OptimumFX OEE Book Store
December 22, 2009 by david.evanson
Here’s a question we get asked regularly - which books do we recommend to support a factory improvement journey?
To help you on your journey i’ve spent the last hour creating a definitive reading list on Amazon for you. Every book on this list i, or my team, have read and used. In many cases we have even given these books to our clients when we help them.
I’ve grouped the books into 3 categories:
1. OEE Books - these are specific books on OEE Improvement
2. Lean Books - these are books on Lean tools and lean implementation.
3. Team books - these are books on leadership and methods of engaging teams with a change programme
As before - we’ve read every one of these and loved them.
Hope you find them as enjoyable as we do!
VISIT OPTIMUMFX READING LIST
Adrian.
Getting results with action
September 13, 2009 by david.evanson
The improvement of production performance is achieved through the combination of great quality data, robust management review, and the application of operator and technical skills and experience.
Therefore: I.F. you ACT you get RESULTS
Whereby (Information x Focus) x Actions = Results
The formulae suggests:
Inaccurate information = poor results
Inadequate focus = poor result
Low no. of decisions / actions = poor results
If you act you get results
Defining what you really want:
Information = Using XL800 at a tactical level – understanding the real root cause of your biggest losses
Focus = Man hours focusing on information that lead to decision making – or number of tactical performance reviews combined with the number of people involved
Actions = Commitment to a high number of speedily executed mix of maintaining, proactive (changing) and updating actions
MANAGE AND MEASURE THE INPUTS AND THE RESULTS ARE GUARANTEED!
Measuring the inputs:
Information – number of top losses identified that are effecting OEE and getting to the root causes
Focus – number of tactical and strategic reviews taking place and the number of relevant individuals involved
Actions – the number of type 1, 2 and 3 actions taking place
When these three areas are aligned then Results are inevitable. The data could be collected manually at the end of each shift 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.
Updated introduction to XL800 OEE System
June 8, 2009 by david.evanson
We’re delighted to announce that we’ve now released a whole batch of additional functionality for our XL800 OEE System….and the great news is that we’re making this update available to all customers completely free of charge.
With our new update you can:
1. View all your XL800 OEE Systems in a unique Factory Dashboard - you will be able to instantly see which lines/machines need your instant attention.
2. Capture detailed fault diagnostics - using our new visual “Total Production Timeline” not only will you see what downtime you’ve had, you’ll be able to see when it happened and what it cost you
3. Detailed fault analysis - with our integrated pareto analysis tools you will instantly be able to see your top reasons for downtime today, yesterday, this month, last month at the touch of a button.
View these features and more:
Jidoka: Autonomation
January 15, 2009 by david.evanson
Jidoka is a term taken from The Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing that effectively means “intelligent automation” or “automation with a human touch”.
The purposes of jidoka are:
- To increase OEE by reducing waste
- To reduce the production of quality-inferior products
- To prevent damage to machines by causing automatic stops
- To enable your operators to focus on tasks other than just running machines
In practice Jidoka is a form of automation which prevents the production of defective products through some intelligent automation. Primarily Jidoka is a quality control process that has 4 elements:
- Detect the abnormality
- Stop
- Fix the machine or issue
- Investigate the root cause and fix
An example of Jidoka in action might be an inline quality detection system checking fill heights/weights:
- You produce a low fill - it is detected and no action is taken
- You produce 10 low fills in a minute - an alarm is sounded but no action is taken
- You produce 15 low fills in a minute - the filler is automatically stopped and an error message raised on your andon system
- With the line stopped your operator investigates the cause of the stoppage and makes a fix
In this process operators traditionally have the ability to make only very minimal tweaks to the production process settings, the majority of control is automated.
In this way applying Jidoka will help improve your OEE by increasing your Quality %.
More sophisticated versions of Jidoka can include production line control on automated continuous flow production lines. On a continuous flow line with good control, each machine will start, stop, and change speed automatically to maximise output without operator intervention. To find out more about production line control read our page here: http://oeejourney.optimumfx.com/2008/12/02/optimising-line-control/
Find out more:
Jidoka: On the Toyota website.
This jidoka website makes a great diffentiation between Autonomation and automation:
Automation is focused on labor reduction. Autonomation (Jidoka) is focused on quality improvement, and the independence of the man from the process.
Automation increases technicality, Autonomation reduces technicality. This allows skill levels to be lower in similar processes when comparing East to West. Another cost reducer!
Andon Systems and OEE improvement
January 14, 2009 by david.evanson
What are Andon systems or Andon lamps?
Andon lamps are an extremely simple system of visual management for helping teams identify when there is a problem with a process or machine. Originally they were developed as part of the Jidoka quality-control method within the Toyota Production System and have now been incorporated into standard lean manufacturing practice
Originally andon lamps were used to notify teams of a quality problem, and more frequently we see them installed on continuous flow lines to help inform operators of why machines have stopped. For example if i have an operator running two packaging machines and one of the machines stop, a simple Andon light stack can instantly tell the operator if he has a problem (and has to intervene) or if the machine has just run out of product.
Here are some sample Andon Systems courtesy of google images:
Andon lamp block
A traditional andon light stack
Andon panel with fault alarms
Andon Text display
Benefits of traditional Andon systems in your visual factory:
- Reduce reaction times for machine problems - operators see the state of machines quickly
- Reduced downtime for fault fixing - lamps indicate most common “faults” e.g. low reel, jams etc
- Improve management efficiency - Managers can quickly see which machines are stopped on a busy floor
Drawbacks of traditional Andon systems in your lean implementation:
- Signals need to be interpreted - complex systems need a code or key card to help operators remember what the alarms mean.
