PRODUCTIVITY

DIPLOMA IN FOUNDRY TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTIVITY

SESSION 1 : OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

1.1 Management
1.2 Control
1.3 Organizational Structures
1.4 Operations Management
1.5 Teaming Up with Customers
1.6 Developing a Strategy for Operations
1.7 Organizational Functions
1.8 Principles of O.M. – As Strategy
1.9 Manufacturing Relationships
1.10 Homework

SESSION 2 : MASTER PLANNING

2.1 Introduction

Plans can be set for long-range, medium-range, or short-range depending on the time required to execute them. Time spans for different plans are governed to a very large extent by the type of company, its product positioning strategy and its process positioning strategy. In principle the following holds good:

The long-range planning horizon should exceed the time required to acquire new facilities, equipment, products and processes
Medium-range planning is the development of the aggregate production rates and aggregate levels of inventory for product groups
There is no precise definition for the length of the short-range planning horizon. Although detailed schedules and assignments of resources to tasks usually do not occur until well within the short-range period, the development of the production schedule frequently bridges the medium- and short-range planning periods
Planning is a continuous activity. The refinement of medium-range forecasts and plans to the detail required in preparing a short-range version of the production schedule may take place gradually over a number of weeks or even months. Figure 2-1 shows the relationship between priority and capacity at each planning and execution level in a typical MRPII (manufacturing resource planning) process

2.2 Long-Range Planning
2.3 Medium-Range Planning
2.4 Short-Range Planning
2.5 Master Planning Process
2.6 The Production Plan
2.7 Master Scheduling
2.8 Rough-Cut Capacity Planning (RCCP)
2.9 Developing the Master Production Schedule
2.10 Homework

SESSION 3 : PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT

3.1 What is Productivity?
3.2 Total Job Make-Up
3.3 Causes of Excess Time
3.4 Changes in Productivity Levels
3.5 Work Study
3.6 The 5S’s and Their Meaning
3.7 Purpose of the 5S’s
3.8 Kaizen
3.9 The Seven “MUDA”
3.10 Inspection and Prevention
3.11 Problem Solving
3.12 Homework

SESSION 4 : METHOD STUDY

4.1 Introduction

Method study is that part of work study that sets out to establish the “best way” in which a job or task should be carried out. We can define method study as:

“The systematic recording and critical examination of existing and proposed ways of doing work, as a means of developing and applying easier and more effective methods of doing that work and reducing costs.”

Method study attempts to find the “best way” of doing a job and looks at all the factors affecting the conditions under which the job is being carried out. Some of the ways in which method study can be used to improve working conditions include the following:

The improvement of the various production processes and the procedures used to camj out the various operations
The improvement of factory, shop and workplace layout and of the design of plant and equipment
Economy in human effort and the reduction of unnecessary fatigue during the undertaking of tasks and complete jobs
An improvement in the use of materials, machines and manpower through the introduction of alternative materials, easier work methods and the use of jigs and fixtures
The development of a better physical working environment through the reduction in noise, heat, and other unpleasant working conditions

There are a number of method study techniques suitable for tackling problems on all scales from the layout of complete factories to the smallest movements of a team member on repetitive work. In every case, however, the method or procedure is basically the same and consists of a number of sequential steps.

4.2 Basic Procedure for Method Study
4.3 Selecting the Work to be Studied
4.4 Particulars of the Job
4.5 Ineffective Time
4.6 Recording Techniques and Their Uses
4.7 Symbols Used in Charting
4.8 Charts
4.9 Diagrams and Models
4.10 Homework

SESSION 5 : WORK MEASUREMENT

5.1 Introduction

Work measurement, as the name suggests, provides us with a means of measuring the time taken in the performance on an operation or series of operations in such a way that “ineffective time” is identified and can be separated from “effective time”. In this way, its very existence, nature and extent become known where previously they were concealed within the total time for the job.

One of the surprising things about our operations where work measurement has never been applied is the amount of ineffective time whose very existence is unsuspected. Or which is accepted as being the “usual” thing and something that is inevitable that no one can do much about. That it is built “into” the process. Once the existence of ineffective time has been revealed and the reasons for it tracked down, steps can usually be taken to reduce it or eliminate it all together.

Here work measurement has another role to play. Not only can it reveal the existence of ineffective time; it can also be used to set standard times for carrying out the work so that, if any ineffective time does creep in later, it will immediately be shown up as an “excess” over the standard and will thus be brought to our attention.

“Work measurement is used to determine the amount of time required by a qualified team member, using a standard method and working at a standard work pace, to perform a specified task”.

The time required for this task is commonly referred to as the “standard” or “allowed” time.

5.2 Development of Work Measurement
5.3 Purpose of Work Measurement
5.4 Basic Procedure of Work Measurement
5.5 Techniques of Work Measurement
5.6 Basic Time Study Equipment
5.7 Timing Methods
5.8 Elements of a Work Cycle
5.9 Rating
5.10 Compiling the Standard Time
5.11 Homework

SESSION 6 : CAPACITY REQUIREMENTS PLANNING

6.1 Introduction

All companies, both manufacturing companies and service industries, need to know what the limitations on providing their goods and services are. For example:

How many parts can be produced using our current manufacturing resources?
How many appointments can a doctor make during a surgery?

