TEEPTRAK – Connect to your industrial potential

Category: Process Optimization

Process optimization improves efficiency, quality, and profitability in industrial operations. Explore best practices, performance analysis tools, automation, and Lean strategies to maximize productivity and reduce waste.

  • Summer in industry: challenges and opportunities

    Summer in industry: challenges and opportunities

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    Summer in industry: challenges and opportunities

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    We’re already in mid-July; the summer that seemed so far away is now here, and the fine weather is just around the corner. That’s good news! It’s the start of the holidays, for those who aren’t already enjoying them. For the others, the numbers are gradually shrinking. You’re going to have to deal with the consequences of the summer, on your own or in a reduced team. What happens in industry during the summer, and what are the consequences for the plant?

    A number of factors have an impact on the industry during the summer. Some obviously depend on your trade. Other repercussions of the season are more generic and apply to everyone. But between constraints and holidays, how can you have a good industrial summer?

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    Workforce management, additional constraints during the summer

    Going on holiday is (or was) seen in two ways in a factory. For the hierarchy, it’s a constraint. On the other hand, there’s the point of view of the person who goes on holiday, who is happy about it. Let’s be serious, although it’s a bit of a caricature, this view still exists in industry. What we’re going to see here is that, apart from being compulsory, holidays are part of a whole that enables the factory to function at its best during the rest of the year.

    While the number of employees is falling, can’t the same be said of the order book? With the exception of industries in tense sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, demand falls during the two summer months. Even more so in August.

    This year has been different again. With these difficult times, a general fatigue is being felt. At all levels, but especially for operators, technicians and workshop managers who have seen their working conditions deteriorate as a result of health measures. It’s often no longer possible to eat with colleagues without a plexiglass divider. Mandatory masks make communication difficult. Breaks are staggered and social relations are affected.

    As well as being well-deserved, these holidays will be an opportunity for your teams to take advantage of the window that will allow us all to enjoy ourselves. We’re talking about a holiday that will allow us to get back to work rested. A well-prepared back-to-school period is a successful one. But how do you prepare for the start of the new year?

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    Preparing for the start of the new school year, the key to a worry-free summer

    One of the consequences of the summer on industry is the slowdown in orders and therefore in machinery. There are a number of ways in which you can make the most of this time, and prepare as well as possible for the upturn in September. If your machine is not producing because the people in charge are on holiday, why not take advantage of this time to carry out maintenance?

    During the rest of the year, machine load and staff availability are two factors that postpone maintenance operations. We sometimes end up with temporary solutions that remain in place for several months. The human mind gets used to this kind of problem, and no longer sees them as such over time. Before going on holiday, you can ask the person in charge of the machine if maintenance is necessary. They’ll probably say yes, but will they be thinking about the countermeasure (which works in spite of everything) that has been installed since February?

    If you want to restart your production with peace of mind at the start of the new school year, don’t hesitate to take a look at your critical equipment. Ideally, you should rely on the breakdown history of each piece of equipment. That way, you can check every point that has already caused a stoppage. Don’t hesitate to open the technical documentation beforehand. Often overlooked, it’s full of advice from the manufacturer. This will enable you to make the most of the back-to-school period to deliver all your orders on time, thanks to reliable machines. But what if that’s not enough?

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    When your industry doesn’t stop in the summer

    While some people take a dim view of their holidays being at the same time as school, this can be an opportunity for you. Even if the workshop is less full, it can still produce. And what about arriving in September with a head start on your orders? For people you trust, it’s easy to work independently. This may allow you to leave a few people in production during the slack period. Quite often, productivity increases even during these periods. With less pressure and fewer disturbances, our producers can concentrate on value-added tasks. Be careful, however, that the reduction in the workforce does not lead to a relaxation of safety and quality rules.

    In larger structures, it can be complicated to allow operators to work autonomously, but the question of a small team with a small hierarchy is still conceivable. Here again, there are many advantages. It avoids stopping the machines for too long, binds the remaining teams together and keeps you producing. It will still be important to find time for maintenance.

    Another point to watch out for is consumables. It can be more difficult to obtain supplies of consumables during the summer. You’ll need to anticipate the needs of the remaining staff. This can be easy when you’re talking about pairs of gloves or simple tools. When maintenance has dismantled a machine to check that it’s working properly, and a component is missing that needs to be replaced periodically, the story won’t be quite as simple.

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    In conclusion

    This summer in the industry will be different for everyone involved. The most important thing to prepare for, and be comfortable with, is communication. You don’t want to be disturbed when you’re on holiday. You can be sure that your colleague who is still at work doesn’t want to interrupt your peace of mind either. The best way to avoid this happening is to make sure that the things that need to be done get done. To do this, you need to prepare for this period. Sit down around a table to discuss your needs and plans. An hour spent at the right time can save you several at the worst time.

