I would guess that everyone hears the same thing. Our machine operators
and material handlers perform all of their own labor tracking as well as
all of their own inventory transactions. When we implemented Vantage in
1997 I heard the same complaints. "Waste of time", "I don't have time
for this I need to run my machine" etc. At that time we carried an
inventory value of about $1.5 million. When we performed our year end
physical count it was not uncommon to be off by $250,000 (our old system
was not real-time). This year our inventory value was $6.1 million and
we had a year end variance of $3000.00. If I were to go to the shop
floor and begin removing PC's I would guess that the factory employees
would not let me out alive. They have become so dependent on being able
to walk up to a PC open part tracker, look for a part and then drive the
hi-lo right to it. They count on the accuracy and they would not be able
to function efficiently without it.
Weather the comments and stick to your plan. It works and they will
eventually see the value.
Todd
-----Original Message-----
From:
vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Diane
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 1:02 PM
To:
vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Lean Manufacturing and Vantage
Hi Group,
Not sure if this is off topic or not...
WPI is in training to start implementing lean manufacturing. One of the
main issues that keep coming up out on the shop floor is data
collection. The employees view the steps they have to make to go to the
data collection stations as a huge waste. Seems they would rather fill
out time cards - takes more time, but fewer steps. Of course, they
don't see the "big picture", how taking away real time status for me and
the management team is a big consideration. I really don't like the
thought of going back to waiting till mid-day next day to see what was
accomplished the day before. The obvious answer would be to provide
more stations, and we are looking into this, but realistically being a
smaller size company, it would not be feasible to provide enough to make
everyone happy! (we currently have
3 for 13 machinists/deburr people)
Another big issue is reducing batch sizes. I would just like to pose
the issue to the group and see if anyone else has tackled these and
other lean manufacturing considerations with respect to Vantage. Any
insights you can give would be greatly appreciated!!
Diane Rowberry
Westwood Precision, Inc.
425-742-7011 ex 43
diane.rowberry@...
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