenance on their machines. It’s better to shut down production at a time you scheduled in advance to take care of routine maintenance instead of shutting down unexpectedly due to equipment failure.
Having Spare Parts On Hand
Machine downtime is one of the biggest killers of manufacturing efficiency. While it would not be feasible financially or physically to store all the spare parts your equipment may need, it’s a good idea to keep regularly used ones on hand. Things like an industrial washer, o-rings, and cylinders are all good spare parts to have on hand for all your machines. This way, repairs can be done quickly.
Record Organization
Data only does you good when you have it readily available, and it comes in an organized format. You should focus on the small detail of organization to ensure that you can make more informed decisions regarding your manufacturing efficiency. For example, you should be keeping maintenance records in an easily accessible area, so employees know when they need to perform the next round of maintenance before it happens.
Evaluating Wasted Time
Wasted time can be defined in many different ways when it comes to production. We’re specifically using this term to describe the unnecessary travel time it takes for employees on your production floor to reach equipment and machinery to complete their jobs. Your facility should be laid out in a way that is efficient for all floor workers. The machinery and tools they need should be in a specific area, so they don’t have to walk across the production floor to complete their tasks.
When it comes to enhancing the manufacturing efficiency of your facility, there are many ways to do so. Instead of solely focusing on big actions like investing in smart machinery, some little details can be adjusted. By taking the above five small details into consideration, you’ll be able to easily boost the manufacturing efficiency of your facility at little or no cost to you.
