How good are your Performance Review Meetings?
July 27, 2009 by samirshah
Have you ever wondered……
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We have all the relevant performance reviews is place but I don’t know how effective they are?
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We review our downtime regularly but I am not sure that we are focussing in the correct areas?
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I am sure we can achieve more in the current performance reviews but I don’t know what I should be doing to make them better?
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I believe that some of the meetings we have are a waste of my time and I am not sure what I am supposed to contribute in them?
Regularly, we come across sites that have these questions and don’t know what to do about it. For this reason we have developed an audit criterion that focuses on meetings objectives and outcomes and identifies areas that are being performed well and highlights improvement opportunities.
The first thing we would advice a client to do is to list all the current performance review meetings they have on site with the relevant outcomes required, purpose for the meeting, attendees with their required contribution, meeting frequency and consequences for non-attendance. This highlights gaps where by the relevant attendees are not correct or it is not clear why the meeting is in place. In some cases we have found that the meetings were put in place historically due to an unknown reason and are not relevant anymore. By clearly defining the items mentioned above makes everyone aware of the reason for attending a certain meeting and what will be required from them. This ensures that an attendance to a meeting is not just a waste of time.
Once all your meetings are clearly defined and everyone who attends knows the reason why they are there, you should set up an audit structure that enables you to understand how well the meetings are achieving the desired outcomes. By forming a habit of having a meeting audit timetable, it will ensure that your meetings are continuously delivering a positive result and any revamp of a meeting can be carried out should the objectives outlined are not being achieved.
Some of the things we look out for in a meeting that has been clearly defined with a purpose and objectives to find out if it is achieving its desired outcomes is listed below:
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Was the meeting fully attended?
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If not, were there any consequences for non-attendance?
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Were actions from previous meeting reviewed for effectiveness?
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Were there any consequences for not completing actions within allocated time?
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Did the meeting run to time?
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Was the meeting focused on objectives at all times?
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Was accountability assigned to each of the actions?
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Were targets assigned to each of the actions?
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Was the meeting outputs documented in the relevant logs?
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Were the overall objectives of the meeting achieved?
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If further information was required, was it followed through to the area of the issue?
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Was there an action in place to resolve the root cause if different to actions assigned above?
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Did any coaching take place after the meeting? E.g. what went well and could be improved
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Intent of Review -Did the review contribute towards a positive effect on line performance?
We mark each of the relevant questions above in a meeting and give it a score with a quality and effectiveness rating for the meeting. This enables the meetings to be reviewed and feedback given to the facilitator of the meeting to make it better.
This is all part of the continuous improvement philosophy and helps you keep track of all the relevant reviews you have in place to improve performance. If the performance reviews are not effective, your improvement efforts will be limited to the quality of these reviews.
We have several of these performance tools that can help you identify areas of improvement and enables you to progressively move forward. If you would like to know more about these tools, please get in touch and find out how we can help you achieve your desired outcomes.
Planning Optimisation
February 27, 2009 by samirshah
Why Optimise Planning?
Traditional view of industry - Push the products out into the market
- - Keep producing even when there is no demand
- - Keep the factory running all the time
- - Keep lots of stock
Lean approach - Demand from the market pulls products
- - Only produce what you can sell
- - Don’t produce to hold in stock
- - Keep minimum/no stock levels
“To keep a balance between reducing overall warehousing costs and be able to satisfy varying demand (e.g. seasonal) as well as maximise availability at the production facility companies utilise both the push and pull approach”
For this reason it is necessary to pay particular importance to optimising production planning.
There have been conflicting views between the corporate strategy for planning and the site strategy for what should be planned. The reason for this is related to how the departments are measured and targeted. At the corporate level it is all about reducing cost and increasing the flexibility to deliver where as at site level it is all about maximising performance measures such as OEE. This leads to very little synergy and a lot of animosity between the corporate planning department and the site production department.
The ultimate aim should be to deliver the products at the right time, at the right price and at the required quality to the customer.
At the corporate level there needs to be an understanding about the plant/line capability. This is the actual delivery capacity of the line. The key element to understand is that if the number of products to be made is large the actual availability to produce will be low reducing the actual capacity due to the number of changeovers required. To have the maximum capacity available, there needs to be a strategy to have as many long runs of product as possible and minimise need of the changeovers as much as possible.