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  • Ergonomics, a necessary step in your Lean approach

    Ergonomics, a necessary step in your Lean approach

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    Ergonomics, a necessary step in your Lean approach

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    Ergonomics at the workstation is an important principle in Lean management. It helps to avoid disturbing situations, while at the same time generating added value. Taking ergonomics into account helps to reduce movements and their impact.

    Unnecessary or ill-considered actions are a source of extra costs, RSI and even accidents in the workplace. The primary aim of this approach is to improve the quality of life at work, as well as enhancing safety. Thanks to the gestures saved, you can also improve your productivity.

    Many movements, such as walking, searching, or travelling in general, do not add value for the customer. They are wasteful. Yet they are omnipresent in our daily lives, whether in the office or on the shop floor.
    Some of these movements are painful, even tiring. Uncomfortable postures are part of many people’s work. Eliminating them is a source of gain and comfort.

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    The principles of ergonomics

    Following an accident or injury, it is common to have to adapt a man or woman’s job to suit his or her abilities. This is important. But everyone’s abilities are different, so why not adapt all your jobs to the individual?

    When the design of a workstation has not been sufficiently thought through, it can lead to visual or mental fatigue, physical trauma and stress.

    To design and redesign workstations as effectively as possible, it’s important to bear in mind that everyone is different. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and above all different heights and morphologies. Obviously, you can’t perfectly match every workstation to every employee… But you can make your workstation adaptable!

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    Adaptive workstations

    To enable every employee to feel as comfortable as possible at work, there are now workspaces in many areas that can be adapted to the needs of the user. This is true in the workshop, with height-adjustable work tables and seats, to ensure the right length between the seat, the floor and the forearms.

    The same applies to your office, with chairs that can be adjusted for lumbar, neck or arm pain. Adjusting the height of the desk is also useful for overcoming back pain. Find out about the tools you can use to give your staff the best possible posture.

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    A few good ergonomic practices

    When designing a machine workstation, there are a number of good practices to bear in mind. Please note that these tips are there to help you, but they do not replace the help that an ergonomist could give you.

    For arm movements, try to reduce them. Ideally, you should move both hands at the same time, either in the same direction or in opposite directions. Amplitude and force are the two factors to be reduced when doing this. For body movements, the principle is the same. Avoid pivoting and shifting your centre of gravity.

    To make it easier to work at the workstation, place the components as close as possible to the operator, in front of him. If possible, use gravity to move them by positioning them slightly higher.

    Using standard workstations in your workshop is an easy solution, but make sure they are the right minimum size. This will reduce the amount of space taken up unnecessarily, and limit the range of movement. In fact, it’s common practice to use available workspace even when it’s not essential.

    Once the ergonomics work is well advanced in your workshop, don’t hesitate to use standards to communicate best practice. Providing training for all your staff can also be a way of sharing this.

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    In conclusion

    After reading these tips, you may want to analyse your workstations to find ways of improving them? Talk to the people involved, they’ll give you the motivation you need.

    Perhaps these tips will help you move forward. Although they require an investment, these ideas can help your company move forward. Don’t hesitate to communicate about ergonomic improvements before you start implementing them. Comfort, reduced RSI and reduced risk of injury benefit employees and employers alike. Neglecting these points brings costs that are often overlooked.

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  • Will Lean Manufacturing have an impact beyond the shop floor?

    Will Lean Manufacturing have an impact beyond the shop floor?

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    Will Lean Manufacturing have an impact beyond the shop floor?

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    In 1913, when Henry Ford was setting up a highly productive organisation based on flow, we were not yet talking about Lean Manufacturing, Lean Office or even Lean. Today, we can safely say that he was the first to use these concepts.

    The real birth of Lean actually took place in a workshop, just before the Second World War in 1937. You won’t be surprised to read that Toyota in Japan is the cradle of Lean Management. They based their methods on reducing the loss of added value.

    After the conflict, when supplies of raw materials and spare parts were difficult to come by, they created the Jidoka system to identify faults as far upstream as possible and avoid having to repair them.

    In the 1950s, the Toyota factory was inspired by American models to increase their productivity, so they developed just-in-time production and all the tools that make it possible.

    In 1990, the word ‘LEAN’ was born. Members of MIT formalised these principles in a book entitled ‘The Machine That Changes the World’. It was a global success and brought the Lean culture to the attention of industry worldwide.

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    The rise of Lean in recent years

    With globalisation and the resulting increase in competition since the end of the 90s, many companies have chosen to focus their strategy on improving productivity. The need for performance is accelerating. While this is good for the consumer, with a growing range of products and lower prices, it is also the end of the road for those who are unable to adapt.

