6 Tips for Improving Operational Efficiency in Your Manufacturing Company
No matter the size of your manufacturing company, operational efficiency is an important factor for the effectivity of your business. A low level of efficiency can lead to congestion within workflow, production and order fulfillment. Here are six tips that you can implement to improve operational efficiency in your manufacturing company.
1. Test and Define Your Workflow
Before deciding to change your manufacturing company’s workflow, you need to examine it by altering certain parameters scientifically and then measuring the results. Make a hypothesis before experimenting with changes, then compare the results with your assumptions and your previous manufacturing operating conditions. This will give you a clear perspective on what changes should be made.
2. Set a Strategy in Material Ordering
Make sure that the raw materials for production are always available so that this will not hinder your production process later. Therefore, you should be able to forecast when you should place an order and how many items you should request from your suppliers. You could create blanket orders for the materials that you use most often and require a long lead time.
3. Identify Bottlenecks in Your Manufacturing Operations
One of the most effective ways to improve throughput in manufacturing operations is to analyze the things that cause congestion in the production process. Once the bottlenecks have been identified, you can think of tactics to remove them so that your production process is no longer delayed.
4. Provide Periodic Employee Training
Manufacturing operations won’t run smoothly if the employees are incompetent in their work. Therefore, you need to focus on the quality of your employees. Frontline employees have a big impact on the efficiency of the production cycle as well as the quality of your products. So it is very essential to regularly provide employee training in order to develop their skills and improve their professionalism. To assist you in managing the training, consider implementing a training management software.
5. Use an Automated System to Improve Efficiency
In this technological era, manual works should have been abandoned. Without simplification, manufacturing tasks throughout your operations can be delayed, resulting in waste of time and resources, inconsistent product quality, delays in meeting consumer demands and other negative results. If you haven’t implemented an automated system in your manufacturing company, then this is the right time.
An automated system built for manufacturing industry can help your company’s operations in many ways. Some of the solutions provided include automated manufacturing and work order generation, multiple work center management, order planning, cost analysis, routing management, project scheduling, inventory management, and many more. Before deciding to invest in an automated system, make sure that it is flexible enough to be integrated with other systems and customized to meet your needs.
6. Keep Your Manufacturing Plant Safe
It is very crucial to enhance the security in your production area. The manufacturing operations involve the use of heavy machines and equipment which have high accident risks. You may be wondering how this might have an impact on the production process, but the reason is actually very reasonable.
When a worker gets injured while working on the production floor, the manufacturing process must be stopped immediately. The incident may result in production delays so you may have to reschedule the whole production process again. Other problems that may arise from the lack of security on factory floors include the loss of skilled and efficient workers, production floor closures for incident investigations, increased insurance costs, damage to production equipment, and so on. Therefore, it is very important to prioritize workplace safety so that your employees can work optimally without worrying about getting injured.
Also read: 6 Main Benefits of ERP Softwares for Manufacturing Industry