- Can be hard to see - if they’ve been in place for a long time lights often get damaged and dirty and can be hard to see. They can also often become ‘background noise’.
Taking Andon systems to the next level…XL800 for the ultimate visual factory
The XL800 OEE system brings Andon systems into the 21st century by taking all the strengths of existing systems, adding even more functionality, whilst keeping the core simplicity.
When you install an XL800 OEE System on your machine or line the highly visual alphanumeric display system can be used to highlight KPI’s and running conditions just like any display system.
Basic functionality:
Almost instantly the XL800 OEE system can support your lean manufacturing implementation by very quickly enabling you to show:
- MACHINE DOWN + Duration of downtime
- BREAK TIME REMAINING + Duration of break
- CHANGEOVER + Duration of changeover
More advanced functionality:
If you can get a signal from your machine to indicate why that machine has stopped then your XL800 could automatically display additional faults or alarms such as:
- Stop - Build Back (too much product on outfeed)
- Stop - Lack (no raw materials on infeed)
- Stop - No raw material
- Stop - Guards open
- Quality check due now (based on the number parts produced)
- Stop - SPECIFIC FAULT MESSAGE
- Target achieved - Good job team
- …..and the list goes on! If you can get us a signal, the XL800 OEE System can give you a display!
So what are the benefits of an XL800 as your Andon system?
- All of the benefits as traditional Andon systems
- Inform and motivate your team: by displaying real time data for how long each alarm has been triggered, and by showing targets for the production run
- Increase productivity: Simplify your shop floor - the display is 100% user configurable so you can quickly select the alarms that make the most difference to you
- Save money: Your operators will be able to respond to the right causes of machine downtime and get your machines fixed faster.
- Increase OEE: With machines being fixed faster you will produce more product than ever before
- Essential for TPM: The built in reporting and analytics software in the XL800 system is ideal for driving your TPM implementation as part of your lean journey.
Help your operators create their own improvement toolkit
December 3, 2008 by david.evanson
I was asked today about which books i would recommend for getting more information on continuous improvement implementation in the FMCG industry. Specifically the guy i was talking to had already read The Toyota Way and The Goal, and instead wanted something really practical to help with a specific continuous improvement implementation, something that he could use with his front line managers.
So here is a range of books that i massively recommend (and often send copies to new clients considering SMED, 5s, TPM, OEE, Poka Yoke exercises). These books are written ‘for operators’ and are extremely practical, straight forward, and hugely valuable in any application:
All the links will send you to Amazon.co.uk:
2. Identifying waste on the shop floor
3. Mistake proofing for opeartors - Poke Yoke made really simple, a great book
4. Pull production for operators
8. Cellular Manufacturing for operators
10. Quick Changeover for operators (SMED)
Just remember that there’s a difference between knowing the tools and knowing how to apply them. These books make a great start of introducing topics in a way which makes implementing them just a little bit easier.
Introducing automated data capture
November 30, 2008 by david.evanson
This week i’ve enjoyed many extremely interesting discussions about the use of automated data capture systems in an improvement process and thought i’d share a condensation of these discussions with you.
I think most people would agree that the reason to measure performance is so that we have hard factual data with which to make the right decisions. With this data we can be assured that we’re focussing on the right area and that our precious and limited resource is working effectively to improve output. When we’re working without data then ‘gut feel’ and assumptions can mean that we’re spending our time on areas that MAY improve output….or may not. We have limited time and resource so use it wisely.
This creates a little process for us: we need to:
- Capture data - with sufficient accuracy,
- Interpret it - with sufficient speed,
- Act on it - with sufficient focus,
- Review actions using it - with sufficient detail.
As we specialise in helping sites with the steps above we often recommend automated systems as these have the advantage of being accurate, autonomous, and needing very little time invested to get instant feedback. The higher the base level of performance, the more sophisticated a measurement tool you want.
For sites that are in an OEE performance window of 40-70% we often recommend our low cost XL800 system - for £2910 (*) a site can get great quality data and eliminate the majority of the resource needed to complete and collate machine based tick sheets. For the purpose of this post i’m ignoring the huge benefits that high performing sites could get from a line based visual display system, and instead focussing on data accuracy.
For sites performing at 60%+ we often recommend our LineView or MachineView systems as they provide highly accurate data with 6 Loss analysis and full reporting and ERP integration.
So when would we recommend that you don’t use one of our systems to capture data?
Well, in these 2 discussions i had this week both individuals wanted their organisation to develop a strong in-house feel and knowledge of OEE through collecting it manually for several months:
- When the team leaders have calculated their OEE manually for several months how aware will they be of how to influence it? Extremely!
- After a team leader has spent 30mins collecting data, running calculations, and preparing reports only to report a 30% shift how important is it that they understand how to influence it? Extremely!
- With this deep knowledge and understanding in place, how valuable will these team leaders find a fully automated system which gives them accurate data, instantly, without needing to analyse operator hand writing, without the need for a calcuator? Extremely!
My personal belief is that the only way to run a modern production line is with accurate data guiding my decision making. I also believe that data and systems are only as valuable as how they’re used.
So if you’re just starting your data journey perhaps it’s worth considering not only the value of collecting data, but also the value in your teams intrinsically understanding it from hours of painful analysis - Vs the cost saving from implementing automated systems and finding some other way of getting this deep understanding.
Food for thought.
My thanks to the Gentlemen in question with whom i had these discussions - a lot of fun and very thought provoking.
*price correct as of 30th November
