One piece flow production can be a great boon to small manufacturers. The characteristics of this type of manufacturing assembly process are well-suited to the company that is diminutive in staff size and space of operations. Often the company that will employ this techniques of manufacturing has a small band of very dedicated employees who each wear many hats in the operation. Each of these skilled employees has several specialties that they can perform very well in the manufacturing process. One piece flow production is set up so that a group or team of employees will accompany a product through the manufacturing process. The team of employees will start the production process, doing all that is necessary to being the creation of the product. When the first phase of production is completed by the team, it moves with the product to the next phase of production. The team then performs the tasks that are required in the second phase to successfully complete that phase of production. As each successive phase of production is completed, the team will move to the next phase with the product until the entire product is completed and ready to be shipped to the customer.
Sometimes the companies that employ this type of production are limited also in equipment resources. In fact this will more than likely be a company that is a start up. It probably has only one or two customers. The process should be operating so that it can deliver the completed product as soon as it comes off the production line. One of the drawbacks of this manufacturing process is the need for well coordinated movements of the products from one work area to another. If the work of one team of employees is delayed in completing their tasks at in a given work phase, then the team that precedes that work area will have to wait until work is done before the products can be advanced in production. There is a definite need for synchronization from one work cell to another. Loss of this will cause all production to shutdown.
In order for your company to set up a successful production line using one piece flow production you must first make a list of all the tasks that are required to be performed in your manufacturing operation. Break these down into tasks that are as small as possible. Making this list can help you define what is required and what is not required in your processes. Once the list is completed and you have refined it to just those necessary tasks, group the tasks into similar work areas. Each task should be grouped in a work area where tasks that are associated with it will also be completed.
The physical work area that is to be used for production must be laid out in a “U” shape, where one end of the “U” is where production starts and the other end of the “U” is where production is completed. Using the list of work areas that you have created, you should be able to define physical locations of the “U” shape where each work cell will perform the work for that phase of production. Be sure to lay out each area so that all the works will have enough space to do each task efficiently.
The teams of production workers for one piece flow production must be assigned. You will need to make sure that you level assignment of workers to each team. Each worker will have a varied amount of skill for performing tasks. You will need to assign workers to teams so that the skill in each team will have a similar total amount of skill for doing the production in each work cell. You will need also to create a time schedule for each work area, using industrial engineering task timing. This will let each team know how much time that can be used at any one work area to get the tasks of that are completed. If you have more than one shift in your plant you will need make sure that the end of a shift does not leave partially completed products for a next shift to complete.
There are two major areas that you will need to watch when using this type of manufacturing. First, it will be important for you to coordinate the completion of products with the demands for these products from your customers. Unless you have adequate warehousing and can bear the expense of undelivered products, this will be of great importance. Second, you will need to be assured of the abilities of each employee in doing manufacturing tasks, since there is no automation on which you can rely for a high degree of accuracy in production.
As you can see from the steps that are created in this process, this production scenario is ideal for a manufacturing operation that is just beginning. This setup is great for helping a business to understand process and begin operating with limited resources and employees. In this type of operation a company can use it as a springboard to get to growth that will come later. When the growth comes the company can move away from one piece flow production and set up more traditional manufacturing automation.
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