Manufacturer Breaks Constraints to Double its Throughput

Building a constraint-centric management system to support optimized use of the “4 Pillars.”

• Monitoring Daily and Weekly trends to ensure quarterly production targets will be achieved at each site. Are the facilities hitting their daily and weekly targets for overall volume and for each Value Stream (product line)?
• Understanding what the constraint is by utilizing a tool that provides visibility to validate the constraint, so the right immediate need is addressed (Process T-Max). Where is the constrained operation and what needs to be done to manage the 4 pillars?
• Additionally managing the constraint with tools that provided visibility to support the “4 Pillars” focus. Capture the causes of any delays (downtime) and causes of inadequate WIP levels, along with reasons for personnel shortages. Addressing root causes of these issues at the constrained operations by developing action items to address problems as they arose.
• Supporting the Value Stream Managers and Supervisors with the tools that enabled them to focus on addressing issues at the right operation, if they weren’t meeting their daily/weekly volumes. Additional tools were put in place to use leading indicators to understand what Value Streams were on track to meet quarterly targets to validate that the correct constraint was still in need of continued focus and support.

Understanding Future Capacity. From a capacity standpoint, did they have enough machines to get the job done? It was a matter of understanding customer demands on a quarterly basis and how the right visibility would provide insight to additional equipment needs or product shifts (if the volume of those particular value streams would increase or decrease at either or both sites). In some cases, as with a newer product, the volume was increasing. It called for additional machines, but in some areas, certain products were decreasing in volume. The machines that produced those products would be available for other uses. So, it wasn’t just adding machines to the mix. It was about taking a careful look at each product, the existing equipment or assets, and in some cases, reallocating them.