// BLOG
Does Your Company Implement a Lean Manufacturing Doctrine?
By now most production companies have at least heard of lean manufacturing, and the benefits this term can offer as it relates to every aspect of the business. Lean manufacturing refers to methods that eliminate non-value added activities. It may surprise some to know just how thoroughly indoor LED displays and industrial scoreboards address this need, especially when implemented with web and network tools that offer management resources for production metrics.
The 5S methodology, originally compiled by Japanese Guru Iwao Kobayashi, stands for five methods, beginning with ‘S’, that encourage focus on time management, organization and pride, thereby increasing the employees level of satisfaction in their company. In a way, this management style gives a sense of personal ownership to the worker.
5S thinking can be basically explained like this:
- Sort (Seiri) - Go through everything and eliminate unnecessary or unused items and put in a central location.
- Set in order (Seiton) - “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”
- Shine (Seiso) - Make sure personal work spaces are cleaned up, basic housekeeping.
- Standardize (Seiketsu) - Involve your employees to develop effective production standards that eliminate time wasters.
- Sustain (Shitsuke) - Get rid of old habits and methodologies, and stay the course with new improvements.
Implementing a lean manufacturing doctrine within your company benefits every member. Through the use of LED displays, your employees have a standard of measurement for their productivity as it relates to their line, and overall timeline requirements as it relates to their shift. Having an external assessment in conjunction with internal information gleaned from workers from every area of the plant allows 5S thinking to penetrate productivity from all angles.
Color coded urgency levels and real time production information, available to workers both on the line and to management down the hall, invoke a manageable standard that’s easy to understand.
With lean manufacturing, knowing is half the battle and eliminating wasted time and energy is the other half. When the battle is over, your company wins!
LED Displays in the Warehouse
LED displays in the warehouse are typically placed near loading docks to show what needs to be loaded in a particular truck. Harley Davidson uses them in their distribution center to show what carrier is in the bay. For example, they may have UPS, Fed Ex, and a couple of common carriers backed up to the docks. They put the carrier information overhead so lift-truck drivers know where to unload their products.
LED displays are used in the picking areas to notify the pick personnel that a particular carrier is on-site and they need to finish picking their orders for that shipment. General Mills uses a display over each loading dock to let forklift operators know what needs to be loaded on the truck. Before the pallet is loaded on the truck, it passes over a bar-code scanner, which causes the quantity of the item on the display to decrement by one.
Warehouse efficiency is improved with information provided in real time on strategically placed LED displays.
LED Displays Used on the Plant Floor
Production status boards are a helpful application for assembly lines. Using color profiling for true status at a glance, your employees will know exactly where they stand on key issues very quickly. Green indicates that all is well, an acceptable level of performance. Amber lets production know that there are concerns, or marginally unacceptable levels. Red is unacceptable and must be dealt with urgently.
LED production status board displays show:
- Goal - how many parts should be made
- Actual - how many parts were made
- Variance - how far behind or ahead is production
Industrial LED displays should always include an incrementing goal, which increases through the day to let employees know in real time if they are ahead or behind. These boards can also be configured to inform employees that parts are running low or out.
Industrial LED Displays for Visual Alarm
A common application on the plant floor is visual alarm annunciation. By monitoring various sensors, we can immediately show the fault and more importantly, where it is located. This is very beneficial in areas that have long processes, for instance, paper making machines or assembly lines. Often production and maintenance personnel are tending the machine and not near the controls. Most plants use an audible alarm to indicate a problem. Using an audible alarm, operators must run to a main control area, identify the problem, and then go to the trouble spot. An LED display can direct personnel immediately to the trouble spot. It can even be color coded to indicate the severity of the issue.
The industrial LED display has come a long way since the early years, when their primary purpose was general employee information. Now employees have an increased measure of safety that boosts their confidence in the company, personal accountability, and ultimately morale.
Del Monte Implements Visual Factory
- Client: Del Monte
- Location: Plover, WI
- Installation Date: October, 2006
- Audience: Employees on the Plant Floor
Client Challenge:
Maintaining and improving its competitive marketplace edge is important to Del Monte, the largest producer and distributor of canned fruits and vegetables in the U.S. Management at the Plover, Wisconsin facility sought improved production volume in the palletization area. Cans entering this area by conveyor are packed into cases, then shrink-wrapped and palletized. Each pallet’s configuration, based on can size, changes multiple times per day. With thousands of cans palletized each day, and multiple product changeovers per shift, production workers need to know in real-time whether or not they are meeting the production goals established for each can size.
Rationale:
Visual Factory Management is a system for improving productivity, safety, quality, and employee morale through the use of visual controls. It helps employees avoid wasting time by providing them the information they need, where and when they need it. AutoComm recommended that Del Monte implement this type of system through placement of LED displays in their palletization area, with specialized software to clearly show production goals versus actual results.
Visual Factory Management is a system for improving productivity, safety, quality, and employee morale through the use of visual controls. It helps employees avoid wasting time by providing them the information they need, where and when they need it. AutoComm helped Del Monte implement visual factory through placement of LED displays in their palletization area, with specialized software to clearly show production goals versus results.
Results:
Since employees can see performance results in real-time, they’re able to maintain production levels at or above goal for the entire shift while working at a steady pace throughout the day. Supervisors can quickly evaluate the line’s performance and intervene when necessary. Over a span of three months, the palletization line experienced a 15 – 20% performance increase!
Because of these results, Del Monte is preparing for the next phase – to add similar visual controls throughout the remainder of their facility.
Product/Service Solution:
LED displays show the current goal, actual number of parts produced, and the difference between the two. This data is color coded to quickly inform employees of their performance: green for acceptable, amber for marginal, and red for unacceptable.
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