    Nowadays, the Lean management philosophy is ‘accepted’. It is part of good practice, and all manufacturers use certain principles. Perhaps they don’t call it that, but performance is so closely linked to it that when they work on an improvement, they unknowingly call on elements of Lean.

    Large groups are very keen on Lean Management, because they see it as the best way of producing better and faster. It’s true, and they unite their employees around it. These days, 5S, Kaizen and other visual projects are often used as internal communication tools. It’s a good way of getting your teams involved in the continuous improvement process. Making Lean the company’s philosophy by instilling it in its employees is a good way of going further. But what level do we need to reach tomorrow?

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    Digital Lean, the open door to progress

    Today, Lean management has not changed its principles. It hasn’t changed its objective, but while those involved have been deploying it for several years, their method is beginning to run out of steam. Anyone can find themselves in this situation. Productivity has soared, quality has improved, and now that everything is in place… there’s no room for improvement…

    The first principle of Lean is ‘improvement is infinite’. But what direction should we take to continue increasing added value?

    Au 21e New technologies are here to help us. And if your workshop is equipped with all the tools for flawless performance, can you say the same about your administration? And if all your departments enjoy outstanding performance thanks to Lean Management, can you say the same about communication between departments?

    These are tomorrow’s areas for improvement, using new technologies to win on all fronts.

    Your Lean Management indicators on the shop floor are reliable, but who’s updating them? Your team leaders are using their precious time to write daily, weekly or monthly reports with the aim of reporting results. And are the figures accurate? Today, thanks to new technology tools, you can facilitate measurement and reporting. You can save your managers hours a week, giving them the opportunity to find new ways of improving.

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    Think Lean Office

    Lean Office is the adaptation of Lean principles to all departments other than production. We talk about offices as opposed to workshops. There is a lot of room for improvement here, whether in communication, information systems or accounting. We’re going to talk about the latter:

    Lean Accounting is also the perfect example of how to improve support services. It is to accounting what Lean Manufacturing is to production. Although little known and much less widely used than its big brother, Lean Accounting has proved its worth in many companies. By applying various principles, such as organising costs by value chain, changing the way in which stocks are valued and modifying budget reports, it helps to improve a company’s financial performance. Who said that Lean only happened on the shop floor?

    So Lean improvement isn’t over yet, and there are still plenty of opportunities open to you. Only a few examples have been cited, but new technologies and the Lean Office still offer us plenty of ways to shine. Now there’s no reason to be in any doubt: the improvement is still not over…

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  • Controlling or piloting, a nuance that makes all the difference.

    Controlling or piloting, a nuance that makes all the difference.

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    Controlling or piloting, a nuance that makes all the difference.

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    Whether it’s quality, performance or safety, we instinctively think of control as a way of feeding indicators. But what is control? Control is the action of checking something or someone, verifying their state or situation in relation to a standard. In other words, we check whether we have achieved our objective. An example is quality control:

    At the end of the production line, the part is inserted into a gauge to ensure that the dimensions are correct. If the product does not meet expectations, it is simply scrapped for recycling.

    In this case, quality control fulfils its role, with the vast majority of compliant parts delivered to the customer. We’re talking about the vast majority, because human error is still possible – it’s conceivable that a non-compliant part could slip through the net.

    When it comes to performance, the same thing happens in companies today. Production managers set production targets on a team or daily basis, then the next day we observe the results. We check: What are the results? Has the objective been achieved? What are the reasons for the variance? Here are the questions producers will have to answer.

    Control means looking after the action. When a non-conformity is observed during quality control, it’s already too late. The part has been produced and thrown away. When the previous day’s non-performance is highlighted by the indicators, it’s already too late. But what’s the difference with steering?

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    What is the difference between control and management?

    Steering is getting closer to control. We will always talk about indicators. However, it brings out two very important concepts. Time intervals and levers.

    Levers are the means of acting on indicators. If the indicator is the speedometer, the lever is the accelerator pedal. When my speed is too low or too high, I act on my lever to be precisely at the desired speed. In industrial driving, it’s the same principle. You have to use levers on the shop floor to achieve your objective. So you need to choose indicators on which your producers can have an impact.

    To illustrate this, here’s an example: the customer satisfaction rate is frequently mentioned in workshops. Try to imagine how your employees see this indicator… They see it as a consequence, but above all as an indicator on which they have only a minor impact, if any at all. Now, replace this indicator with a workshop and target it more. If you were to choose ‘Percentage of product delivered on time’, everyone involved in production would have an impact on this objective. This way, everyone on the shop floor feels involved.

