| Lean thinking in manufacturing has always been a | | | | movements-traditional keystroke, bar/card scanning, |
| practical means to that most desirable end: A better | | | | and/or touch-screen technology. The user is |
| quality product produced in less time at lower cost. | | | | presented with a visual online systems menu in an |
| For the past two decades, manufacturers have | | | | easy to read, "clean screen" format. From this |
| constantly striven for tight integration of shop floor | | | | timekeeping screen, the employee can identify him |
| activities, hopefully resulting in a streamlined | | | | herself (relative to security clearance, if necessary), |
| environment capable of achieving this Lean sense of | | | | clock in and clock out, accept jobs listed in order of |
| "perfection". | | | | priority, review work order details, log onto and off |
| In more basic terms, at its core Lean thinking is | | | | of jobs, and all other functions associated with |
| informed by the goal of shop waste minimization | | | | operation and time management. |
| through the elimination of those activities that do not | | | | For example, work center jobs are prioritized on the |
| add value to the product. Simultaneously, the use of | | | | screen by date of work order submission in |
| scarcer resources is maximized, such as capital | | | | consideration of the availability of raw materials, labor, |
| investment and personnel. However, while capital | | | | supplies, etc., needed to complete the job on time. |
| investment in tooling and infrastructure (i.e., building, | | | | An employee may review the Work Order Detail of |
| land, etc.) is encumbered by a sense of being "fixed" | | | | any job to determine if that job is, in fact, ready to |
| with regards to improvements in efficiency, the | | | | begin production, or should wait pending arrival of |
| human side of the manufacturing process (i.e., | | | | requisite materials or other parts. In many systems, if |
| personnel) has much greater flexibility in terms of | | | | necessary, the employee can even generate a |
| being able to make immediate adjustments in process | | | | purchase order for outside vendor processing directly |
| toward a better way of doing things. | | | | from the GUI. This PO is then stored in the TSDC |
| As a production resource, employees (both | | | | system as information for all shop floor employees |
| production and management) have the capacity for | | | | and all ERP users to see regarding that specific job. |
| revealing and solving problems at the source, as well | | | | In such a scenario, the TSDC provides real-time data |
| as making instant alterations toward "a more perfect" | | | | analysis to both management and staff for precise |
| manufacturing process. However, these decisions | | | | parts inventory control, streamlining purchasing, and |
| are--must be--driven by relevant, reliable, real-time | | | | even employee performance measurement that |
| shop data entry. Constant process analysis as a Lean | | | | result in better direct labor margins. |
| principle must involve empowered employees who | | | | As a function of shop floor time and task |
| participate in the collection and dissemination of | | | | management, the TSDC collects all data related to a |
| real-time data; this empowerment always results in | | | | job (past, present, or future), and provides a focal |
| improving efficiencies in the shop floor system. | | | | point where information instantly converges into |
| Built as a single point, multi-purpose shop floor/work | | | | functional data for payroll, scheduling (forward |
| order management tool, the paperless Touch Screen | | | | backward), dispatch list, and job costing-all of which |
| Data Collection system (TSDC) is designed to be a | | | | help achieve strategic sales and profit objectives. For |
| central collection point and rapid analyzer for | | | | example, in the past, understanding the complex |
| important shop floor-generated data. In a Lean | | | | relationships between cost, sales, and profits was at |
| production environment, where the need for data is | | | | best difficult, at worst haphazard. However, the |
| constant, it is paramount that a single integrated | | | | TSDC allows management to easily compute job |
| system of total shop floor activity tracking controls | | | | costing based upon bill-of-material or single part cost |
| exists, including costing, purchasing, scheduling, | | | | summaries. These summaries are compiled from |
| materials management, tracking, inventory control, | | | | employee production data entered directly on the |
| and labor management (both direct labor and indirect | | | | shop floor via the GUI. Material, labor, overhead and |
| labor). | | | | so forth are functions in the equation that analyzes |
| TSDC provides real-time shop floor control in all | | | | sales and their associated margins. |
| aspects of the system, creating the maximization of | | | | Perhaps the most critical function of the TSDC is |
| efficiencies and reduction of waste that are the | | | | found in its ability to take shop floor data and |
| values at the heart of Lean production. However, any | | | | segregate results in terms of Estimated versus |
| good enterprise resource planning (ERP) and | | | | Actual cost. It is here, perhaps, in understanding |
| manufacturing tool must depend upon the human | | | | estimate versus actual results for a bill-of-material or |
| variable - shop floor personnel - to provide the input | | | | a single part, where the greatest difference is found |
| of data through the system. Without accurate and | | | | between profit and loss in a pull production of the |
| consistent attention to data entry, error margins | | | | Lean system. For in a Lean environment, the |
| increase to the detriment of reliability. This is why it is | | | | manufacturer cares greatly about errors; errors labor |
| important that employees feel not only empowered | | | | performance (including scrap), errors in estimating, |
| and vested in the ERP system, but that they are | | | | errors in inventory management, and so forth. |
| comfortable enough with the technology to include | | | | Through information sharing via shop floor data entry, |
| the data entry process as part of their production | | | | the TSDC allows management to easily analyze the |
| routine. Without a personnel commitment to total | | | | information and identify areas of waste in the |
| integration of the ERP data collection and the | | | | system. Thus, in adherence to Lean principals, the |
| inputting of data into the job flow, analysts are faced | | | | company continuously improves through the |
| with incomplete, if not error-filled, data. This mandate | | | | reduction of costs, improved quality and increased |
| of shop floor data entry is especially important in job | | | | productivity. |
| shops, make-to-order, make-to-stock, and mixed | | | | Since the TSDC becomes the conduit of operational |
| mode manufacturers where budgets prohibit the | | | | data between shop floor personnel/work centers, |
| addition of a dedicated IT person or staff. | | | | and performance data between the shop floor and |
| To this end, ERP shop floor data entry and collection | | | | management, it takes the complete approach to the |
| systems are tied to a "timeclock" Graphical User | | | | data collection and analysis that is vital in today's |
| Interface (GUI) concept. Often quite user friendly, | | | | information-dependent global business world. |
| GUI input is made through any number of | | | | |