By Mike Hart
There are five essential steps that must be taken if you wish to achieve a high level of manufacturing efficiency. Advice on how each step can be carried out provides the basis for the articles in this blog.
1. Select a Manufacturing Software Package
You cannot become an efficient manufacturer without using manufacturing software. By its nature, manufacturing is too complicated for manual processes, spreadsheets, and general accounting systems. A “light manufacturing” system with a bill of material and work tickets is not enough. To reach your efficiency potential, you must select and use a software package that includes these core functions: inventory, bills of material, routings and work centers, sales orders, MRP, jobs, and purchasing.
Why Your Small Business Needs Manufacturing Software
2. Plan for a Startup Day
The only efficient way to implement a manufacturing software package is to plan for a system “startup day”, which is the day you stop using your old system and you start operating exclusively in the new system. Attempting to use two systems simultaneously with an incremental or rolling start is difficult, if not impossible, to manage efficiently, puts a tremendous strain on employees and customers, and often results in failure. The way to insure a successful implementation is to rehearse the new system’s processes until your users have them down cold, and then you cut over to the new system in one fell swoop.
Implement Your Manufacturing Software in One Fell Swoop
3. Adopt an Efficient Workflow
Companies commonly feel they have unique process requirements due to their industry or company type. In actuality, an efficient process workflow is essentially the same across all manufacturing companies. The emphases on particular processes may differ, as well as operational details, but the basic process workflow is universal. A sure way to fail is to use only pieces of the new system or attempt to replicate your old system’s processes. Insure success by using the new system’s process workflow in its entirety, as designed.
The Process Workflow Is What Manufacturing Software Is All About
4. Create a “No-Slop” Culture
Manufacturing efficiency can only be achieved if you have accurate inputs, meaning dates, BOM and job specifications, and stock counts. Without accurate inputs, your users will not trust the numbers and will subvert the system with hot lists, hoarding, and other defensive measures that cause the whole system to break down. It is therefore essential that you foster a “no-slop” culture throughout the company. Users must establish and maintain accurate dates, commit to accurate BOM and job details, enter transactions in real time, and adhere to procedures.
Manufacturing Software Efficiency Requires a “No-Slop” Culture
5. Get Lean
“Lean manufacturing” is a style of manufacturing where the objective is to eliminate all wasteful processes that impede your efficiency. Progress is gauged primarily by a reduction in inventory and WIP relative to factory output. Inventory and WIP can be reduced through a variety of means, including reorder level management, just in time procurement, shorter run sizes, “pulling” jobs through the shop, work center scheduling, just in time stock issues, process improvements, and more. To get lean, you must establish a “continuous improvement” program where you formally meet with supervisors and workers on a regular basis to review progress and discuss new ideas for process improvement.
How a Small Business Can Use Lean Manufacturing
Mike Hart is the co-founder and President of DBA Software Inc., a leading provider of manufacturing software for small businesses.