    Now that we know how to involve every employee in the company, let’s talk about the time interval. Let’s go back to our car and manage our accelerator pedal. When we’re driving, we monitor our speed regularly. For driving, it’s the same thing again. We check our indicators at much shorter intervals and adjust the levers more frequently to be on target in real time. If we spend the day or the team on target in real time, we are sure to achieve the day’s objective at the end of the day.

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    How do you drive?

    How can we steer our workshop towards a steering dynamic? Now that the differences between management and control are clearer, we can move in the right direction. First, let’s talk about quality. The ultimate aim of quality management is to reduce as far as possible all control operations that do not add value for the customer. ALL quality checks are a waste of time and money. Of course, this avoids sending non-conformities to the customer, but today there are ways of managing quality very finely with the aim of producing ‘right first time’.

    Statistical process control is one such method. By monitoring variables in real time, it makes it possible to ensure quality levels. But what variables can tell us our level of quality? If you study the rejects caused by your machine, you will see that the causes follow Pareto’s law. 80% of rejects come from 20% of the causes.

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    The 20% of cases are ‘easy’ to follow. Generally speaking, these are sensitive ratings, which are more difficult to maintain. Analysis of these variables shows that if the setting is constant, the distribution follows a reduced centred normal distribution. In other words, the variable’s distribution curve follows a bell shape, with two important characteristics: The mean and the dispersion. Once you have mastered these two characteristics for your scrap causes, you will enter the world of quality management.

    This is the simplified principle of statistical quality control. It may seem a long way from the workshop in its approach, but the relationship between normal law and machine setting is no longer in doubt.

    In the same vein, there are performance management techniques for breaking the habit of control. Lean Management has popularised one of these techniques, known as short interval animation (SIA).

    To apply AIC, it is necessary to use indicators over which the producers have control. Once these indicators are in place, you can expect the workshop to be more proactive in solving problems. With this type of facilitation, solutions will emerge as close as possible to their source. What’s more, by applying this method you give operators the opportunity to act on your indicators, and therefore the chance to achieve their objectives. A large part of this method is based on the notion of intervals: the closer they are, the more accurate your management will be.

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    Are you ready to take the plunge?

    Here are a few keys to help you understand the concepts of control and steering and to help you take the right direction. Implementing these management systems takes time and resources, but their effectiveness has been proven. They will enable you to get the most out of your machines and improve productivity.

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  • Which technology is best: MES or expert bricks?

    Which technology is best: MES or expert bricks?

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    Which technology is best: MES or expert bricks?

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    MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) are an important link in the chain of production performance monitoring. They provide the link between the sensors, actuators and PLCs that are essential for feeding back production information, and the ERP systems that have become essential for global production management over the last century. They are far more comprehensive than the expert bricks.

    But behind the acronym MES lies a wide variety of systems, each with different sizes and functionalities. Most are on such a scale that they replace ERP systems and quickly become veritable ‘gas factory’ systems, capable of communicating only with a limited number of automated production machines.

    In a context of technological proliferation, this observation is leading a large number of manufacturers to take an interest in ‘expert bricks’, less complete but more competitive and ergonomic production monitoring systems that specialise in a limited number of functions provided by the most complete MES.

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    What is the ESM doing?

    The main objective of an MES, or production management system, is to manage production orders in line with actual resources, and to provide feedback to the ERP system on stocks and production. In the 4.0 movement, accurate feedback on the status of resources is a vital ingredient of performance. Some even see MES as the heart of the intelligent factory.

    Today, MES is a Swiss army knife with a much broader range of functions. The ISA 95 defined up to 11 functions: Resource management / Production dispatching / Data collection and acquisition / Quality management / Manufacturing process management / Planning and monitoring / Performance analysis / Operations management and scheduling / Documentation management / Labor management / Maintenance management.

    MES quickly took its place in the ‘product location, physical movements and batch management’ layer in level 2 of the original CIM (Common Information Model). This layer ensures communication between level 3, which is occupied by CAPM and ERP systems, and level 1, which is occupied by automation and SCADA machine control systems.

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    Painstaking deployment

    The memory of ERP projects is very fresh in the minds of manufacturers, and MES has followed the same path: installations that lasted several months, with development that was sometimes obscure, often cobbled together, and always tedious. When intelligence is reserved for the thinking, decision-making head that is ERP, when we seek to trivialise the muscles that are automation on the shop floor, the MES is left with the dirty job of making it all work ‘for real’ in the factory.

    Between field communication with sensors and PLCs and the ongoing inter-compatibility required with ERP-type software, building an MES has become an obstacle course, especially as some functions compete with other software packages in the company.

