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Manufacturing Improvement : Industrial Engineering Overview
One of the central principles in industrial engineering is the "system" concept. A system is any organization or business process in which people, materials, information, equipment, processes or energy interact in an integrated fashion. This high-level view of business operations enables industrial engineers to manage various industries. Therefore, industrial engineers apply their skills across a diverse set of sectors such as financial, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, logistics, aviation and education.
The term "industrial" in industrial engineering can be misleading. While the term originally applied to manufacturing, it has grown to encompass virtually all other industries and services as well. The various topics of concern to industrial engineers include management science, financial engineering, engineering management, supply chain management, process engineering, operations research, systems engineering, ergonomics, value engineering and quality engineering.
Whereas most engineering disciplines apply skills to very specific areas, industrial engineering is applied in virtually every industry (hence the term "industrial"). Examples of where industrial engineering might be used include designing a new loan system for a bank, streamlining operation and emergency rooms in a hospital, distributing products worldwide (referred to as Supply Chain Management), manufacturing cheaper and more reliable automobiles, and shortening lines (or queues) at a bank, hospital, or a theme park. Industrial engineers typically use computer simulation, especially discrete event simulation, for system analysis and evaluation.
Manufacturing Improvement : How DMAIC Can Improve Your Process
The first step is define. In this step, you will define the customer, define customer Critical to Quality issues, and define the Core Business Process that is involved. Who is your customer? What are the boundaries of your project? Where does the process start and where does it stop? You also define the process by producing a map of the process flow.
The third step of DMAIC is analyze. In this step, you will analyze the data that you have collected so that you can discern and find the root causes of defects and problems in your processes. You will also find the places where processes can be improved.While you are going through this process, you will identify the gaps between your performance goals and how you are currently performing. Then you make a priority list of different opportunities that you have to improve your process. Finally, you will find and identify what is causing variation in your processes.
Lean six sigma is a management and a quality control and improvement process that is not just a one time event. It is something that you will continually be going through and working on so that you can make sure that you don't slip into the old problems that have been impeding your development as a company. The DMAIC steps are a central part of improving the quality of your processes and your products.
Manufacturing Improvement : How Sixsigma Help You To Save Money
Manufacturing Improvement : How To Success : Worker View
LIFE is not designed to give rewards in proportion to our needs but to the level we deserve. Whatever life has handed to us, it is our responsibility to
We already know more than we need to know at workto achieve our goals, to succeed. All we need todo now is begin to DO what we already KNOW! Finally, we must discipline ourselves daily at work to convert dreams into plans, plans into goals and goals into small daily activities that will lead us, one sure step at a time, towards a better future. Remember to ponder all that is possible, that to do what is possible we must sometimes challenge ourselves with the impossible. As said the ancient warrior: "It is better to aim the spear at the moon and strike the eagle, than to aim at the eagle and strike only a rock!"
Manufacturing Improvement : Pareto Analysis
Pareto analysis is a formal technique useful where many possible courses of action are competing for your attention. In essence, the problem-solver estimates the benefit delivered by each action, then selects a number of the most effective actions that deliver a total benefit reasonably close to the maximal possible one.
Pareto analysis is a creative way of looking at causes of problems. It helps stimulate thinking and organize thoughts.
Steps to identify the important causes using Pareto analysis
Manufacturing Improvement : Poka Yoke
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automatic transmissions: the inability to remove a car key from the ignition switch of an automobile if the automatic transmission is not first put in the "Park" position, so that the driver cannot leave the car in an unsafe parking condition where the wheels are not locked against movement. (An example of a Trapped key interlock). 3.5" floppy disk: the top-right corner is shaped in a certain way so that the disk cannot be inserted upside-down. In the manufacturing world an example might be that the jig for holding pieces for processing only allows pieces to be held in one orientation, or has switches on the jig to detect whether a hole has been previously cut or not, or it might count the number of spot welds created to ensure that, say, four have been executed by the operator. high-security padlocks: it is impossible to remove the key from some high-security padlocks unless the shackle on the padlock is closed. Only by locking the padlock can the key be removed. Security mistakes/accidents are therefore much less likely to occur, particularly where the padlock key is kept on a chain attached to someone's belt. This is because the design ensures that a key cannot easily be left in an unlocked padlock, or a padlock left unlocked after opening it, or not fully closing the shackle of a padlock. Each of these three scenarios would be dangerous in high-security scenarios such as military installations, armories, prisons or bonded warehouses. In contrast, most standard-security padlocks do allow a key to be removed from a padlock, regardless of whether the shackle is closed or not. UK 13 amp electric plug: it is impossible to wrongly insert the plug into the socket, due to its arrangement of three rectangular pins.