Determining capacity for a service industry is similar to that for a manufacturing industry. The process applies equally to that of small organizations as it does for large multi-disciplined companies. Simply put, capacity is the amount of work that can be done.

Capacity planning is the tool that we use to “validate” our production plans and highlight any imbalances between the load and capacity at each work centre and between time periods within a work centre. Capacity requirements planning is primarily applicable to intermittent or job shop production, where both load and capacity can vary significantly. Load is the amount of work that must be done.

Capacity measures the ability of a work centre or cell to accomplish a certain amount of work in a given period of time. It is a function of the amount of available resources, manpower, machines, tooling etc., that is available during a given time period. Planning for capacity takes place in distinct stages.

First is resource planning which is the responsibility of our top management. Resource planning determines long-range, overall levels of capacity requirements, regarding work force, inventory targets, and any plant and facilities constraints.

Second is rough-cut capacity planning (RCCP) which is used to verify that we have sufficient capacity of our “critical” resources with which to execute our master production schedule (MPS). With insufficient capacity at this level we would be unable to meet the schedule. This would inevitably lead to delays and create potential “bottlenecks” at our critical work centres.

Third is capacity requirements planning (CRP). At this level capacity requires a much more detailed calculation of loads that will be imposed on specific work centres during a specific time period. Both rough-cut capacity planning and capacity requirements planning are the responsibility of operations management.

Fourth is input/output control: At this level we are now in the “execution” mode, and the level of detail has increased significantly. Actions here include controlling the amount of input relative to the amount of output from a work centre. In effect controlling the amount of “work-in-process” at specific work centres. Failure to do this effectively would result in either too much WIP or too little WIP.

The relationship between priority planning and control (load) and capacity planning and control (capacity) is illustrated in Figure 6-1. It needs to be stressed here that only once we can validate load and capacity at the higher level are we able to move one level down through the hierarchy of stages.

The goal is to balance load and capacity at each stage to ensure that we are making the best use of all our available resources. This is particularly difficult when we are making a wide variety of products which use different resources. It’s a challenge to meet demand with available resources, and to do it with the minimum of waste and cost.

1: Priority-Capacity Relationships at the Various Levels in the Planning Hierarchy

The CRP Process

The model illustrated in Figure 6-2 outlines the capacity requirements planning process, indicating (1) CRP Inputs, (2) the CRP Processing logic, and (3) CRP Outputs.
As you can see from the diagram there are four inputs to the process and two major outputs.

We will briefly outline the function of each of these here, and then discuss each in a little more detail later in the session.

Where there are only a few workstations and jobs in the system this process could be carried out manually. However as complexity increases the task becomes too complex.

2: The Capacity Requirements Planning Process Model

6.2 The CRP Process
6.3 Key Definitions
6.4 Measures of Capacity
6.5 In puts To CRP
6.6 Processing Logic
6.7 Outputs from CRP
6.8 Input/ Output Control
6.9 Performance Measures
6.10 Homework

SESSION 7 : SHOP FLOOR CONTROL

7.1 Introduction

In this session we look at the principle approaches and techniques used to plan, schedule, control and evaluate the effectiveness of shop-floor operation. This puts us into the “execution” mode.

There are many variables in determining the kind of shop floor operations we use and the choice will be greatly influenced by such factors as: where we meet our customers, how we manufacture, the consequences of supply and demand variability, and the relationship between production and other functions. These are known as our “product” and “process” positioning strategies.

Production control utilizes data obtained from the various work stations to maintain and communicate “up-to-date” information on shop orders and work centre activity. It monitors how well our plans are executed and how well we meet customer demands “on-time” every time, in the most cost-effective way.

Shop floor control, often called “production activity control (PAC)”, is the execution phase of our manufacturing planning and control system and is the responsibility of first-line management. The areas covered during the execution phase include each of the following:

Making detailed plans and schedules for each of the jobs to be processed through the various work centres during the current period, usually a week or month
Checking resource availability to ensure that material, labour and equipment is ready and available in the correct quantity at the time it is needed at each work centre
Releasing orders according to the scheduled release date. At this point it is essential to ensure all resources are on-hand
Monitoring order progress as the various jobs move through the various work centres to have work performed on them
Prioritizing jobs as customer due dates change or rescheduling notices are received from the planning office
Obtaining timely feedback and updates and making adjustments where appropriate
Order completion and buy-offs of jobs at the end of the production process. This is necessary for maintaining up-to-the-minute information on capacity availability at the various work centers
In establishing which strategies to use to “close the loop” we need to examine the various “product positioning strategies” and the “process positioning strategies” which best satisfies our strategic direction.

Figure 7-1 shows an integrated approach to shop floor control, showing how the various elements (most of which will be explained in this session) fit together to ensure timely delivery of the programmed demand.

3: An Integrated Approach to Shop Floor Control

7.2 Product and Process Positioning Strategies
7.3 Process Positioning Strategies
7.4 Alternate Plant Layouts
7.5 Relationship Between Load and Capacity
7.6 Job and Operation Scheduling
7.7 Data Inputs to Shop Floor Control
7.8 Order Progress Reporting
7.9 Data Collection Methods
7.10 Establishing Priorities
7.11 Order Completion and Feedback
7.12 Homework