The core of the concept of lean production is to eliminate all invalid labor and waste. It aims at perfection, and ensures the advantages of enterprises in the market competition by continuously reducing costs, improving quality, enhancing production flexibility, and realizing no waste and zero inventory. At the same time, lean production devolves responsibility to all levels of the organizational structure, fully mobilizes the enthusiasm and intelligence of all employees, and eliminates the defects and waste of each position in time.
Prenatal preparation needs full cooperation.
The so-called prenatal preparation refers to the preparations made by technicians, QC (quality inspector), IE (industrial engineer), supervisors, team leaders and personnel of mechanical maintenance departments in terms of technology, materials, technology, quality, equipment and personnel before mass production. Fu introduced that the main contents of prenatal work include: making samples, tracking technical data, making molds, branch tables, process allocation tables, machine layout drawings, preparing for debugging equipment, arranging personnel, and preparing for inspection of main and auxiliary materials. He elaborated on the contents and requirements of prenatal preparation:
Technicians are responsible for making samples. In order to make the production of bulk goods go smoothly, technicians and production personnel strictly follow the general rules of customers' work and try to simplify more complicated processes without changing the appearance of samples; Try to design special auxiliary tools or use special machines instead of manual work to reduce the difficulty of work. When making samples, technicians must record any problems encountered in the production process, including cutting pieces, materials, cardboard, sewing methods and quality, as well as procedures and operation skills that need special attention.
Technicians are responsible for mold making. In the process of making samples, it is suggested to improve the use of special vehicles and special tools instead of flat cars and manual operations to save time and improve efficiency. It is necessary to provide information on special vehicles and tools for producing large-sized goods so as to make timely preparations.
The process allocation table is the responsibility of IE department. Need to consider the time, process direction, machinery, methods, cloth characteristics, technical proficiency of operators, order quantity, quality standards and other related conditions. When combining working procedures, we must pay attention to the key points: give priority to time balance and fluency, and take other conditions as auxiliary reference. It is also necessary to train multi-skilled employees to promote different types of process combinations. The combination and splitting of processes is the most difficult task in process allocation.
The machine layout is made by IE department according to the storage and process allocation table, and parking spaces are arranged at an appropriate time, with the principle of not affecting normal production. The team leader is responsible for manually arranging the corresponding parking spaces. During site layout, attention should be paid to cutting off the power supply and unplugging all mechanical plugs to ensure safety and avoid damaging electrical equipment. After the machine layout is completed, the staff should be instructed to plug in the power supply for trial operation. If there is any problem, the machine maintenance personnel will solve it on the spot. In addition, IE department should prepare the equipment and debug it before issuing money.
The team leader is responsible for personnel arrangement, and determines the required personnel according to the process allocation table and branch table. The team leader should arrange the operation process according to the skills of employees, and also find out other possible bottleneck processes according to the style characteristics and practical skills of employees. The team leader should also check in advance whether the main and auxiliary materials are correct and whether the storage is consistent with the preparation.
Improvements should be made before shipment.
Before the big goods, try to complete the improvements that should be made, and don't need too many improvements when actually opening the big goods. Fu Shuo: "According to a proverb in China, prenatal preparation means' nip in the bud'. Before the big shipment, try to solve all possible problems in the big shipment, such as personnel, machines, cutting, technology, flow and management. And take preventive measures in time to ensure the smooth development of large goods. "
At the beginning of garment enterprises' opening, we should first set up a transfer team, which is composed of technicians (industrial engineers), QC (quality inspectors), supervisors and team leaders. The team members are flexible, which depends on the difficulty of style and the skill level of employees. The demand is put forward by the team leader.
When a technician makes a sample, the supervisor should participate in it, understand the difficult process and find out the corresponding solutions. The team leader should clearly inform the employees of the working procedures to be responsible under the new mode and clearly inform the employees of the process requirements.
The technical staff, that is, the team leader, must clearly tell each employee the process he has done when calling the employees for a prenatal meeting to determine whether the employees in this process are competent. If employees are not sure about the process they want to do, technicians should conduct prenatal training in advance. If employees think that their production process has confidence in skills and quality, technicians will no longer give corresponding guidance, but only confirm the quality when opening the goods for the first time.
