Optimising Our Operating Efficiencies

As prices are continuing to rise and supply chain issues persist, our Operation Manager shares his the areas that he is continuously improving to ensure that manufacturing costs are fully controlled, and the workforce know how to achieve their role in the most efficient way.

In the last news article, Dave Harmer shared his expertise in sustaining a 5S process throughout our operations and manufacturing facility.  This time, he shares with us his continued emphasis on daily control, training, versatility, and high-performance.

1. Training

One of the biggest challenges we always face in operations is training. Companies usually have a lot of documentation, but it isn’t always shared and effective. Our manuals are wordy but also pictorial, to fit in with the ethos of visual management and inclusion for all.  I need to make sure that every member of staff can adapt to each role required and that we have the required documentation to help them at each stage.

2. Versatility

A versatile of workforce is incredibly important and we have people working in different process and on different machines. This secures the business and augments business continuity; if someone is sick or leaves the business, we don’t have a gap in skills or knowledge.  This versatility allows people to be more engaged. When we do time and motion studies, it’s very clear that people’s productivity improves when their tasks are rotated.  It also makes people more self sufficient and engaged and it also improves the marginal gains and innovations.

3. Ideas and Innovation

We have an ideas and innovation scheme amongst the operations team and this may become incentivised in the future.

4. High-Performance Culture

In addition to the 5S processes, in terms of operation efficiencies, Dave and his team believe that these begin and end with the development of a high-performance culture – and that means having a multi-skilled, flexible workforce. 

5. Full Accountability

With efficiency savings we can reduce time and material waste and shrink lead times. It’s really important to get line leaders fully accountable for their lines and this happens when we have a high-skilled and competent workforce, knowing and achieving quality targets in all aspects and that creates a safe environment.

6. Daily Meetings

I really enjoy working with large groups of people and we’re all the same in that people are generally really positive and willing to try, but then slip back to old ways if they aren’t being monitored. We don’t have that issue at Techtron - because of our daily meetings the team are being mentored, watched and encouraged. We use a multifunctional team and that encourages buy-in from all.

7. Location Control

Our warehouse has location control; this means that all systems show where products are and this helps with stock rotation, flow of materials and finished goods to customer.  It also helps with FIFO (first in, first out), making sure that everything is where it should be and using the least amount of time to get products from A-B. Stock accuracy is maintained, so we don’t have overstock, therefore our stockholding and cash reserves are optimal.

8. Working Closely with Suppliers

Improving efficiencies in operations also means working closely with suppliers. I firmly believe that there’s a smart way to work with our excellent suppliers in showing us how the machinery works and getting the most out of our technology investments.  They can show us how to fix problems, so that our line leaders have very good problem-solving skills. If there are any problems, I need our team to know how the machine works, what happens if the settings change etc.

9. Improve Outputs

On one of our large pack-size lines, we knew that we could improve outputs by around 15-20%, so, following a supplier visit, we created a manual and improved processes, with visual management and we have achieved that increase.  We now always hit 100% efficiency, confidently hitting our targets.  So, we are looking for additional improvements now!

Our Operations now continually look at all other lines to gain a true sense of the efficiency and achievement potential, so that the line leaders know what the true efficiency of their line is.  I want each line leader to work to their full efficiency - with all variables included (ie down time, label change, breaks, failures etc). We are now planning to improve each line by 15-20% and we will do this by analysing the biggest cause of down-time on a machine.

10. Preventative Maintenance

Machine and production line breakdowns at Techtron are at an excellent low level, due to good total preventative maintenance. The engineers are always checking for oil leaks, ensuring the motors are in good function, the bearing are ok, making sure that a fault is found before it becomes a breakdown. 

11.  Laser Focus

All these elements that are in laser focus for our team have a direct effect on the service that is offered to all customers, to ensure that their products are received on time, in the correct format and are of the expected quality.  All within a safe environment for our highly-skilled team of operatives.