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Dec 21, 2021 | Time to read: 5 min
Avinash Devulapalli is a product manager at Drishti.
Stability may seem like a remote concept given the current economic turmoil. We recently surveyed manufacturers to understand their outlook on external and internal threats to their businesses. Post-COVID, manufacturers are wary. When asked how likely a significant external incident would be in the next 12 months, 60% said a threat was “very likely.” According to the survey, the top three things to be wary about were supplier price increases (45%), supply chain disruptions (42%), and inflation and economic uncertainty (40%).
The pandemic-fueled disruption of the past 18 months has prompted big changes in the way manufacturers meet daily demand, particularly if they’re lean practitioners. Some leaders in the industry are pushing the idea that as demand ramps back up, manufacturers will not have the inventory on hand to keep up. They suggest that they’ll have to be agile and adapt to changing supply and demand needs by reallocating resources in rapid fashion to sustain.
This is where applying standardized work changes quickly will play a big part in bringing stability back to the plant floor.
Maintain your lean manufacturing mojo
The idea of stability is typically used to describe a manufacturing process that’s under control — predictable. The lean principles of standardized work promote predictability.
It defines how work is done to eliminate waste and stamp out variation. It also requires that in-process stock is minimized and promotes a single piece flow throughout the process. At its essence, take only what you need when you need it most in order to get the work done.
Along with these principles comes the idea of balance, so no one person is doing a majority of the work. Every line associate is working on his or her piece of the product for the same amount of time. But the reality is there’s always a bottleneck. There’s at least one process on the line that takes the longest to finish, or one employee, maybe a trainee, who takes longer to complete a cycle. The bottleneck station may shift, but balance is rarely ever perfect.
Drishti helps you create standardized work rapidly to balance the line
Maintaining a balanced line is key to bringing stability back to your production line. I realize the concept is super simple, but execution of the perfect line balance is difficult to achieve in practice. That’s why we’re making that continuous improvement process easier for our customers, who have been asking for better ways to analyze their standardized work processes. We’ve recently developed a more flexible way for them to input standard work sequences, create time and motion study data and analyze results for line balancing.
With the release of Drishti Work Definition, our manufacturing customers have one central place to start and complete the line balancing process to increase process efficiency.
Here’s how it works:
Drishti collects video of processes, not people: In fact, we deliberately obfuscate who is doing the work. It’s most important to know how the work is being done, and we’re super mindful of maintaining peoples’ privacy.
You input standardized work details: If you already have a set of ordered standardized work sequences, you can easily cut and paste them into the system. Alternatively, when you use Drishti as your repository of standardized work definitions, you can quickly duplicate and modify those tables. You can record key details on how many line associates are working or how many pieces are being worked on (i.e. batch processes) for an accurate baseline of current standardized work. You can also define action types to record the different actions assigned to people or machines, or whether someone (or something) is waiting during a sequence. And you can do it all seamlessly from one place with videos of the plant floor as a reference.
You annotate to collect data from video (no stopwatches needed): You can select days and times, and Drishti presents video clips of your line. It brings the line to your computer and saves you a ton of time. Our annotation tools allow you to define cycles and actions using the video clips and Drishti calculates the times for you — creating time and motion data fast.
Analyze your results: Drishti automatically creates the information you need to make really good balancing decisions. You can drill into every action and get mean times and standard deviations at every station and for every operator using our built in Yamazumi chart.
Drishti Line Balance charts let you see which processes take more or less time on average and provide an immediate calculation of line balance ratio. They deliver a quick way to prioritize the processes that need the most attention. Then you can dig into our Station Histogram chart to understand variability at a specific workstation.
All data points are backed by video, so you understand where the information is coming from and get the real picture directly from the plant floor, wherever you may be.
Bonus: Train your line associates
Drishti keeps videos of both old and new standardized work sequences. As you update work definitions, experiment and implement changes to your processes, you have a video record of how work is performed — both good and bad. Drishti allows you to create video sets for training and coaching throughout a line balancing project. You can tag, filter and sort video easily, for effective training videos that help you implement changes quickly.
As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. While no line balance is perfect, Drishti gives customers powerful tools that make the continuous improvement processes easier.
Our customers get to practice the most important parts of lean, analysis and problem solving, because Drishti simplifies and accelerates data collection and documentation. With steady practice, our customers will not only maintain, but master the lean principles behind standardized work.