    Even though technological innovation is driving MES suppliers to slash their prices, cost remains a major weakness of these technologies, especially when coupled with the fact that the full range of functions offered in ‘all-in-one’ packages is not ultimately used. The complex integration of this type of system, with its cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary functionalities, generally entails its share of additional costs (subsequent to a very high ‘standard’ starting price) to cover the intervention of technicians dedicated to hardware and software configuration and end-user training.

    Integration represents an additional headache for MES suppliers when it comes to being able to communicate with older, non-automated machines that are not affected by PLC communication. Very few suppliers are able to meet this challenge, and it is often the most modern machines that are affected by all the MES functions in a workshop.

    By the same token, the teams in the field who are least familiar with the new technologies are automatically excluded from the process of setting up and operating MES systems, which will only be operated by a small number of engineers, often more IT-oriented than production-oriented…

    At a time when automated systems did not communicate easily with management software, MES provided the necessary configurable interface. The question of their physical integration and end-user training was therefore less of an issue than it is today, and did not run completely counter to a new paradigm: Plug & Play.

    When it comes to the new challenges of the factory of the future – flexibility and near-real-time reconfiguration – the current trend is to aim for targeted self-sufficiency objectives that can be achieved very quickly. Hence the advent of expert bricks.

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    The MES market is set to evolve with the multiplication of expert bricks.

    Industry is constantly renewing itself, in its core businesses, its infrastructures and its principles. IT architectures are undergoing radical change: the IOT is entering information systems, automation is spreading, wires are disappearing in favour of radio networks, field buses are being replaced by a new universal fast Ethernet, and the cloud is no longer taboo as some dream of direct flows between customers and production machines. In short, many layers of convoluted interfaces are losing their usefulness, while through-flows are emerging.

    The methodological changes are just as remarkable. From a primary need for automation and high-performance planning, industry has moved on to continuous improvement and then agility. The employee is refocused in the system, changing management and man-machine interfaces. Lean is more than ever at the heart of the concerns of all decision-makers: a good solution must include lean management, because trying to implement Lean with traditional directive solutions is a challenge. The role of the operator is also changing: sometimes the only person able to indicate certain elements or guide a decision, his contribution of expertise must be easily integrated into the flow of information.

    Based on a highly structured and rational concept of standards, are MES still well adapted? This is the question being asked by many manufacturers, but also by the MES providers themselves, who are increasingly tending to break down their ‘all-in-one’ offering into ‘expert bricks’.[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ text_font_size=”16px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

    Providing new solutions

    Solutions known as ‘MES bricks’ are simply systems that specialise in one or more key areas of MES (performance monitoring, traceability, quality management, OF monitoring, etc.). They belong to the MES world because they are part of the same communication layer between sensors/automats and ERP, but offer a less diverse range of activities, which they nevertheless cover more easily and at lower cost.

    The main difference with full MES is the flexibility of implementation they offer. These solutions are generally designed so that they can be implemented in a large number of production situations, rapidly standardising the analysis of equipment, whether old or new, already connected or not. Their aim is to communicate easily with the lower layers (sensors, PLCs, etc.) and higher layers (MES/ERP), using widely available communication technologies (Bluetooth, WIFI, etc.). Integrating these expert components quickly and competitively means that manufacturers can iterate their digitisation plan and avoid time-consuming rollouts, by testing different emerging technologies on a few pilots at very low cost. Then, if the technology is selected, they can connect a limited number of production resources, à la carte.

    As far as the use of data is concerned, suppliers of expert bricks have clearly understood the importance of including field teams in the use of production monitoring tools, and are focusing on intuitive programming and data analysis interfaces that can be used on a daily basis by both managers and operators. If the tool is to be used on a daily basis, the operator must remain at the centre of operations, in the real as well as the virtual world.

    The contribution of these expert components can be seen in their integration, cost and ease of use, which can be summed up in one key criterion: agility. But not all bricks are created equal, and some of them can make the same mistakes as the most complete MES systems. In terms of integration, for example, it may be impossible to communicate with equipment of any age, because some expert bricks can only retrieve information from machines via PLCs. And in terms of cost, many suppliers offer highly modular solutions in return for very costly custom developments.

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    TEEPTRAK, the example of the expert brick dedicated to performance monitoring, but not only…

    Like other industrial start-ups, TeepTrak started from the realisation that there was a real lack of simple production monitoring tools. The company provides all industrial sectors with a turnkey MES solution based on connected objects for monitoring the performance of any industrial equipment, old or new.

    There’s no need for a PLC connection or an automatic link with the plant’s other IT systems: the TeepTrak solution can be integrated into any production area in less than 1 hour, completely externally, and only needs Internet access to communicate with its server and the plant’s other IT systems (MES/ERP).

