Process Analysis

All organizations look for to optimize their supply chain , gain more profit and offer a product that meets the  quality standards for the customers.

Within organization, we can distinguish those activities that add value and activities that add not value, analize and evaluate the performance of the process , collected information  will be  useful to propose iniciatives to improve the processes.

For example ,we analyze and evaluate the next process to understand this topic.

1. A company works daily with two shifts  , each shift lasts 8 hours , during  5 days per week.

Company has 4 machines.  70% of the time is the availibility for each machine with  90% of efficiency . Calculate the output per week.

 Efficiency = Produced Minutes / (Available time - Idle time)



Total Available time per week = 8 hours x 2 shifts x 5 days = 80 hours

Available time per machine = 0.7 * 80 = 56 hours

Output per week =  efficiency * Available Time per machine *4 machines =  0.9 * 56  * 4  =  201.6  hours
(Produced Minutes)

2. Projected daily capacity of the company is 100 units, effective daily capacity is 80 units and output per day is 60 units.

a) Calculate the utilization and efficiency
b) Calculate the output for the next month , given the expected efficiency is 90%.

a)

Utilization = Actual Output / Capacity  =  60 / 100 = 0.6 x100 = 60 %


Efficiency =  Actual Output / Effective Capacity = 60/ 80 = 0.75 x 100 = 75%

b)

Output = effective daily x efficiency = 80 x 0.9 = 72 units per day

3. Calculate the higher production rate of a hair dresser that works 8 hours per day.  In average the required time to cut and comb for women and men are 25 minutes and  15 minutes respectively, the time for preparation is 5 minutes per customer.  Also is known that 60% of the customers are men.

Item           Processing Time                 %            

Man            15 + 5 = 20        x           0.6    = 12   
Woman        20 +5 = 30        x           0.4    =  12
                                                  Average     =  24 minutes per customer


Production Rate (Capacity)  =  (8 horas x 60 minutos ) / (24 minutes per customer)
 Production Rate (Capacity)  =  20 customers per day

Quality Education

Today is very important to update our knowledge and improve competencies  to apply for a job.

Companies demand talents and compromise for all employees. The last innovations and phenomenon of globalization are changing the point of view to manage a company.

In this context Education play a significant role to add value for a nation that wants to offer products and services with the highest  quality standards, because people is the main resource that allows to reach this goal.

Always is mentioned  in all parts of the world, Education is the key to open  new opportunities for a country, but the reality shows many Governments don't invest in Education , concentrate the power in Defense and prepare their armed forces  for a war.

There are few countries  that extract mineral resources  like a prize after win the war.

The current economic system only works when depredates primary resources and generates relevant differences between economic segments in a society.

Education Institutions have the obligation to reach the goals. It mean transmit and apply the  knowledge , practice good manners , make  value judgments , ethical behavior, promote the leadership , sports and other activities to allow the development.

PDCA cycle is a method to obtain results in many organizations like the case of Education Institutions.

Phases: 

-  Plan  a robust Program to make sure the fulfillment of  quality objectives. 

 

- Implement the activities to allow to the students improve their abilities, apply the knowledge and consolidate the personality. 

- Verify if the organization  reached the objectives.

- Correct and eliminate the root causes that generate variation  in the process of quality education.

Textile Industry : One alternative to generate value

Emerging countries understand the need to compete in the world market , however is necessary to recognize the strengths and weaknesses.   

Export commodities represent the highest percentage of budget composition in many countries. Those resources sustain the incomes of a nation. The problem is those activities do not add value in their processes.

It's evident,  row materials are only the components to produce a product which offer more benefits to customer and generate significant revenues.

Previously , it is important to say that a country should establish what are their potential activities  and look for alternatives to improve the process and final product.

In this case I speak about Textile and Sewing Industry as a different way to generate value.

The question is:  what is the primary resource for this industry?

Textile fiber

  

The fiber can be natural or synthetic.

Cotton is a natural fiber obtained of vegetables and it is used to in the production of clothes.

Vegetables fibers can be dyed with colorants. 

Wool is another natural fiber obtained of animals like sheep , alpaca , vicuna ,etc.

  

Synthetic fiber:

All fibers produced by the industry like nylon, lycra and others.

The fibers are processed in machines to obtain yarns.  There are different kind of yarn that depend of the process. One example is the combed yarn.

Yarn is the row material to produce fabric. There are two kinds of fabric:

- Plain weave

- knitting

Plain weave

Kind of Fabric that is used to produce jeans, sport clothes, curtains.

Processes to produce a Plain weave (Summary)

- To produce this kind of fabric is necessary to prepare the warp roll  in the warper.

- The yarns are hardier than before thanks to the gummed process.

- Finally ,  Loom machine produces the plain weave.

Lean Thinking

Today , many companies are looking for the best result in their processes and reach a sustainable profit but good wishes are not sufficient, when there are many evidences that demonstrate inefficiency in our work, this is the first sign to evaluate the performance of the companie  and make decisions to eliminate the root cause of the nonconformity and improve the processes.

According to "Lean thinking" is imperative to identify seven sources of waste, firstly I will speak about Toyota's Philosophy, in my opinion is a good sample that prove high technology is not necessary to achieve the goals of the company. 

Toyota established an innovative way to manage the resources, aligned to demand. Mass Production was the typical conception in many companies , the preferences of the customer were not considered because they wanted to reduce their costs.
Opossite to this thinking , listen to the voice of the customer is considered a big opportunity for Toyota , and this is the reason to create a new organization structure to allow a continuous flow of the processes.

The columns that sustain the Lean thinking are:

 

Just in time: Ensure a continuous flow of the process, it means to establish a pull system.
Kanban is a good sample of this philosophy.

Visibility: In other words , make visible the problems , stop and notify.
Andon is a tool to alert the occurrences of the process.

The base that sustain those two columns is the Stability:

Stability:  Standarize work.
Imply to elaborate procedures  where describe with details the activities or functions to accomplish by people and departments of the organization

The goal is to reduce the waste of the process.

Eliminate the waste is very important to allow a continuous flow, therefore we should identify which are the different types of waste that may be in the process.

Overproduction

To produce in greater quantities than what customers demand.

Some companies choose the mass production to save costs  however if the organization does not consider the level of demand , the reduction of incomes is inevitable,  because the maintenance of the inventory for a long time has a high cost.

Transportation

Unnecesary movements of materials or people between the processes , generate waste of time and costs.

The Process Strategy must be clear . The Manager should  establish the best way to transport of materials  and design the layout of  the process.

Rework

Correction of the process is synonimous of a bad job.

As a result the company decides to create an inspection department who verify the product accomplishes the specifications. In other words a step of the process that does not add value.

Over-processing

To produce a service or product beyond the customer requirement.

An example of this waste:

The processing time to serve a customer in a bank is too longer.

Motion

Unnecesary movements of people or parts within a process

It's very important to economize the movements to achieve an efficient process , in other words obtaining goods in low time.





Inventory

Number of flow units into the process.

I suggest to reduce the number of assets because those are a cost for the company. (Maintenance, Obsolescense, Security)

It's better to manage a low level of inventory until the company achieves a level equal to zero.

Many times can be an ideal situation but in the practice Japanese companies like Toyota , they have demonstrated that is possible to reach this goal when the supply chain coordinates  with their partners in an efective way.

Waiting

Underutilizing people or parts while a process completes a work cycle.

An activity can become a bottleneck when the number of people or parts  exceed the capacity of the process.







Eliminate those sources of waste will allow to have a continuons flow within a process.