How to measure Capacity and set Production Tragets? 1

[sigtan]

Hi,

I lead a manufacturing line where most of the operations are hand assembly of electronic boards (big enough components to manage with hand assembly).

The throughput from a line/station is greatly dependent on operator efficiency and how operators perceive the workload. They work fast when they think they are lagging and vice versa. Currently we are in a slow season but still have good enough orders and the floor lags behind because operator perceive it to be slow season and work slow. I want to set targets and establish a constant work rate which could help even out the production rate. I know the takt time required but I do not know if we could meet it with current staffing levels.

I have two things to ask about.

1. I want to measure if we have enough hands and if we are using our hands enough. How do I determine that?
OR
How to measure our true capacity in an assembly environment like this?

2. What are good examples of some production targets I can set and measures to determine if we fulfill those?

 

[PSE]

Start breaking the information down. Can you group similar types of boards together? Can you group various processes together?

Setup
Lead forming (thru-hole assumption) X time per lead
Placement X time per part
Soldering X time per joint
Clean
Inspect
Rework

Your initial time standards may be just simple averages but it is a start. From there you can look at increasing efficiencies, reducing rework etc.

Regards,

 

[BillPSU]

Get a good understanding of your production processes. Get a good understanding of indirect processes(restocking, cleanup, packaging...). Understand the precedence of the various operations. Find your 80-20% parts, 20% of the parts make up 80% of the work. Get time estimates on these parts in all operations.
By the time you have done this work you will know the bottle neck operations which control production. Set you line up to support the bottle neck operation.

 

[AndrewUK]

what is the 5C / 5S condition like? if it is unstable or does not exsist your tiems wil vary.

if you don't have standard operationsheets in you will need these, as if everyone does the job different then the time will always vary. Once you have stand doc' for the jobs you will have standard times. These times will govern your output.

once you this sorted you can start measuring, if you are failing then you have other problems, i.e. parts, locations, tooling.

 

[ddbyrd3]

If you know your takt time, do you know what your actual build times are?

If you divide your build time by your takt time that will give you a basic head count.

I dont know if you are doing 1 peice flow or batch. But if your assembly cycle time is 226 minutes (for example) and your takt time is 35 minutes, your rough headcount requirement should be 6.45 operators building at a rate of 35 minutes each.

6 operators at 35 minutes each, 1 operator at approximatly 16 minutes who after 16 minutes of work becomes a floater.

The most important part is understanding your build time. You have to understand your process prior to implementing.

 

[edspearman]

Create a Capacity Analysis Spreadsheet for every operation.
All processes are different.
"Baseline Summaries are very important."

My e-mail is:
edgarspearman@insightbb.com

I can send you a spreadsheet you can modify to your enviornment; so you can get a handle of the work load.

Ed Spearman