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The contact method identifies defects by whether or not contact is established between the device and the product. Color detection and other product property techniques are considered extensions of this. The fixed-value method determines whether a given number of movements have been made. The motion-step method determines whether the prescribed steps or motions of the process have been followed. Poka-yoke either give warnings or can prevent, or control, the wrong action. It is suggested that the choice between these two should be made based on the behaviors in the process, occasional errors may warrant warnings whereas frequent errors, or those impossible to correct, may warrant a control poka-yoke.
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Manufacturing Improvement : Computer Is Main Thing In QA Department
The first thing is to make sure that you know what type of computers are out there that can help you. Depending on what type of manufacturing you are doing will depend on what type of computer you are going to want to aid your quality assurance process. Some computers will test your products every so often to make sure that they are working correctly. While others will test every single one of your products to make sure that the quality is good. The reason why there are different ones to choose from is because some manufacturing do not have to be crucial on having their quality assurance process be as exact as others might. For example if you are a manufacturing company that makes airbags you are probably going to need your quality assurance process to be more exact then a manufacturing company that makes basket ball hoops. This is the reason why there are different levels of computers out there.
The second thing is cost. Just because a computer costs a lot doesn't mean that it is going to be the best computer to aid your quality assurance process. You want to make sure that you look into different computers and see what type of functions they each have. You don't want to get a computer that is going to end up confusing you and making your quality assurance process more difficult then the way you do it now. You may also want to ask around and get references of different manufacturing companies that use the computers. This way you will be able to talk to some one that has actually experienced the computer and used all of its functions, instead of just talking to a sales person who wants to make a sale.
The third thing is research. You will want to make sure that you do your research. Find out what each computer does and if they have upgrades. Knowing if the computers have upgrades is important, especially if you are just starting out. The reason for this is because as your manufacturing company grows so will how much you are producing. You want to make sure that you computer will be able to handle the load and be able to aid your quality assurance process no matter what size it is.
This is just some of the information on using computers to aid your quality assurance process. There is a lot of other information that goes more in depth on how different computers work and how exactly they can aid your quality assurance process. So make sure to look around and get as much information as you can so you can get a better idea if using computers to aid your quality assurance process is right for your manufacturing company..
Manufacturing Improvement : Information Technology Aided Manufacturing
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There are so many different things that you can do to improve the way your manufacturing company performs. One of the most important things to make sure that you do when owning manufacturing company is to make sure that your quality assurance process is up to par. The reason for this is because if you're not exceeding in quality assurance you are probably losing a lot of money. This is why it is important to pay close attention to your quality assurance process. One way that a lot of manufacturing companies are paying close attention to their quality assurance process is by using computers. If you need a better way to aid your quality assurance but don't have any ideas, here is some information on using computers to aid your quality assurance process that might help you.
The first thing is to make sure that you know what type of computers are out there that can help you. Depending on what type of manufacturing you are doing will depend on what type of computer you are going to want to aid your quality assurance process. Some computers will test your products every so often to make sure that they are working correctly. While others will test every single one of your products to make sure that the quality is good. The reason why there are different ones to choose from is because some manufacturing do not have to be crucial on having their quality assurance process be as exact as others might. For example if you are a manufacturing company that makes airbags you are probably going to need your quality assurance process to be more exact then a manufacturing company that makes basket ball hoops. This is the reason why there are different levels of computers out there.