    The aim of the solution is inspired by the Lean philosophy: to identify and restore the root causes of non-performance in a very simple and competitive way. It uses the latest communication technologies (Bluetooth Low Energy, WIFI) to automate machine data feedback (cadence, start/stop status, part count) and links it to non-performance cause data supplied by the operator on a tablet.

    All this information can then be viewed on a data consolidation platform, enabling plants to quickly understand the main causes of the non-performance of their industrial resources.

    The solution is an example of an ultra-competitive and particularly scalable expert brick, which is uniquely positioned in a specific area of MES – performance monitoring – and manages to tread on the toes of giants whose names we won’t mention here, but who will have no trouble recognising themselves.

    But we have also developed other building blocks, all of which live in an ecosystem: ProcessTrak for monitoring physical values, PaceTrak for manual tasks and QualTrak for quality monitoring.

    Our solutions have been deployed on a large scale in more than 150 plants since 2016, in the automotive, agri-food, rail, electronics and aerospace industries.

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  • 5 levels of maintenance to put under the Christmas tree

    5 levels of maintenance to put under the Christmas tree

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    5 levels of maintenance to put under the Christmas tree

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    As the festive season approaches, manufacturers are taking stock. How productive were their machines this year? Among the plants surveyed, around 5% of unplanned stoppages were due to breakdowns or maintenance in 2020. For a third of them, breakdowns represent 20% of the causes of annual stoppages.

    The consequences can be serious, with delivery to the customer out of time, or worse: the stress generated by the need to make up for the delay can cause accidents…

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    The best way to avoid them: TPM

    TPM (Total Productive Maintenance or Total Productive Maintenance is a corporate culture based on LEAN Management. It promotes maximum efficiency in production equipment. Its aim is to achieve ‘0 accidents, 0 breakdowns, 0 defects’.

    The aim of this philosophy is to produce more and better by tackling waste (or Mudas). When applied to machines, this means seeking to maximise production time and ensuring that production is carried out at optimum rates while producing compliant parts. These are the 3 axes measured by the TRS: Availability, Performance and Quality.

    The main change is in the mindset, with cooperation between departments, particularly between production and maintenance. The maintenance technician will also become a technical adviser, working with the operators.

    TPM involves 5 levels of maintenance.

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    Level 1 maintenance or self-maintenance

    Level 1 maintenance is the first level of maintenance, and is preventive. The operator carries it out by following a standard or a checklist, and after training. It involves visual checks, greasing and simple measurements. It is carried out periodically and quickly, for example at the start of each shift or at the beginning of each day. The frequency should be defined in relation to the manufacturer’s data, the breakdown history or any FMEA.

    Level 1 maintenance involves the operator and increases his skills. They become capable of detecting abnormalities, vibrations or wear. At the same time, the use of 5S ensures that machines are clean and tidy. This saves time for the maintenance operator and means that any problems – such as leaks – can be detected more quickly.

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    Level 2 maintenance

    Level 2 maintenance is also part of prevention. It involves the periodic replacement of parts, or adjustments that can be made by following a procedure.

    This is usually done by maintenance technicians, although some operators who are committed, experienced and, above all, trained may be eligible.

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    Other maintenance levels (3-4-5)

    Other levels of maintenance usually require production to be stopped. Calibrations or adjustments may be necessary. In-depth knowledge is essential, and may be internal or external.

    At that point, the operator finds himself ‘technically unemployed’. The development of multi-skilling can certainly limit the loss of human time, but the availability of the machine is impacted.

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    How can you make the most of your time off?

    When the workshop is closed, maintenance time is outside production time. This is the time to carry out level three, four and five maintenance. In this way, these operations have no impact on production.

    What’s more, technicians and other machine operators don’t feel the pressure of a manager ready to do anything to save a few minutes and meet his targets. Be careful, however, not to overdo the maintenance, which would generate unnecessary costs. That would be a waste! But how do you know when the time is right for this meeting? And what if production doesn’t stop at the holidays?

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    Non-stop production

    If production doesn’t stop during the holidays, we no longer have a slot to carry out level three, four or five maintenance. Each stoppage will affect our availability and therefore our production. In this case, you need to choose the best time to work on your machines. Premature intervention is a waste of time. Conversely, neglecting the needs of the machine is a mistake. It can lead to poor quality, a breakdown or, worse still, endanger the people in the workshop.

    Thanks to the IoT, it will soon be possible to know the state of components inside machines, and at the same time predict the ideal moment for intervention. This will make it possible to maximise the use of production tools by limiting downtime. This is predictive maintenance.

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    In conclusion

    While your maintenance team is doing its utmost during the plant shutdown, isn’t it time to consider the impact of breakdowns on production? If you’re equipped with a performance analysis tool like PerfTrak, you’ll be aware of these figures.

    But are the LEAN tools deployed to process this information and improve productivity? And if you don’t have an analysis tool, do you have any idea of the cost of downtime for your production machines? We look forward to finding the answers to these questions,

    Happy holidays from the whole team at TeepTrak!

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  • The 7 wastes of Lean: how to get rid of them?

    The 7 wastes of Lean: how to get rid of them?

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    The 7 wastes of Lean: how to get rid of them?

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    After rebounding slightly in July, French industrial production is now struggling to return to pre-crisis growth levels, with an increase of just 1.3% in the fourth quarter. With the exception of the food industry, the other sectors are particularly vulnerable and exposed, so manufacturers need to produce more efficiently. The best way to do this is to focus on the 7 areas of waste.

    Lean manufacturing is a method of optimising industrial performance that is particularly well-suited to this context, and which aims to improve compliance with cost-quality-delivery requirements. It involves a detailed analysis of the various stages that make up the production process, followed by the elimination of all waste identified throughout the manufacturing process, resulting in greater efficiency and profitability.

    Lean Manufacturing is therefore based on the elimination of waste (or Muda) within production processes. But what are these different types of waste? What impact do they have on your profitability? How can you eliminate this waste? In this article, we will try to answer these questions by identifying them and suggesting ways in which you can improve.

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    What is waste in Lean?

    It’s very simple: waste is defined as an activity that the customer is not prepared to pay for and/or that adds no value to the process. It’s something that everyone knows and accepts, either because they’re used to it or because they’re afraid of change.

    Studies show that only 5% of the time allocated to creating a product actually adds value; the rest represents tasks that involve more labour, materials or space but do not add value. It is therefore more than necessary to focus on reducing or eliminating the 7 wastes in order to produce more efficiently.

    It’s through the elimination of waste that your processes will become richer in added value, enabling you to identify opportunities to improve your overall performance.

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    The 7 traditional wastes of Lean

    Here are the seven wastes highlighted by Taiichi Ohno (Toyota engineer and father of the Toyota production system).

     

    Unnecessary movements

    Moving around doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re doing your job or that you’re doing it well. Unnecessary movement is a waste that adds no value for the customer. Grabbing the last pieces from the bottom of a pallet, going around an obstacle or looking for a misfiled document are rarely compatible with the notion of efficiency.

    Who hasn’t had to deal with a maintenance technician arriving at a breakdown with an incomplete toolbox, leading to unnecessary round-trips and even a production line stoppage?

    The solution? Observe your operator stations and produce in a 5S environment. This will save you time, energy and even potential injuries.

     

    Waiting time

    Like everyone else, you experience waiting every day: waiting in traffic jams, waiting for a letter, waiting for an answer… In a factory, waiting time is often caused by waiting for materials to arrive, waiting for the right instructions to start manufacturing or waiting for equipment with insufficient capacity.

    Il existe des outils pour compenser ce temps sans valeur ajoutée, comme la méthode TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) ou la méthode SMED (changement rapide d’outil). Mais tu peux aussi utiliser des instructions de travail standardisées et former des travailleurs polyvalents et flexibles capables de s’adapter rapidement aux exigences du travail. Cette dernière méthode peut réduire ton temps d’attente jusqu’à 50 % !

     

    Non-quality

    In 2017, AFNOR carried out a study on the costs of non-quality in industry. The study showed that for the 2/3 of companies reporting that they measure the costs of non-quality, the related losses are around 5% of turnover. By focusing on non-quality issues, companies could recover 5 to 10% of their turnover.

    This waste has a major impact on customer satisfaction and can lead to costs. For example, if a product is found not to be of good quality, additional manpower (temporary or fixed-term workers) may have to be mobilised for a given period to deal with customer problems.

    Here too, production in a 5S environment and the introduction of Poka-Yoke are interesting levers for progress to eliminate rework and scrap.

     

    Overproduction

    Overproduction consists of producing in excess of actual customer orders. This anticipation is often motivated by the fear of running out and not being able to meet demand.

    But rather than the ‘Just In Time’ philosophy of producing products just when you need them, the ‘Just In Case’ way of working causes a number of problems, resulting in unnecessary production time, storage costs and raw material expenses.

    Pull production based on customer requirements (kanban), continuous flow (takt time) or training your staff are all solutions to remedy this wastage.

     

    Unnecessary stocks

    Stock is money asleep! Often linked to the notion of overproduction or poor planning, this waste results in financial immobilisation and a loss of storage space. In another context, it could correspond to an accumulation of emails or invoices.

    Measures to overcome this problem include purchasing raw materials only when necessary and in sufficient quantities, reducing buffer zones and creating a queuing system to avoid overproduction.

