PRODUCTION LINE: CHARACTERISTICS, ORGANIZATION, BALANCE, EXAMPLE - DUDAS - 2024

A production line is a group of sequential operations installed in a factory, where components are assembled to make a finished product, or where materials are subjected to a transformation process to manufacture a final product that is suitable for later consumption.

In general, agricultural products such as food, raw materials such as metallic minerals, or plants of textile origin such as cotton and flax, to make them useful require a sequence of processes.

Source: pixabay.com

For example, processes for metal include crushing, smelting, and refining. For plants, useful material must be separated from contaminants or husks, and then treated for sale.

The production line is a manufacturing tool popularized by Henry Ford in automobile manufacturing.

Fundamentals

The principle of a production line is that each worker is assigned a very specific task, which he simply repeats, and then the process is passed on to the next worker who performs his task, until the tasks are completed and the product is made.

It is a way to mass produce products quickly and efficiently. Not all workers have to be human. Robotic workers can also form a production line.

The fundamentals of the theory of production lines have been successfully applied to business processes.

All of these new methods of work organization share the common goal of improving performance by reducing the amount of time individual workers and their machines spend on specific tasks.

By reducing the amount of time required to produce an item, production line methods have made it possible to produce more with less.

The production lines allow economies of scale thanks to the greater specialization of the workforce. Because workers do a specific job, they need less training to be able to perform a specific task

characteristics

- The machines are spatially positioned to form lines.

- Production is partially or fully automated.

- A primary control system integrates and combines online work.

- Integration of autonomous machines for handling and transport over short distances.

- Use of safety protection components throughout the line.

- Use of workstations for measurement and control, which verifies materials, semi-finished products and finished products.

- Everyone's efforts are aligned with the basic operational competencies of the production line in support of business strategy.

- The organization depends on the production line, not only on the people, and has a well-defined and documented set of practices and processes to be executed.

Productivity

Balancing efficiency with productivity translates into profit. Low productivity means higher costs, due to wasted labor and overhead.

Understanding and balancing the ideal relationship between labor costs, overhead, materials, and demand is critical for any production line.

QA

If products are not made of consistent quality, a business may not survive. Customer experiences must be positive across all branded products, or the entire company could suffer.

Cost effectiveness

From labor allocation and robotic support, to material quality and unit price, there are many things that affect profitability on the production line.

If it is not profitable, one product will fail and jeopardize the bottom line of the entire company.

How to organize a production line?

Look for a clear and unrestricted space or work area. The exact amount of space that will be needed will depend on what is to be produced.

Have all the materials

All the necessary items that will be needed for the project should be gathered. If you take a mailing of catalogs as an example, you will have catalogs, envelopes, stickers, stamps, and address labels.

Having all materials on hand from the beginning will keep the production line running smoothly.

Designate the start and end points

If you are working in a large conference room, tables and chairs can be set up to form a straight line, with the work starting at one end of the table and ending at the other end.

Tables can also be placed along the perimeter of the room and workflow started near the door, moving clockwise around the room, until it reaches the door again.

Create workstations

The project will be divided into small stations. Each workstation will perform a small task or a series of small tasks.

From the example of mailing catalogs, the production line can be broken down into the following:

- Envelope station: Put the catalogs in the envelopes.

- Sealing station: Seal the envelopes with the adhesive labels.

- Labeling area: Label envelopes with address labels.

- Stamp station: place the stamps on the envelopes.

- Quality control station: To ensure that each package has its envelope, adhesive label, address label and seal.

Distribute the materials

Next, all the necessary materials must be delivered to each work station.

This step is very important. It is required to have the right materials in the right station, otherwise the production line will not run properly.

In the example above, you would place the catalog and envelopes in the envelope station, the adhesive labels in the seal station, and so on.

Balance

It can be defined as the allocation of the appropriate number of workers or machines for each operation of a production line, in order to meet the required production rate with an ideal minimum time.

The production line must be designed effectively, distributing the same number of tasks among workers, machines, and workstations. This ensures that all tasks on the production line can be completed within the timeframe and available production capacity.

The design and operation of a production line is more art than science. Job flexibility is the key to effective resource management.

Line balance

The equilibrium strategy is to make the production line flexible enough to absorb external and internal disturbances. There are two types:

Static balance

They are differences in long-term capacity, over a period of several hours or more.

A static imbalance results in the underutilization of workstations, machines and people.

Dynamic balance

They are differences in capacity in the short term, over a period of minutes, or a few hours at most.

A dynamic imbalance arises from variations in the product mix and from changes in working time.

Work balance

The strategy to stabilize the production line causes changes in work assignments.

Labor feasibility is an important characteristic in the strategy of making the production line more flexible linked to the skills and abilities of the workers:

- Movement of entire work teams from one line to another when the mix of models changes.

- Group technology, where a worker can handle various tasks in a single workplace.

Team balance

It must be ensured that all computers at the workstation have the same amount of work. All manufacturers seek to maximize the utilization of available equipment.

However, this high utilization is often counterproductive and can be the wrong target, because it is often accompanied by high inventory.

Dead times

When a manufacturing process is stopped by some unplanned event, such as engine failure, downtime accumulates.

Although downtime is most often associated with equipment breakdowns, it actually encompasses any unplanned event that causes the manufacturing process to stop.

For example, downtime can be caused by problems with materials, insufficient operators, or unscheduled maintenance. The unifying element is that even though production has been scheduled, the process is not running due to an unplanned stop.

In contrast, a planned shutdown is any event where the process is not available for execution due to some pre-planned activity, such as a job change or scheduled maintenance.

To accurately measure dead time, it is important to create a clearly defined standard and then apply that standard consistently over time and across all equipment.

Effects on productivity

Downtime is the main source of lost production time. Receive a high level of attention, as equipment failures and breakdowns are highly visible and frustrating.

If the production line includes multiple pieces of equipment, as in a packaging line, it is very important to focus on the constraints of the process. In particular, focus on the timeout.

Focusing improvement efforts on constraints ensures optimal use of resources and is the most direct route to improving productivity and profitability.

From a total team effectiveness perspective, downtime is recorded as a loss of availability. From the perspective of the six big losses, the dead time is recorded as an unplanned stop.

Cycle time

It is the total time it takes to complete the tasks from the beginning to the end of the production line. Measures the time it takes for a product to go through all the machines and processes to become a finished product.

That is, it is the total time an item spends in the manufacturing system from release to completion of an order. Reducing this time can reduce costs, as well as offer a better response to customers and greater flexibility.

Depending on the production process, there may or may not be downtime between tasks. Cycle time is the sum of value-added tasks and downtime.

Together with the resources available to produce a product, the cycle time will determine the total capacity of the production process. If there is a forecast of demand, then the capacity utilization of the production line can be predicted.

Manual tasks

In manual labor intensive processes an average is generally used to derive the cycle time of a task, due to the difference in the skills and experience of the different operators.

The standard deviation of the average cycle time can be used as an indicator of the variability between operators. If it is too large, it can be difficult to accurately predict delivery times and bottlenecks can occur.

One way to eliminate variability from a task or process cycle is to introduce automation into the process. Automation reduces variability, improves precision and improves quality.

Example

Ford production line

Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line in 1913 to mass-produce a complete vehicle. This innovation decreased the total time it took to build a car, from more than 12 hours to 2.5 hours.

In 1908 the Ford Model T was introduced. It was robust, simple and relatively cheap, but for Ford it was not economical enough. He was determined to build "vehicles for the great mass of people."

To lower the price of cars, Ford thought it just had to find a way to make them more efficiently.

For years Ford had tried to increase the productivity of its factories. Employees building the Model N cars, the predecessor of the Model T, arranged parts in a row on the floor, skidding the car under construction and dragging it along the line as they worked.

Assembling the Model T

The process of rationality became more and more sophisticated. To make just one car, Ford divided the Model T assembly into 84 discrete steps and also trained each of its employees.

He hired Frederick Taylor, who was an expert in motion studies, to make those tasks more efficient. On the other hand, he assembled equipment that could seal parts automatically, much faster than the quickest worker.

Enthusiastic about the continuous flow production methods used by industrial bakeries, flour mills and breweries, Ford installed moving lines for the parts and pieces of the production process.

For example, workers built transmissions and motors on conveyor belts driven by pulleys and ropes. In December 1913 he unveiled the mobile chassis assembly line.

During 1914 he added a mechanized belt that advanced at a speed of two meters per minute. As the pace picked up, Ford produced more and more cars. Thus, the 10 millionth Model T rolled off the production line in June 1924.

References

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4. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2019). Production line. Taken from: en.wikipedia.org.
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6. Rajkumar P. Patil (2019). Production Line Balancing. Learn About Gmp. Taken from: learnaboutgmp.com.
7. Lean Manufacture (2019). Cycle Time. Taken from: leanmanufacture.net.
8. Vorne (2019). Reduce Down Time in Manufacturing. Taken from: vorne.com.