Top Ten Proven Tips to Maximize Uptime and Boost Performance

Parsec Automation Corp. Phone: +1 714 996-5302 Fax: +1 714 996-1845 www.parsec-corp.com © Parsec Automation Corp 2014. All rights reserved. Parsec Automation Corp., Parsec logo, and Parsec product names are trademarks of Parsec Automation Corp. References to other companies and their products use trademarks owned by the respective companies and are for reference purposes only. TOP TEN PROVEN TIPS TO MAXIMIZE UPTIME AND BOOST PERFORMANCE Smart Solutions Powered by TrakSYS™ Top Ten Proven Tips to Maximize Uptime and Boost Performance Page 1 All print and electronic rights are the property of Parsec Automation Corp. © 2014 So, your company is not yet performing at world-class levels when it comes to packaging. You’re not alone—most companies aren’t. You’re probably interested in “leaning out” your operations, but don’t have the budget or time for a full-blown lean implementation. Doing nothing is not a good option, given the pressures exerted by your own corporate management team to continue boosting profits—in spite of higher energy costs, higher materials costs, higher labor costs, and any other challenges posed by your particular market. Well, there is no reason you cannot adopt many of the same methods and techniques that world-class companies used to become world class. And because you aren’t taking early-adopter risks, you can bring about similar levels of improvement more quickly and at a much lower cost. If that sounds too easy, then take a look at the following “Top Ten Proven Tips,” which distill what is working today at companies that are the leaders in terms of Lean Six Sigma implementations, operational excellence and world-class performance. TIP 1: SET OVERALL IMPROVEMENT GOALS You have at least three times more potential to improve than you currently think is possible! For example, many companies that started their Lean initiatives several years ago continue to achieve significant gains in productivity. Don’t cripple your efforts before you even get started by setting less-than-ambitious goals that will only provide a marginal benefit to the business. How do you set appropriate goals? Measure current performance—then get out and benchmark against best-in-class and your peers. Many companies have increased the productivity of their lines by 20 percent or more! TIP 2: REVIEW CURRENT KPIS It is difficult to improve that which cannot be measured accurately. Yet many companies are guilty of producing charts for “historical reasons”, where the data basis is unclear, data accuracy is questionable, and the data are charted but not actually used to drive improvement. How many times have we seen the infamous “line efficiency” metric with calculated values exceeding 100 percent? Too many! This is always a red flag, and likely indicates target values are based on average performance instead of best demonstrated rate or theoretical rates. Critical to any productivity improvement initiative are a relatively small number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can be measured accurately, easily understood, and directly aligned with your greater business objectives. Has your company clearly defined these key metrics in a document so everyone has a common understanding of how they should be measured? How accurate is the raw data? What is Top Ten Proven Tips to Maximize Uptime and Boost Performance Page 2 All print and electronic rights are the property of Parsec Automation Corp. © 2014 excluded? Have theoretical rates been determined properly? These types of questions will ensure you are using metrics that matter! TIP 3: IMPLEMENT OEE Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a worthy standard for driving productivity improvement. Defined as the product of availability, performance, and quality, OEE breaks your losses into three easily understandable components—each of which requires different types of solutions to improve. Unlike the traditional plant “efficiency” metric which often is designed around typical output, OEE is designed to show all the key losses that could be improved upon to boost productivity and capacity. TIP 4: SET LINE-SPECIFIC IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVES World-class OEE for discrete operations such as packaging is defined as: Key Indicator World Class Availability 90.00% Performance 90.00% Quality 99.90% OEE 85.00% Some lines and operations in your plant might be running at far less than world-class OEE. Many food and beverage operations that begin an OEE initiative are starting in the 40 to 50 percentile range. No matter what is your starting point, OEE improvement targets should be specific by line or operation, and should include separate improvement targets for availability, performance, and quality, as shown in the following example: 2014 OEE Improvement Goals for Line 1 Timeline Availability Performance Quality OEE Current State 60.00% 75.00% 98.00% 44.00% Year-End Target 75.00% 80.00% 98.10% 59.00% Gain (Points) 15 5 0.1 15 Top Ten Proven Tips to Maximize Uptime and Boost Performance Page 3 All print and electronic rights are the property of Parsec Automation Corp. © 2014 TIP 5: GAIN MANAGEMENT’S COMMITMENT To reap big benefits—and most plants should be aiming for a multi-million dollar gain—you will need to get the management team on board. Their help will be needed to support organizational culture changes, to provide funding, to provide reward systems, and to keep the organization focused on the effort in spite of all the other priorities competing for their time. Management also must accept the notion of exposing the plant’s weaknesses so those weaknesses can be understood and improvements can be made. Once management sees how OEE improvement relates directly to the overall business objectives and what a significant financial impact it can have, they will sponsor the initiative. Take the example of a frozen foods company with net sales of $156 million and operating at a baseline OEE of 50 percent. Because OEE is proportional to output, if the company increases its OEE by just 5 points, its net sales capability will increase by 10 percent, or $15.6 million. If the company has demand for the additional product, based on a 78 percent cost of products sold, then this will boost profits by 68 percent! If the demand isn’t there, then the plant can cut back on the amount of overtime or number of shifts to achieve a hard dollar savings. Figure 1- TrakSYS™ Web Reporting Portal Allows Role-Based Reports of Key Performance Indicators Top Ten Proven Tips to Maximize Uptime and Boost Performance Page 4 All print and electronic rights are the property of Parsec Automation Corp. © 2014 TIP 6: AUTOMATE KPI DATA COLLECTION If you don’t know about it, you can’t fix it. Many plants are stymied by a lack of accurate information