The new model will be put into use after the first process of the current model is completed. After the first process is put into use, it will actually be distributed by other departments at the same time, shortening the circulation time. Limit templates should be made for each difficult process.
Prenatal training for employees is particularly important, and the symbol of the completion of prenatal training is the physical sample of "acceptable quality standards". Under the guidance of technicians, this physical sample was personally completed by the sewing workers during the prenatal training. The finished physical sample is hung under the machine as the quality standard when opening large pieces.
Prenatal preparation is the "cornerstone" of success
Prenatal preparation needs standardized operation and the rhythm and time requirements of production. In terms of materials, Fu said that due to the particularity of the clothing industry, each employee cannot have more than two semi-finished products. In addition, kanban should be used to strengthen visual management. The rapid flow of the whole production line is driven by the demand for goods from the post-process to the pre-process, thus reducing the work-in-process and improving the output and efficiency.
In manufacturing production, we often encounter the situation that we are forced to stop production due to machine failure, which wastes a lot of precious time. If the mobility of the machine is required to reach 100% during operation, we should first cultivate the awareness of prevention among employees, and give priority to prevention after work at ordinary times. On the other hand, the use of light box alarm system, once something happens, immediately notify the mechanic to repair immediately.
Adequate prenatal preparation requires the cooperation of all departments to succeed. For example, Fu said that to carry out prenatal training, the first 20 slices should be in place four days in advance, so as to ensure that the learning curve of the difficult process can be completed before the transfer of funds, so as to achieve seamless transfer of funds (prenatal training should be arranged in overtime hours as far as possible).
In addition, in order to let employees at each station know the new quality standards when transferring money, technicians and QC should complete the determination of the quality standards at each station 1 day in advance (the quality standards at each station have been determined when the prenatal training is completed), and employees don't have to slow down the operation speed to affect efficiency because they are not sure about the quality.
Fu Shuo: "The purpose of prenatal preparation is to eliminate the influence of learning curve on production, improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and complete the transfer within a quarter of an hour. Only by making adequate prenatal preparation can we achieve seamless handover, smooth production process and stable quality. Only by making adequate prenatal preparations can our efficiency be improved. "
Targeted training is the core of the system.
Before establishing the production system in one piece flow, the first task is to train personnel. There is only one purpose of training at this stage: to transform the consciousness of all staff. Fu Shuo: "Because the change of thought is the beginning and foundation of all changes." Then, how to train people at different levels before the promotion of One Piece traffic is the most serious problem for every promoter. To this end, Fu proposed targeted and applicable training methods for different levels of personnel in enterprises.
Fu believes that the best way to train managers is to set up an "independent research society". In this way, managers can discover the advantages of One Piece, consciously accept the concept of One Piece, and make them yearn for this production mode, so as to establish such a brand-new production mode in their own hearts and improve production efficiency.
The performance of managers in the "independent research conference" and their follow-up actions are the best objectives to evaluate the training results. Managers who have a strong interest in the one piece flow system and have high hopes often actively express their views in the discussion and take corresponding actions after the meeting.
The work of middle managers is trivial, so they are busy. In the process of promotion, normal production should also be considered. Training can be carried out by combining centralized lectures with special seminars. Training results can be carried out by written test. However, Fu believes: "This kind of assessment is often very inaccurate! This requires managers to evaluate their performance in actual work. "
Team leaders and technicians are people who deal directly with employees. Their attitude and working style towards One Piece will directly affect employees' work enthusiasm and improvement attitude, and then affect the success or failure of promotion. Most of them have received technical secondary school education and have good skills and certain management ability. But it is easy to do things by experience. Therefore, we can combine centralized teaching in practice and train them to use one piece flow's theory, technology and management tools. Make it change the traditional passive management concept, actively manage, and establish the confidence that the new production mode will be successful.
When it comes to workers' training, Fu stressed that this is often the most critical, because sewing workers are the direct creators of the company's wealth. Therefore, we must first establish an attitude of respecting them. However, on the other hand, due to the uneven education level and uneven skill development of sewing workers, they are afraid of standing production and lack confidence in the new production system, which is greatly influenced by irregular action habits. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate employees' team consciousness through training, help employees overcome their fear of difficulties, and establish confidence, quality concepts and equipment preservation concepts.