The second thing is cost. Just because a computer costs a lot doesn't mean that it is going to be the best computer to aid your quality assurance process. You want to make sure that you look into different computers and see what type of functions they each have. You don't want to get a computer that is going to end up confusing you and making your quality assurance process more difficult then the way you do it now. You may also want to ask around and get references of different manufacturing companies that use the computers. This way you will be able to talk to some one that has actually experienced the computer and used all of its functions, instead of just talking to a sales person who wants to make a sale.
The third thing is research. You will want to make sure that you do your research. Find out what each computer does and if they have upgrades. Knowing if the computers have upgrades is important, especially if you are just starting out. The reason for this is because as your manufacturing company grows so will how much you are producing. You want to make sure that you computer will be able to handle the load and be able to aid your quality assurance process no matter what size it is.
This is just some of the information on using computers to aid your quality assurance process. There is a lot of other information that goes more in depth on how different computers work and how exactly they can aid your quality assurance process. So make sure to look around and get as much information as you can so you can get a better idea if using computers to aid your quality assurance process is right for your manufacturing company.
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Manufacturing Improvement : Cp and Cpk In Simple Word
Cpk = Min (Cpl, Cpu); where:Cpl = (mu - LSL) / 3*Standard Deviation (within)
Cpu = (USL - mu) / 3*Standard Deviation (within)
Manufacturing Improvement : What Should Company Do During Recession Period
Everywhere you go, everybody will talking with the same topic; recession. Is that too bad compare with 1998? Some say yes, some say no. We can compare by numbers of retrenchment of worker, or number of company close and run away, or we could compare with how many losses declared by the main market player.
If we compare with number of worker, i can says that the impact still cannot be seen clearlly. We have to wait until at the top of the 'tragedy'. When? wait until US have no money to bare their oversea base Navy salaries. I can say that the 'tragedy' just kick off. Be petian.
Lets go into the topic. What should we do if this impact knock our manufacturing door? In any situation, the is good and bad. So lets we analaysis from the good view. It is very important to keep as much as you can your yearly profit. Dont say that we forget to keep some amount. We have bad tracking record. Almost every 10 years, the point become at the cordinate 0,0. - one circle.
Training / Re-training ponentional staff - Identify who is your petentional staff. Send them for training. Let them mastering their current area. If posibble, train them to others area too. For example, if you have Quality Enginner wich is still not certified, send them to be Certified Quality Engineer.
House Keeping / 5's - Keep your manufacturing clean. Dont let even single dust stick in to your machine. If possible, paint the old machine. Let its look new.
Maintenance - If during peak season / year (last and past year) you have no time to make maintenance of machine, this is the right time to do it. Change any spare part, put grease, check the lubricant oil etc.
Select new Sigma project - This is the best time to identify and select the six sigma project to kick off. You might know what is the critical problem that may highly cost saving during your peak season. So, now you have to define, measure, analysis and improve. Once the economy going better in future, you just need to control it.
Hiring suitable personnel - There is a lot of retrenchment everywhere. Some of them have better knowledge, experience as well as attitude. If you thing that you will have good customer new project, you can get correct personnel under the cost.
That is some of the thing may you can do during this season.
Note : Effected company is company that may have new pending order, temporary freez order from customer and manufacturing company that monthly and yearly sales only depend less than 10% with US base company.
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Manufacturing Improvement : What Should I Do During Recession Period
Manufacturing Improvement : Focus On Your Manufacturing Target
Before you can implement focused improvement in your manufacturing processes, you need to decide what your goal is going to be for focused improvement. You also need to set up a way to measure the improvement of your manufacturing performance. By measuring performance, you will be able to see how well your organization is succeeding at implementing your new plans, strategies, and goals. While you can use financial measures as a way to measure your performance and your improvement, financial measures end up having a number of problems with them. Here are some of the problems with traditional financial performance measures:
Problems with financial measures of performance-- they do not give you a good reflection of what the customer wants-- they do not give you strategies that you need in order to beat your competition-- they identify problems, but they cannot identify the causes of those problems-- they do not support measures to solve problems-- they are inflexible-- they do not support innovation, but rather prohibit it-- they encourage a large volume of activity, but they do not encourage useful activity
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The following are the different parts of the control system that you must implement in order to control and contain your manufacturing operations.
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Establishing a target or an overall plan.
Establishing a tolerable deviation from that plan or target.
A way to measure the actual deviation from the plan or the target.
A comparison between the actual results and your plan.
A way to identify potential areas for improvement as a result of the comaprison.
Feedback that will identify significant deviations from your plan or target.
A way to correct deviations.
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Manufacturing Improvement : Avoid "Free Passanger" In The Manufacturing Team
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Manufacturing Improvement : Manage Crises In Manufacturing
For an example for our discussion of crisis management for manufacturing, let us use the example of a very important critical piece of equipment failing. Even if you have the best maintenance team in the world, machinery is never foolproof nor perfect, and so something is going to break down sometime. The problem then becomes that your machine is not producing money. You should have a crisis management position in place so that you can minimize the impact on your business, the customers' products, and your credibility.
Crisis management for manufacturing can take a number of forms and can be implemented in a number of different situations. For example, crisis management must come into play if your company has to admit to environmental quality control violations, or must answer to a lawsuit. Crisis management is necessary if a flaw in a product or a service is revealed and the news goes to the press and you must recall the product. Also, crisis management becomes necessary if you end up with a union strike, or if your equipment malfunctions, or if you are trying to wage a publicity campaign in a community that doesn't want you to move into their neighborhood. No matter what situation may arise, you must have a good crisis management plan and a good crisis management team in place so that any type of crisis can be handled, no matter what that crisis is.
For an example for our discussion of crisis management for manufacturing, let us use the example of a very important critical piece of equipment failing. Even if you have the best maintenance team in the world, machinery is never foolproof nor perfect, and so something is going to break down sometime. The problem then becomes that your machine is not producing money. You should have a crisis management position in place so that you can minimize the impact on your business, the customers' products, and your credibility.
Manufacturing Improvement : Always Remind Your Self
Manufacturing Improvement : Manufacturing Improvement : Kaizen
What the overall purpose of Kaizen is is to eliminate waste. Joshua Isaac Walters defines wastes as "activities that add cost but do not add value." Very little of the process that goes into producing a product is paid for by the customer; instead, you as the manufacturer have to pay for all of this waste. Reducing waste is ultimately an effort to improve your bottom line, so there is nothing that you can lose by reducing waste. Implementing Kaizen is a way to improve your own financial standing. Kaizen also works to standardize the production process through doing things like leveling off the production flow so that there aren't variations in the production process, and also by doing things like switching from push production to pull production.
Kaizen principles are a comprehensive way of approaching the continual improvement of your manufacturing processes. Kaizen is the Japanese term for "change for the better" or it can be translated as "improvement". Kaizen is often translated into English as "continual improvement." Kaizen works to improve quality in the workplace, particularly in manufacturing companies, though it has also been applied to service providing companies and other types of companies. Kaizen is most often used in reference to Toyota Production System and is the combination of a number of different systems that are geared towards quality control.
What the overall purpose of Kaizen is is to eliminate waste. Joshua Isaac Walters defines wastes as "activities that add cost but do not add value." Very little of the process that goes into producing a product is paid for by the customer; instead, you as the manufacturer have to pay for all of this waste. Reducing waste is ultimately an effort to improve your bottom line, so there is nothing that you can lose by reducing waste. Implementing Kaizen is a way to improve your own financial standing. Kaizen also works to standardize the production process through doing things like leveling off the production flow so that there aren't variations in the production process, and also by doing things like switching from push production to pull production.
Manufacturing Improvement : Visual Control
Visual control is a key component to this improvement of production through lean manufacturing. Visual control is a process that visually compares products as they move through the production process to other products to ensure that they are all the same. Visual control also works to ensure that the production processes are the same, and that there are not variances in production processes or production products. Visual controls works to eliminate variances in production processes, and strives to reduce variances in the flow of production. By doing so, visual control works to eliminate waste. By visually controlling aspects of the production process rather than testing each product for possible defects, quality is improved and less time is wasted by employees.
Visual control is a key component of lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing is a way of approaching manufacturing that strives to eliminate all waste, from materials that are not used to time that is spent doing unnecessary tasks. Waste, in lean manufacturing, is defined as anything that does not add to the actual value of the product. The customer is not paying for the process of manufacturing, so any waste that goes in to the production of a production or of a service is paid for by you, the manufacturer or the provider of the service. Lean manufacturing improves your bottom line, ultimately; lean manufacturing is a way to improve your flow of production by reducing variances in the flow of production. Lean manufacturing also continually improves your production and your production processes, and also improves the experiences of your employees by reducing the waste of their time and their own efforts.
Visual control is a key component to this improvement of production through lean manufacturing. Visual control is a process that visually compares products as they move through the production process to other products to ensure that they are all the same. Visual control also works to ensure that the production processes are the same, and that there are not variances in production processes or production products. Visual controls works to eliminate variances in production processes, and strives to reduce variances in the flow of production. By doing so, visual control works to eliminate waste. By visually controlling aspects of the production process rather than testing each product for possible defects, quality is improved and less time is wasted by employees.
Manufacturing Improvement : From Manufacturing Operation to Custom Manufacturing
Let's use Custom Machining Services as an example. This particular company serves a variety of industries but needed to expand its milling capabilities and turning capabilities in order to increase production levels. Because Custom Machining Services wanted to make better parts faster with less work, they needed a multitasking machine. So they turned to Mazak's Inegrex 30Y and Integrex 200Y so that they could use fewer setups for each process and thus reduced labor hours. Because they used custom manufacturing setups, they could cut machine cycle times on some products, and could also cut down on the actual human work. The production costs go down, yet the value costs stay the same, so that profit goes up.
Custom manufacturing setups can seriously improve your manufacturing processes and your overall productivity within your company. If you have highly specialized products that you are turning out, then you need custom manufacturing setups so that you can eliminate waste and produce truly excellent products and services. By looking at a particular example of a custom manufacturing setup, you can see how implementing a custom manufacturing setup in your own manufacturing business can improve your productivity and your bottom line.
Let's use Custom Machining Services as an example. This particular company serves a variety of industries but needed to expand its milling capabilities and turning capabilities in order to increase production levels. Because Custom Machining Services wanted to make better parts faster with less work, they needed a multitasking machine. So they turned to Mazak's Inegrex 30Y and Integrex 200Y so that they could use fewer setups for each process and thus reduced labor hours. Because they used custom manufacturing setups, they could cut machine cycle times on some products, and could also cut down on the actual human work. The production costs go down, yet the value costs stay the same, so that profit goes up.
Manufacturing Improvement : Reduce Manufacturing Waste : SMED
There are a number of different components of SMED, or Single-Minute Exchange of Die, that work together in order to improve production and manufacturing processes, and in order to reduce waste. All of these ideas are associated with and compatible with lean manufacturing.
If you have been involved at all with business, especially with manufacturing, then you have probably heard of a number of different waste reduction strategies. One of the more popular waste reduction approaches to business is called SMED. SMED stands for Single-Minute exchange of Die. SMED is a theory and also a practical technique that works so that setup operations can be put together and performed in less than 10 minutes. In other words, setup operations should be able to be performed in a number of minutes that is only represented by a single digit: one minute to nine minutes. While SMED was first developed in the 1950s in Japan, it did not move to Europe in the 1970s (West Germany and Switzerland in 1974, and the United States in 1976). SMED was not really accepted in other countries outside Japan, however, until the 1980s.
There are a number of different components of SMED, or Single-Minute Exchange of Die, that work together in order to improve production and manufacturing processes, and in order to reduce waste. All of these ideas are associated with and compatible with lean manufacturing


