Efficiency is one of the primary goals of all businesses. This is so since it brings a wide range of benefits to the business.

Anything related to reducing environmental impact, improving throughput, and reducing costs is considered manufacturing efficiency. But this does not end here.

When you implement these measures, you see positive results at different levels. From your sales to your image of your business, to greater employee involvement, there are many positive aspects to your business.

4 ways to improve manufacturing efficiency

1. Limit waste

In manufacturing, waste can take many forms. