Scheduling

Which changeovers are the most important in the process industry?

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Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) is a Lean manufacturing tool developed around the 1960’s as a systematic way of reducing changeover times in the car assembly industry. Most SMED guides include 4 steps. Identify the changeover elements Separate external elements Convert Internal Elements to External Streamline Remaining Elements SMED was developed with single work … Read more

7 essentials of a factory scheduling cycle

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A good quality factory schedule is one of the most important factors in minimising costs and creating a firm foundation for continuous improvement. Yet many factory schedules are driven by the knowledge of just one scheduler, without much oversight by senior production management.

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How to design a process factory that fits into a complex supply chain

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Process Factory Design - Header Image

Process factories (food & beverage, liquids, sheet goods, solid & fluid packaging operations) must satisfy the competing needs of high volumes, high variety and high variability. All of this in a capital intensive environment where throughput is limited by equipment rather than labour and where product changeover issues are very complex. Process factory design is … Read more

The 9 most important operational leverage points in a complex supply chain

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the ultimate guide to process factory performance

What does your customer value? The harsh reality is that customers often don’t care if your plant is state-of-the-art. They generally don’t care if your warehousing and transportation network is cutting edge.

Usually, what they care about is how quickly products move to and through their supermarket or factory, whether the product is to specification

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7 fundamental differences between food & beverage factories and car factories

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7 Fundamental Differences Between Food & Beverage and Car Factories - Header Image

Lean manufacturing was developed using the Toyota Production System. Hence it is instructive for those working in the food & beverage industry to examine how food & beverage manufacturing is different when compared to car manufacturing. We have come up with 7 fundamental differences and would love to hear from you if you can think … Read more

What is Stock Aggregation and how can it benefit my supply system?

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What is Stock Aggegation - Header Image

Production variability and demand variability causes congestion in supply chains. One way to reduce this congestion is to reduce the variability by addressing its causes. Another and more subtle way to deal with congestion is by combining multiple sources of variability. This is known as variability pooling, and has a number of supply chain applications. … Read more

What is Queue Sharing and how can it benefit my factory or warehouse?

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How Queue Sharing can Benefit your Factory or Warehouse - Header Image

Production variability and demand variability causes congestion in supply chains. One way to reduce this congestion is to reduce the variability by addressing its causes. Another and more subtle, way to deal with congestion effects is by combining multiple sources of variability. This is known as variability pooling, and has a number of manufacturing and … Read more

What is a flow line and how can it be manipulated to maximise performance?

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Manipulating Flow Lines to Maximise Performance - Header Image

Capacity decisions made at the time of asset procurement have a huge strategic effect on the long term competitiveness of a manufacturing operation. This is particularly true in the process industry where most of the factories use Flow Lines.

In this article we explain how flow lines are designed as well as the supply chain system benefits of un-balancing flow lines, i.e. adding extra capacity upstream and downstream of a flow line’s bottleneck.

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