Process Improvement Techniques: A Case of Radiator and Heat Exchanger Manufacturing Company - Assignment Example

Process Improvement Techniques: A Case of Radiator and Heat exchanger Manufacturing Company Firms will always strive to achieve a predictable standard of operation. Any deviations from the expected results are noted and actions taken to rectify them. This deviation represents the process variations and form a great part of business risks. Any variation will mean increased costs, reduced customer confidence, and missed deliveries.[Joh00] Any variation identified should be eliminated effectively as the defect will be against quality and performance of the company. The key manufacturing success indicators are cost, delivery, flexibility, and quality.[Ale14] To be able to deal with any identified variations, the management has to develop proactive strategies. They have to understand and analyze correctly their expected results. This will form the starting point to effectively managing any variations noted. Even by having predetermined set of results, one should know that there is going to be experienced minimal variations between any two products. The role of any manager is to take the lead in process variation reduction by developing strategies and influencing followers towards achievement of set objectives. The management is required to collect relevant data and analyze it then make feasible decisions aiming at improving the processes. The team ought to be strong and offer passionate leadership in championing the necessary change. In the long run, the process will improve in terms of consistency, stability, and quality. Variations connote any defects identifiable in production or transactional processes. Quality improvement aims at reducing the defects in output traits. Any manufacturing firm aims at producing products that meet certain performance expectations. This calls them to infuse important quality characteristics on the products. One should set up a control plan and measure quality over a long period of time. It is worth noting that no two single items are similar in all terms even the output of the same process will have minor variations. The techniques employed will be targeting at having the defects near the mean value as closely as possible. In this case the consultant will be using the six sigma approach to identify and minimize variations. The strategy aims at identifying and eliminating causes of defects in business processes by focusing on outputs that are critical to customers. [BTj10] The process aims at producing high quality products and services through self-control mechanisms. In the works of [Mer16], one needs to select and adapt those tools among many available that are most suitable and critical in ensuring maintenance of progress in the quality improvement. Furthermore, the success of the strategy is in comprehensive and effective adaptations of these tools. The strategy is continuous throughout the production process. The critical issue is being able to identify the root problem and developing mechanisms to eradicate it. The tools and techniques so selected should at all times guarantee improvement and consistency in product and process quality. Understanding the needs of the customer is necessary in ensuring organizational success. Customers form a key part in the stakeholders of the company. All internal and external customers of the company products ought to be analyzed and strategies employed to improve their experiences. The interviews conducted helps in identifying procedures necessary for improving customer satisfaction and leads to continued quality improvement.[Ale17] Quality needs of customers for the heat exchangers and radiators should be meet effectively through conducting effective customers’ interviews. Good working relationships are going to be guaranteed from the interviews. The strategy will be combined with brainstorming. This is because through brainstorming we are going to improve creativity in the production departments. Customers are going to give us working ways on how we can infuse this creativity in the final product. Brainstorming is also a good strategy in understanding root cause of the problem and also the cause – and – effect relationship in quality management.[Pau11] All these strategies help in analyzing potential causes of poor performance in the organization. It is noted that brainstorming should be a daily process conducted at all levels of the production process. [Pau11] This is because any significant change made will impact in a way to customer satisfaction. By identifying unwanted machine stoppage and taking collective actions during the production cycle will improve utilization of available resources. This is going to reduce variances. Of all the OEE factors analyzed, performance, quality, and availability are found to be affected by variances in machine runtime. They are found not to be affected by machine speed but also by accessibility. The table below shows the daily OEE results for the company. The daily OEE Day Quality Performance Availability OEE Mon 0.98 0.99 0.62 0.60 Tue 0.98 0.99 0.67 0.65 Wed 0.88 0.67 0.72 0.425 Thur 0.98 0.70 0.75 0.515 Fri 0.97 0.74 0.69 0.495 Table 1: OEE percentages (Author) From the table it is noted that performance and availability are the key influences to OEE. Implementation of the process improvements is going to improve the weekly OEE. This is further analysed using the histogram shown below. Figure1: OEE histogram chart (Author) From the chart, quality is almost 100% throughout. This implies that it is not a major issue. It is evident that availability is the lowest element of OEE. It is recommended that downtime is reduced so as to increase machine availability. Pareto analysis was also used to investigate OEE. This was done to have a clear understanding on the major causes of downtime. Pareto analysis is a statistical technique for decision making used on a limited number of tasks found to produce significant effect in the end. The principle holds that a vast majority of problems are produce by a few key causes. [Jam17] The implementation of the tools and techniques for improvement will be done in the following order. 1. Introduction. The improvement is going to be introduced to all staff of the company. They are going to be made aware of the plans through meetings and seminars. It is to be done for all levels of management. 2. Development. A new training course of all operators is going to be developed. The course is going to discuss the need for change so as to reduce resistance. 3. Create short term and long term implementation plans. The short term is 3 months while the long term is 5 years. The aim is to infuse the changes with the organization culture. 4. Location changes. Tools and materials location is going to be rearranged so as to minimize distance and save on time. 5. Rewards and recognition. The company is going to introduce a rewards scheme to promote and encourage continued improvements in the processes. The order for implementation is going to be as follows. 1. Calculate the current OEE and determining the elements which affect improvement of the OEE 2. Analyzing factors affecting OEE. Availability is affected mostly by breaks and reel changes. 3. Finding solutions to these losses. Breaks are going to be reconsidered to have the machine run continuously. This is a cost effective method as it does not involve money. The entire process is going to be done in 3 months. The OEE calculation and Pareto analysis are to be done in the first week since the data available was only for one week. The changeover of techniques and training and preparation are going to be done throughout the project. However, this is just a forecast and actual time scale should be calculated accurately. All obstacles to this end should be considered so as to increase the adaptation time. Bibliography Joh00: , (John Mapes, 2000), Ale14: , (Miller, 2014), BTj10: , (B. Tjahjono, 2010), Mer16: , (Uluskan, 2016), Ale17: , (Alexander Sanchez Rodriguez, 2017), Pau11: , (Keller, 2011), Pau11: , (Keller, 2011), Jam17: , (Jamal Hossen, 2017), Read More