Share | How to improve factory production efficiency? You must check out these key points!

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The competition among enterprises is essentially a competition between efficiency and cost (of course, on the premise of ensuring product quality). How to continuously improve production efficiency is a key issue for the sustainable development of enterprises, and improving production efficiency is also the fundamental way to reduce manufacturing costs. Of course, we must operate strictly in accordance with the process standards (SOPs). To help operators better understand the production process and improve work efficiency, it is necessary to understand and analyze each of the preceding and following steps separately, adhering to the principle of continuous process improvement in order to find the most reasonable way of operating through feasible methods. When working on our assignments, should we consider the following questions: 1. Is it necessary to perform a certain action? Is there a better way? 2. Why do it here? Is there a more suitable place? 3. Why do it at this time? Is there a more suitable time? Regarding the issue of how to improve productivity, based on my experiences at the work site, I would like to offer the following suggestions: [1] Improve our working habits. 1. Maintain a proper sitting posture to align the body more effectively with the workbench, which facilitates better work performance. 2. Use both hands as much as possible when carrying out production tasks. 3. Within the operational range, try to move over short distances to improve time efficiency. 4. Improve employees’ production skills (through periodic training and skill assessments). 【2】Allocate the work area reasonably and pay attention to the placement of raw materials. 1. The movement paths of hands and arms should be within the normal working range (the area that can be reached with the hands in a normal sitting position). 2. For tasks that require visual attention, a normal field of vision must be ensured to clearly see the conditions at the work area. 3. Tools and materials should be placed in fixed locations for easy access at once. The most commonly used materials with a high reuse rate can also be placed nearby, arranged in the order of their assembly. 【3】Tools and Equipment 1. Tools and equipment should be placed in a place where they can be easily accessed. 2. Design and use simple auxiliary tools or fixtures to make production smoother and more efficient, as well as to facilitate operations. 【4】Material handling 1. For easy access, proper design is necessary in advance. 2. Is it considered to design some fixtures based on the principle of gravity to transport the materials to the point of use? 3. Pre-set and classify the materials and parts required for the next process. 【5】Save time 1. One should stay focused while working, which helps to overcome issues such as hesitation or temporary pauses on the part of humans. It also helps to prevent safety accidents such as burns from hot air and injuries caused by falling objects. 2. Analyze the actions we perform at work to determine which ones are necessary and which can be combined, thereby reducing the number of steps and shortening the time required. For example, in the grinding process: it is necessary to constantly check whether everything is in order during positioning, as well as to ensure that everyone’s actions during grinding are correct, in order to reduce the amount of rework and thus save time and lower the workload on the staff. 【6】Encourage employees to conduct self-inspections and mutual inspections. In production management, generally speaking, good quality leads to high efficiency. Reworking defective products often reduces efficiency by more than 3 times. In previous consultations on production rationalization, it was found that most companies invest a great deal of resources in checking the first and last units, conducting full inspections, and performing specialized inspections, yet they overlook employee self-inspections and mutual inspections. “Everyone understands the principle that \"quality is created through manufacturing,\" but many don’t know how to put it into practice. The author follows two approaches: 1. Employee self-inspection – employees must ensure, during the production process, that: ① the quality of the components from the previous processing stage has been verified” ； ②“Confirm the technology, process requirements, and processing quality for this operation” ； ③“Confirm the quality of the finished products delivered to the next process.” 2. Peer inspection among employees: There are generally two quality management principles. The first principle is that when the first processing stage supplies products to the second stage, if the second stage detects defective products – for example, out of 10 products supplied, 9 are found to be Qualified while 1 is defective – then the second stage has the right to file a claim against the upstream stage. The claim index here is quite astonishing, increasing at a geometric rate. The second principle is that, after the first processing stage supplies products to the second stage, if the second stage fails to detect any existing defects and the products proceed to the third stage, then the third stage will deduct bonuses from the second stage… By establishing a series of systems that encourage employees to carry out self-inspections and mutual inspections, it is possible to significantly improve efficiency, as well as reduce the need for quality inspectors. 【7】Establish a flexible production organization system. A flexible production organization system is a set of comprehensive activities and elements that are centered around the production organization structure and operations; its ultimate goal is to enable all employees to develop themselves while ensuring that production tasks are completed with high quality. 1. The function of production organization is to assign overall tasks to each unit or individual, establishing relationships based both on division of labor and cooperation. 2. Arrange workstations according to the flowchart; determine the spacing and level of complexity based on the amount of time required for each task. Set up stations for instruction manuals, and arrange areas for material placement, identification of defective items, as well as storage for tools, fixtures, and equipment. 3. Ensure balance at the workstations and smooth operation of the production line; assign employees appropriately based on their skill levels, so that there is no backlog on the production line and enough space is available. This way, some people won’t be overworked while others are idle, which prevents tasks from being overlooked. 4. Replace staff at their work stations, allocate individual strengths appropriately, and be aware of who works quickly and who works slowly. 5. Pay attention to the management of new employees, assign dedicated personnel to provide guidance, clarify responsibilities, and conduct regular checks and confirmations. 6. Determine effective production capacity and qualification management, divided into the practical phase, independent phase, autonomous phase, skilled phase, level phase, and development phase. 7. The chain of authority must be clear: Employees (complete tasks, report problems) – Team leaders (carry out tasks, handle problems, report results) – Shift supervisors (implement plans, report production status, address problems) – Managers (oversee implementation, summarize plans, report achievements). 8. Develop versatile employees, identify their strengths, pay attention to their training and utilization as well as staffing, and consciously foster these skills in their daily work. 【8】Precautions: To achieve the plan and increase production, managers should pay extra attention to the following: 1. Thorough preparation before production is necessary (staff, machinery, equipment, materials, processes, and the work site). 2. Control the drawing speed appropriately to maintain a proper sense of urgency among the workers, so as to prevent any slackness. 3. Confirm the production volume in a timely manner and fill in the dashboard. 4. Control defective products, correct them promptly; if correction is ineffective, stop working and find a suitable person or the correct method to carry out the task. 5. Defective materials received, as well as any defective products that are generated, must be promptly identified in order to arrange for their return, replacement, or substitution. There are various factors that affect production efficiency, such as \"secondary problems arising from inherent flaws in design and development\" or production line changes or shutdowns due to shortages of materials. By addressing the main issues at hand, it is not too difficult to significantly improve production efficiency. If one employee can save one minute per day by using effective methods, then the 400 employees in the workshop can save 400 minutes per day. By the same logic, how many more products can the company produce in a year? If everyone makes a little progress every day and thinks a little more each day, not only will they improve in all aspects, but the company’s development will also be more stable and rapid.