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The Role of Carts and Carriers in Lean Manufacturing
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
By Bob Douglas, Inovaxe Corp.
Electronics manufacturers have paid a lot of attention to the philosophy of lean manufacturing as it refers to the production process, focusing on minimizing pick-and-place changeover times. Unfortunately, little has been done in the way of integrating lean manufacturing techniques to the management and presentation of inventory. Electronic component inventory control has to be integrated into a total lean manufacturing philosophy in today's competitive environment to save time and reduce costs.
Lean manufacturing techniques as applied to the management of inventory can reduce waste in non-value-added labor and unproductive floor space. In reality, we are speaking about reducing the cost of footsteps; non-value-added transactions excessive labor expedite costs, as well as inventory inaccuracy.
Excessive footsteps are the result of inventory not being located at the point of use. The efficiency of loading or reloading a pick-and-place machine can be related directly to the proximity of the material and the presentation of the correct material to the operator. If the operator has to cross the production floor or flip through a box or bin of material, that wasted time will have a direct impact on the time spent in changeover and reload.
Non-value-added transactions are exasperated by the normal process of "kitting" material for a production run of a particular assembly. Material that typically has been put away on some generic racking system must be "picked" from the shelves and put into a bucket or bin and pushed out to the production line. In this scenario, the electronics manufacturer has the PO receipt transaction; the transaction to put away the material; the transaction to kit the material; then another transaction to create the assembly. Then they also may have other miscellaneous movement transactions. All of these transactions are not only time-consuming but also are heavily dependent on human interaction, which can inject error into the perpetual inventory.
Inventory accuracy issues are the result of a couple of common areas. One, as previously discussed, is an excessive amount of human interaction through multiple transactions. The other issue is the accumulation of inventory inaccuracies in the perpetual inventory. Software typically looks at inventory by aggregating the inventory levels; presenting a total quantity on hand vs. looking at the lowest common denominator: a reel, tube, or waffle tray. In the system of looking at an aggregation of inventory levels, small inventory inaccuracies never get flushed out and accumulate over a period of time. Most companies try to catch those inaccuracies by cycle counting or annual physical inventories that tend to create more inaccuracy in the counts than they resolve.
To streamline the process, we need to drastically reduce material handling and the associated transactions, eliminate the job kitting process, locate material at the point of use, and eliminate the accumulation of inventory inaccuracy.
Effective lean inventory control requires material handling equipment that is dense in storage, able to be moved to the point of use, lockable, and has the ability to handle multiple component package types. The material handling equipment needs to be able to address specialty concerns such as devices that are sensitive to relative humidity (RH) issues.
Material handling equipment alone does not get you to effective implementation of a lean inventory control system; you need software dedicated to the needs of the electronics manufacturer. Comprehensive software addresses handling of regulatory issues such as the transition to RoHS compliance, the incorporation of control for moisture-sensitive devices (MSDs), and mitigation of risk through effective component lot traceability.
Lean material handling systems provide point of use inventory control. The material handling systems handle all types of inventory from reels/tubes/trays to bulky materials as well as specialty components and MSDs. As a stand-alone device, a preloaded cart provides a distinct step in the correct direction for a lean manufacturing process. The point of use material handling system reduces footsteps by putting the material where the operator needs it and by presenting that material effectively to the operator on automated or manual lines.
To further implementation of lean inventory control, inventory control software eliminates the need to pre-kit the material prior to running on the lines. This elimination of kitting cuts down on the amount of transactions, which reduces the introduction of human error into the process. The reduction of material kitting directly affects the amount of non-value-added labor needed to manage facility inventory.
Accounting for material at its lowest common denominator allows inventory management software to consume all partial component packages first, eliminating the accumulation of inventory inaccuracy. It effectively cycle counts every time a package is used. The reduction of inventory inaccuracy helps prevent surprise stock-outs and the associated costs of emergency purchasing.
ConclusionLean inventory control requires a rethinking of traditional inventory control techniques and solutions offered. Generic racking and traditional software that aggregates inventory create a labor-/transaction-intensive inventory control system that does not yield measurable results.
Switching to a component carrier system focused on lean techniques reduces waste in non-value-added labor and unproductive floor space. It cuts down the cost of footsteps, non-value-added transactions, excessive labor, expedite fees, as well as inventory inaccuracy.
Bob Douglas, president, may be contacted at Inovaxe Corp., 1570 Global Ct., Sarasota, Fla. 34240; 941-306-2146; bob.douglas@inovaxe.com; www.inovaxe.com.