that would allow them to understand why they are stuck at current productivity levels. Or there are so many opportunities it is difficult to know what problems to attack first. Fortunately, real-time performance management software is now available that allows companies to automatically collect accurate, real-time performance data from various sources. This allows complete characterization of line performance through continuous tracking of OEE and other KPIs in real time, and the relation of these to every equipment failure—including frustrating short stops that might just be a few seconds in duration. TIP 7: IMPLEMENT A ROLE-BASED WEB DASHBOARD Once you have automated data collection, you need a simple real-time method to share that information with everyone in the plant who is involved in the improvement effort. Look for RPM systems, such as TrakSYS™ from Parsec Automation Corp., that provide a role-based Web dashboard as seen in Figure 1, which offers extraordinarily quick and easy access to reports relating to each person’s specific job function. Reports should provide one-click drill down so users can intuitively dig more deeply into an area of interest without having to navigate through a complex menu structure. TIP 8: ENGAGE ASSOCIATES DIRECTLY Imagine playing a soccer game, but in this variant of soccer, scoring is so complex the referees do not announce the score until the game is over. This is the way many manufacturing plants operate today! It is critical to get the plant floor associates and technicians directly involved in the productivity improvement efforts. One way to do this is with a plant floor client application that provides the operators with the real-time “score” as they are running. This application also can be used to collect additional information from operators related to running the lines; for example, when operators stop the line for a changeover or sanitation. TIP 9: IDENTIFY CHAMPIONS AND KEY IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES How many times does an initiative fizzle because the company cannot maintain focus? It is recommended that companies give one or more champions the responsibility for running the improvement program, and educating the plant team so that everyone understands the objectives and the tools provided to reach the goals. Many tools from Lean Six Sigma are being applied successfully to improve the availability, performance, and quality of production operations. Examples include SMED and 5S for changeover time reduction, Theory of Constraints to ensure a focus on improving operations that Top Ten Proven Tips to Maximize Uptime and Boost Performance Page 5 All print and electronic rights are the property of Parsec Automation Corp. © 2014 will generate a positive impact, and processes such as DMAIC and 5 Why to analyze problems and develop solutions. TIP 10: SHARE SUCCESSES The most successful improvement initiatives have a broad foundation. Involve the entire plant team by soliciting ideas for process and procedural improvements (in some plants, “waiting” is the number one cause of downtime) and have a multi-disciplinary team review and respond to every suggestion from the plant floor. Figure 2- TrakSYS™ Provides Analytics and Tools That Enable Champions to Drive Continuous Improvement Regardless of Methodology Top Ten Proven Tips to Maximize Uptime and Boost Performance Page 6 All print and electronic rights are the property of Parsec Automation Corp. © 2014 Implement the best ideas and publicize the successes. Provide a rewards system that acknowledges the contributions of individuals, as well as line teams that succeed in reaching their improvement goals. Recognition and rewards can help transform the plant floor culture to one that is truly high performing. GOING FORWARD These 10 tips have all been successfully applied in many manufacturing plants and work best when they are all used as part of a comprehensive improvement program. Don’t be one of the many manufacturing operations teams that are “too busy” chasing their tails to achieve real improvement. It takes a significant effort to break out of the “tail-chasing” mode of operation and begin a journey toward continuous structured improvement. This journey will provide many rewards—financial and personal—for those who choose to follow this path. Top Ten Proven Tips to Maximize Uptime and Boost Performance Page 7 All print and electronic rights are the property of Parsec Automation Corp. © 2014 ABOUT PARSEC Parsec Automation Corp. (Parsec) is the developer of TrakSYS™, the leading real-time operations and performance management software. Manufacturing companies worldwide rely on Parsec for flexible and configurable tools to execute manufacturing operations across the value stream more effectively. Without production disruption, TrakSYS™ helps manufacturers to significantly improve asset utilization and efficiency, increase capacity with no new capital equipment, reduce production costs, decrease lead time, and improve profitability. With measurable ROI, TrakSYS™ delivers the bottom-line results that manufacturing companies are looking for. For more information about Parsec, please visit the corporate web site at www.parsec-corp.com. TrakSYS™ is a flexible, scalable, and powerful software application that is specifically designed to improve the management and execution of manufacturing operations. TrakSYS™ is designed to measure, control, and improve process capability and performance throughout the value stream regardless of infrastructure. TrakSYS™ makes it possible to define KPIs specific to each area of operations for meaningful insight into constraints and their root causes. This makes performance an enterprise initiative instead of an isolated endeavor. By prioritizing bottlenecks by impact, TrakSYS™ helps to streamline continuous improvement efforts to get the best ROI in the shortest time possible, and TrakSYS™ makes it possible to reduce the lead time throughout the value stream. TrakSYS™ is Designed to Effectively Help Manage Manufacturing Operations and Their Performance in Real Time Top Ten Proven Tips to Maximize Uptime and Boost Performance Page 8 All print and electronic rights are the property of Parsec Automation Corp. © 2014 TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE Upon receipt of this electronic publication, it is understood that the user will and must fully comply with the terms and conditions of use as stipulated herein. This publication is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaties. Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Parsec Automation Corp., and may not be reproduced, stored in another retrieval system, posted on any Website, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent of Parsec Automation Corp. 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