The Importance Of Standardized Work Practices

Inconsistent product quality and output is the bane of manufacturing companies. It’s next to impossible to build long lasting business relationships with distributors and other companies if your facilities cannot be relied upon to fabricate orders with accuracy and speed. It falls to the managers and administrators to make the necessary changes that will improve production reliability and consistency. Many times, the unexpected fluctuation the facility goes through is simply born from the lack of a codified set of policies to be followed on the factory floor. When unexpected scenarios crop up, it leaves the workers having to improvise solutions to solve the assembly line issues. These make-shift plans often introduce other complications down the line. Fortunately there are third party consultants that specialize in providing interested companies with the expertise to produce their own “good practices” benchmarks. Through a standardized work presentation, managers will learn the three most important principles in assembly line manufacturing. Their standardized work presentation contains takt time models that will allow managers to set an appropriate time cycle for their individual operations. In this way, employees will know exactly how long a product can stay within their area of responsibility before it has to be passed on to the next phase. Many times, the imposition of a deadline alone serves to substantially speed up employee work rate. A standardized work presentation will also allow the administrators to author a formal work sequence routine. Instead of a loose assembly line that’s too unstable for anyone to reliably forecast production output, companies can choose to implement a strict guide for how things should be done. An official published Work Combination Chart, Work Diagram and Work Instructions Manual will ensure that all personnel on the factory floor are on the same page as the upper management. Finally, the standardized work presentation will teach the managers how to calculate the exact Work-In-Process ratio for each station. This way, even if a delay or shutdown occurs at some other section on the assembly line, it will have a minimal effect on the rest of the factory. A supply of stocked merchandise gives each phase a measure of operational independence that shields them from any negative repercussions arising from issues that don’t concern them.