In Fu Shuo, in fact, the training methods for employees are flexible and diverse. All extension workers, management cadres and technicians have the responsibility and obligation to train employees and influence them with their correct behaviors and attitudes. And through the excellent performance of the model production line and the high income without overtime to motivate employees' fighting spirit and establish employees' confidence. In addition, he believes that the focus of employee training should be on the daily maintenance of training results. This is more important than training itself.
One piece flow has added many specific requirements.
The difference between one piece flow production line and traditional production line also leads to different equipment selection. Fu Shuo, the biggest difference between the two forms lies in the standing mode of production, which inevitably requires the use of standing clothes carts. In addition, the movement of the workstation is inevitable when transferring money, so it is necessary to choose a clothes cart with pulleys to facilitate the movement.
One piece flow production line strictly distinguishes between manual operation and running time of clothes truck. Under the condition of constant equipment speed, improving manual operation efficiency is an important way to improve employees' personal production efficiency. Hand movements can be reduced by controlling sewing, lifting presser foot and cutting thread by pedal. One piece flow's production system requires sewing workers to standardize their movements, and standard clothes carts are beneficial to realize standardized movements. Easy-to-modify clothes carts and widened and lengthened desktops are also optional equipment.
Compared with the traditional production line, one piece flow production line has added many tools to control production rhythm, products, cutting distribution and quality, such as electronic kanban, cutting distribution timer, quality warning light, first-step input warning light and bottleneck process warning light. Among them, Fu Liang Dong selected several control tools to introduce the requirements and functions of its controller.
IE is responsible for setting the rhythm time and target output of electronic kanban when each model is started and the production efficiency changes, and the actual output is controlled by the operator at the end of production every day. The cutting release timer is used to control the cutting release. Keeping the rhythm of cutting input will not affect the production rhythm because of insufficient cutting input, nor will it cover up the problems in production because of excessive cutting input.
The quality warning light is controlled by QC. When serious or continuous quality problems occur, QC can turn on the quality warning light. At this point, the whole line should stop production and wait for technicians to solve the quality problems before resuming production. Craft lights can also be controlled by QC. When no finished product reaches the final inspection station for more than a few rhythms, it indicates that there is a problem with the production process. At this time, QC can turn on the craft lights, request the whole line to stop production, and resume production after solving the process problems.
Visual kanban is filled in by the team leader (style/quantity, standard time/delivery date, rhythm/number of people are filled in by IE), and IE is responsible for supervision. Visual Kanban is also an extremely important visual management tool. Even a layman can see how the online style of this production line is completed: how much is produced, how much is produced, how it has been done since the payment was made, and so on. Managers' mastery of this information is helpful to predict the future form of this production line and adjust the production plan to meet the delivery date.
Process balance diagram is an important tool for IE to balance processes, and it also provides managers with a lot of useful information: product model, how to allocate processes, whether processes are balanced, target rhythm time, actual rhythm time, etc. IE should draw the first process balance diagram within two hours after the new model is opened, balance all processes within four hours, and draw the second process balance diagram. When IE tests the daily bottleneck process and modifies the process balance chart, the improvement results will be displayed on the process balance chart.
Create a mature and perfect production line
Fu believes that the function of a flow field control table is to establish a mature and perfect production line. First, set a series of goals for a mature production line. To achieve this goal, managers are required to constantly improve, reduce production line pauses caused by accidental factors, and maintain stable production and quality of production lines. It is also necessary to reduce the rhythm time of the production line and improve production efficiency by improving actions, improving equipment and formulating standard actions.
One piece flow theory
One piece flow is also called one piece flow, or OPF for short. Through OPF, those processes or actions that can't create value in the production process can be reduced as much as possible, thus improving production efficiency. Using OPF to produce a garment means that the production process of a garment is subdivided into multiple processes, arranged according to the pre-programmed layout of man-machine workstations, and completed by "one-piece assembly line" from front to back. According to the requirements of "personal kanban" (work instruction), each operation unit completes a relatively simple production content, forming a continuous operation form of "one process after another, one product after another".
One piece flow operating system lays the foundation for clothing production to achieve JIT goal, and is the application of lean production theory in clothing operation. Put forward new topics and practical contents for IE activities in clothing industry; It can also create conditions for achieving the 5S management goal more smoothly. (Reprinted)