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.
Production levelling in the process industry – why bother?
Production levelling (or smoothing) is an important part of the Toyota production system. Here we show why production levelling is so important and how it is achieved in the process industry.
Which of the 5 Production Technologies do you have?
In 1984, Robert Hayes from Harvard University and Steven Wheelwright from Stanford University, joined forces to write a book called Restoring our Competitive Edge¹. In it they identified 5 different production technologies.
3 Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence
We challenged ourselves to explain the fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence in one infographic and here it is.
10 types of business transformation – which one should you focus on?
At Bullant we make sure we know our place in the world of business transformation. This is an article that helps us to focus our attention and we reckon it is a good resource for our clients as well.
We’ve distilled business transformation into 10 types and we’d love to know if you have any others.
Lean tools and their applicability to the process industry
The process industry (food & beverage, liquids, sheet goods, solid & fluid packaging operations) differs from the parts manufacturing and assembly industry, where the Lean, 6 Sigma and Theory of Constraints methodologies were developed.
Here we list Lean tools and comment and how they can be applied to the process industry. In some cases they can’t!
10 high-powered building blocks that change the way you look at your complex supply chain
Ever wish that there were simple, fundamental building blocks that could be used to represent your supply chain, no matter its complexity?
Hidden in the industrial engineering literature are 10 building blocks that can be used to clearly establish the performance of an entire supply chain.
How to design a complex supply network for maximum flow and minimum cost
Supply chains that have evolved using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems should not be the only point of reference when designing a new supply network. Good supply network design is an iterative process focusing on both maximum flow and minimum cost. This iterative process starts at the organisation’s business strategy … Read more
5 secrets for a successful TPM implementation in the process industry
The term Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) evolved from the parts manufacturing and assembly industry in Japan. Its parallel evolution with the Toyota Production System during the 1950’s thru 1960’s makes it intimately linked with Lean. The concept of TPM can be confusing for some managers in the process industry who ask; Is TPM a maintenance … Read more
How to create a factory performance metric that boosts productivity and changes behaviours
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is often used as the main metric for factory performance in the process industry (food & beverage, liquids, sheet goods, solid & fluid packaging operations).
However, while OEE is a good measure for independent workstations and processes, production lines in the process industry are usually made up of several workstations and processes which are all connected together, rendering the OEE metric less than ideal.