At the site level, there needs to be an understanding that there are requirements to produce small runs of certain products due to their demand profile and to keep the warehousing costs low. Once the amount of products to be made is received from central planning, the site scheduling department needs to look at scheduling the production runs that will maximise the line availability by looking at combining production runs that are required at different times and by looking at minimising changeover times by scheduling product runs that require minimum operations (therefore time) to changeover. The site can look at ways to optimise their changeovers by implementing quick changeover programmes such as SMED and by looking at technology and innovation to eliminate changeovers all together between different product runs.
Therefore to summarise:
- Understand what product types are runners, repeaters and strangers - Please read an article on “The Reflective Supply Chain in Manufacturing” By John Hicks and Patrick Lee
- Decide on minimum buffer (stock) quantity for each product type
- Determine production batch size of each when minimum stock quantity is reached - this may vary on future demand and seasonality
- Put together a production plan to make products that have reached their minimum stock quantity - decide between product mix and volume required by taking into account plant/line capability with a view to maximise plant/line availability
Optimising Line Control
December 2, 2008 by samirshah
We believe that ineffective line control is THE HIDDEN OEE Waste! By optimising your line control you will be able to increase your performance (OEE) by up to 7%!
- Do you operate in an industry that requires filling of some sort of containers like bottles, cans, bags, etc?
- Do you have continuous flow production lines with conveyor systems between the machines?
- Do you feel that there is something not quite right with the configuration of the lines and there is scope of making the lines run a lot smoother?
If you answer yes to the questions above…..then read on
What do we mean by line control?
On continuous flow production lines, typical found in FMCG environments, there are broadly 2 types of production line configuration; block and accumulation.
Block production lines operate with most machines running at the same speed. Typically block lines run with very little conveyor space between the machines (often single track). Therefore a stop on any of the blocked machines quickly or instantly causes a direct loss of performance (OEE) for the line.
Machines are typically controlled through linking the PLC controls to change speeds/stop automatically for the entire line.
Accumulation production lines, typically food related such as Coca-Cola bottling, Crisp packaging and food packaging operate with individual machines linked with large amounts of conveyor space and generally take up a lot of factory space. Typically the machines in an accumulation line have the capability of running at variable speeds, and will normally have one machine (or one block of machines) which runs the slowest; we call this the bottleneck or ‘critical’ machine. The Performance (OEE) of this line is determined by the amount of time that we’re able to keep the critical machine running at its rated speed.
Assuming good line balance and control, the accumulation minimises the impact of minor stops on all machines other than the critical machine
Machines are typically controlled by conveyor-based sensors with little direct interaction between the machines.
Line control or line philosophy is the way in which machines are stopped / started in response to changing conditions on the line. E.g. Stopping in build back when a machine downstream stops, stopping in lack when a machine upstream stops.
Have you ever wondered WHY on your production line…..
- the conveyors are running almost full all the time
- the machines on the line stop and start from no apparent reason i.e. there has been no fault or blockage upstream or downstream of the machine
- when there is a fault downstream, it almost immediately stops the critical or constraint machine although there is plenty of accumulation conveyors in between
- when there has been a stop downstream, it takes a long time for the critical machine to start up again
- the machines downstream of the critical machine are always ‘hunting for product’ i.e. either running flat out or not at all
- when the machine stops due to a build back situation, the operator has to start the machine up again and this always causes a delay on starting up again
Would you like to see more of the following happen…..
- All equipment on the line runs in automatic with no manual intervention required
- In normal condition the line speed is matched to the speed of the critical machine
- Minor stops on machines upstream or downstream do not affect the critical machine
- Extended stops affect the critical machine for a minimum period
- Critical machine starts almost instantaneously as the machines downstream after a build back situation
…..this is our vision of perfect flow and it is possible to get as close to this philosophy as you want
At OptimumFX, we have perfected a way of optimising the Line Control philosophy of an automated production line by using what we call the ‘5 Levels of control for automated flow lines’. This includes looking at (not limited to) the following concepts:
- Look at automating all machines on the line, so that machines automatically stop and start during lack or build back situations requiring no manual intervention and the machine speeds are automatically set requiring no manual adjustment
- The conveyor speeds are adjusted so that in normal conditions they are running mostly empty maximising the dynamic accumulation space
- By adjusting lack and build back sensors the conveyor space is maximised
- Link the machines together so that speeds of all the machines on the line are matched to the critical machine during normal conditions preventing wear on machines due to sudden stop / starts
- On restart after stoppages ensure that the machines downstream have sufficient over speed capability, this enables clearing of the accumulation conveyors quicker and starts the critical machine as quickly as possible
- Look at maximising the time before the critical machine stops when there is a fault downstream and minimising the time before the critical machine starts up again when the fault is repaired
We have developed a comprehensive method of auditing the production line that will identify what needs to be changed to achieve the vision of perfect flow. This is based on prioritising the actions that will give you the greatest benefit. Give us a call and we will be more than happy to help you achieve this!