     

    Unnecessary operations

    You will also find this type of waste in your daily life, when, before setting off on a well-deserved holiday, you check several times to make sure that the doors and the gas are closed properly. In a factory, waste is any action or task that does not add value for the customer.

    The routine and tradition of the trade mean that operations are carried out which the product does not require, or no longer requires. An analysis of each operation carried out can shed light on this type of waste. Here’s a list of examples: too much quality control on a part during its manufacturing process, putting covers in place before painting operations, eliminating surplus material before the operation on the machine tool is complete.

     

    Unnecessary transport

    This concerns the unnecessary transport of materials, parts, products, documents or information. This waste can be due to bad habits or poorly organised workstations.

    What’s the solution? Create a U-shaped cell! A workshop with a U-shaped configuration will group resources together to carry out different operations on the same part within the cell. This considerably reduces transport and waiting times between machines.

    For some time now, alongside the 7 traditional forms of waste, an eighth has been increasingly cited.

     

    Under-utilisation of employee skills

    This waste is relatively unknown because it does not appear in the Toyota production system. However, it is clear that if you don’t call on the skills of your employees working on the front line, it becomes difficult to improve processes.

    Your field staff are the best placed to detect problems and find solutions, so they play a key role in your continuous improvement process.

    The notion of waste is important because it will be the driving force behind your Lean approach. In fact, it was simply by observing the various types of waste that Toyota created its entire production system. It is estimated that a company that has not implemented a Lean approach spends less than 20% of its time adding value. Imagine that the rest of the time is distributed between the 7 wastes. Companies with a degree of Lean maturity spend 80% on adding value. So, are you ready to take the plunge?

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  • How can you improve your machine performance with a dedicated monitoring tool?

    How can you improve your machine performance with a dedicated monitoring tool?

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    How can you improve your machine performance with a dedicated monitoring tool?

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    As a manufacturer, your main challenge is to achieve quality production with maximum equipment availability and maximum machine performance.

    Yet manual methods of measuring performance are still widespread, time-consuming and unreliable: it is estimated that they cause plants to lose between 5 and 30 performance points.

    In this context, the integration of a dedicated tool makes perfect sense and will become an ally in your Lean approach to improving the performance of your machines.

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    The different types of loss of machine performance

    The causes of loss of performance in an industrial environment can be very varied, but there is a list of the most common losses. You will find a non-exhaustive list below:

    Equipment losses

    • Losses due to breakdowns
    • Losses due to settings
    • Losses due to tool changes
    • Start-up losses
    • Losses due to microstops and idling
    • Losses due to underspeed
    • Losses due to defects and rework
    • Losses due to programme stoppages and workshop closures

    Labour-related losses

    • Management losses
    • Losses due to speed of execution
    • Losses due to line organisation
    • Logistics losses
    • Losses due to measurement and adjustment

    Material, tooling and energy losses

    • Energy losses
    • Losses due to tooling
    • Losses due to material yield

     

    TRS analysis with 16 TPM losses, Christophe Hohmann website

     

    From this list, you can carry out targeted data collection based on the various events that have led to a drop in performance and determine their source.

    Most manufacturers have an excellent understanding of the causes of efficiency losses that prevent their machines from reaching peak performance.

    In the majority of cases, these are “simple” problems, often poorly dealt with for lack of time, money or technical/managerial skills. So the problem is not in identifying problems, but in measuring them, prioritizing them and, above all, dealing with them in the right order of priority with the right corrective measures.

    How can we provide teams with simple, intelligible information to help them make decisions and support them in their efforts to improve performance? By providing them with transparency on the causes of the non-performance of their assets and supporting them in taking action to improve.

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    A dedicated monitoring tool to facilitate your improvement process

    A performance monitoring tool will enable you not only to quickly identify the causes of loss of performance, but also to implement the right improvement plans.
    The analysis of the sources of losses must be specific to your company. In fact, it is up to you to define the source of your event at the origin of the loss, for example maintenance, quality or managerial faults, etc.
    Only customisation will enable you to adapt and, above all, facilitate the use of the tool so that day-to-day actions change and generate more value for the company.

     

    Here are just a few of the benefits such a tool could bring to your organisation:

    For the operator : Allows automatic communication on stoppages, real-time knowledge of production rate.

    For the manager : Real-time status of equipment operation, simplified analysis, rapid suggestions for improvement.
    For maintenance: Analysing the causes of recurring losses will enable a maintenance system to be adjusted or defined.

    For management: Provide information that will enable better analysis of equipment load rates, and thus guide investment policy or team organization.

     

    All the members of your organisation will benefit from this data to implement an improvement process quickly, efficiently and transparently.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]