For the past two decades, manufacturers have continually striven for tight integration of shop floor activities, hopefully resulting in a streamlined environment capable of achieving this Lean sense of “perfection”.

In more basic terms, at its core Lean thinking is informed by the goal of shop waste minimization via the elimination of those activities that do not add value to the product. Simultaneously, the use of scarcer resources is maximized, such as capital investment and personnel. Nonetheless, whilst capital investment in tooling and infrastructure (i.e., creating, land, etc.) is encumbered by a sense of being “fixed” with regards to improvements in efficiency, the human side of the manufacturing method (i.e., personnel) has much greater flexibility in terms of being able to make immediate adjustments in procedure toward a better way of doing issues.

As a production resource, employees (both production and management) have the capacity for revealing and solving problems at the source, as well as making instant alterations toward “a more perfect” manufacturing process. Even so, these decisions are–must be–driven by relevant, dependable, real-time shop information entry. Constant procedure analysis as a Lean principle need to involve empowered employees who participate in the collection and dissemination of actual-time information this empowerment constantly outcomes in enhancing efficiencies in the shop floor method.

Built as a single point, multi-purpose shop floor/function order management tool, the paperless Touch Screen Information Collection system (TSDC) is created to be a central collection point and rapid analyzer for important shop floor-generated information. In a Lean production environment, where the will need for information is constant, it is paramount that a single integrated method of total shop floor activity tracking controls exists, including costing, purchasing, scheduling, supplies management, tracking, inventory control, and labor management (both direct labor and indirect labor).

TSDC offers real-time shop floor control in all aspects of the program, creating the maximization of efficiencies and reduction of waste that are the values at the heart of Lean production. Even so, any good enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing tool ought to depend upon the human variable – shop floor personnel – to supply the input of information by means of the method. Without accurate and consistent attention to information entry, error margins enhance to the detriment of reliability. This is why it is crucial that employees feel not only empowered and vested in the ERP method, but that they are comfortable enough with the technologies to contain the information entry procedure as component of their production routine. Without a personnel commitment to total integration of the ERP information collection and the inputting of information into the job flow, analysts are faced with incomplete, if not error-filled, information. This mandate of shop floor information entry is particularly essential in job shops, make-to-order, make-to-stock, and mixed mode manufacturers where budgets prohibit the addition of a dedicated IT individual or staff.

To this end, ERP shop floor information entry and collection systems are tied to a “timeclock” Graphical User Interface (GUI) concept. Often really user friendly, GUI input is made by means of any number of movements-conventional keystroke, bar/card scanning, and/or touch-screen technologies. The user is presented with a visual on-line systems menu in an easy to read, “clean screen” format. From this timekeeping screen, the employee can identify him/herself (relative to security clearance, if needed), clock in and clock out, accept jobs listed in order of priority, review function order details, log onto and off of jobs, and all other functions associated with operation and time management.

For example, function center jobs are prioritized on the screen by date of function order submission in consideration of the availability of raw materials, labor, supplies, and so on., required to complete the job on time. An employee may review the Function Order Detail of any job to figure out if that job is, in truth, ready to begin production, or should wait pending arrival of requisite supplies or other parts. In a lot of systems, if necessary, the employee can even generate a buy order for outside vendor processing directly from the GUI. This PO is then stored in the TSDC method as details for all shop floor employees and all ERP users to see concerning that specific job.

In such a scenario, the TSDC supplies actual-time information analysis to both management and staff for precise parts inventory control, streamlining purchasing, and even employee performance measurement that result in better direct labor margins.

As a function of shop floor time and task management, the TSDC collects all information related to a job (past, present, or future), and gives a focal point where info instantly converges into functional information for payroll, scheduling (forward/backward), dispatch list, and job costing-all of which help accomplish strategic sales and profit objectives. For example, in the past, understanding the complicated relationships between cost, sales, and profits was at best challenging, at worst haphazard. Nevertheless, the TSDC allows management to simply compute job costing based upon bill-of-material or single component price summaries. These summaries are compiled from employee production data entered directly on the shop floor via the GUI. Material, labor, overhead and so forth are functions in the equation that analyzes sales and their associated margins.

Maybe the most vital function of the TSDC is discovered in its capability to take shop floor data and segregate results in terms of Estimated versus Actual cost. It is here, possibly, in understanding estimate versus actual outcomes for a bill-of-material or a single component, where the greatest distinction is discovered between profit and loss in a pull production of the Lean system. For in a Lean environment, the manufacturer cares greatly about errors errors labor performance (which includes scrap), errors in estimating, errors in inventory management, and so forth.

Through information sharing via shop floor information entry, the TSDC enables management to easily analyze the data and identify areas of waste in the system. Thus, in adherence to Lean principals, the organization continuously improves by way of the reduction of costs, improved quality and increased productivity.

Given that the TSDC becomes the conduit of operational data between shop floor personnel/work centers, and performance data between the shop floor and management, it takes the complete approach to the information collection and analysis that is important in today’s info-dependent global enterprise world.

http://globalshopsolutions.com/touchscreen

Dusty Alexander is the President of Global Shop Solutions. Global Shop Solutions is the largest privately held ERP software firm in the United States.

Copyright 2010 – Global Shop Solutions. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You could reprint this write-up as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the write-up in any way, and give the author name credit.

 

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