Performance Management
November 24, 2008 by samirshah
The manufacturing environment is quite complex with a large number of processes involved, combined with teams of individuals, possibly across multiple shifts and different functions. To ensure that the various processes are on track, there are a number of measures applied. These are possibly reviewed at various intervals to ensure that they are on track. If management of these measures is not frequent and ongoing then there will definitely be a steady decline in results.
To effectively manage a manufacturing facility a number of different approaches can be taken. The results achieved will be proportional to three factors, namely:
- Information - that identifies current losses
- Focus - the amount of time spent understanding and formulating decisions
- Actions - that target resolution of the underlying losses
Therefore I.F. you ACT you get RESULTS whereby (Information x Focus) x Actions = Results
Regular performance management reviews (up to 24 hours) need to take place to focus on reacting to what is happening and ensuring that the team and engineers are focusing on the current biggest issues. The strategic reviews, usually weekly, are about targeting continuous and incremental improvements, identifying trends and patterns and tackling root cause and cause of cause issues.
The management of performance is reliant on good quality data to identify the greatest losses and possible solutions. The measures that enable identification of the greatest losses are:
1. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and The Six Big Losses (Breakdowns, Planned downtime, Minor stops, Speed, Quality in process, Quality on start up)
2. Machine downtime - split down by major stops and minor stops, Mean time between failure (MTBF) and individual equipment faults
3. Waste (quality losses) by machine area
This data could be collected manually and put into Excel (or similar), however the ultimate, is to have electronically collected pinpoint accurate data that is available in real time, from each machine. This data can then be analysed and displayed on the shop floor, in team meeting rooms, in fact anywhere in the manufacturing facility. A tool that does this extremely well is the XL800 System.
Decisions and resource planning that lead to action that are based on good quality data will yield results, whereas if based on perception, there is not necessarily a link between action and performance improvement. When this approach is followed habitually, and built into the daily routine combined with utilising quality data and taking action on issues identified, resolving them in a timely way, performance maintenance and improvement is almost guaranteed.
Displaying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
November 5, 2008 by samirshah
Every company has some metrics to measure how well they are performing against targets. A few get these measures correct. The idea is to measure The Key Metrics so as to not over complicate and dilute the absolute key indicators for success.
Imagine driving a car….the dashboard provides me with key indicators to show how it is performing. There are some indicators that I react to immediately and others that warn me so I can plan ahead. To give an example of this:
- Immediate Reaction - If the speed indicator shows that the current speed is above the legal limit there will be an instant reaction to reduce that speed
- Planned intervention - If the fuel dial shows that there is a quarter tank left, I would make sure that I fill up at the next available opportunity
Now imagine if I received this feedback daily or weekly? It will be too late before I realise I need to do something and will be likely to receive a speeding ticket or left stranded as there was no fuel left. This is how most companies measure their Key Performance indicators. It is too late to remedy what happened yesterday. Won’t it be immensely beneficial to indicate the current performance to target in real time?
The XL800 system enables you to give this instantaneous feedback on the level of performance to the people who are driving your production. They can use this information to make an immediate change or a planned intervention at their earliest convenience. The important thing is that they are given the information to enable them to make a certain decision.
You can customise your XL800 system to display whatever performance measures you deem are important. It is capable of measuring over 100KPIs and this gives you the flexibility to customise and display your chosen KPIs to ensure that you are tracking the measures that will ensure your ultimate success!
Follow this link to get more information on defining the right KPIs for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_performance_indicator
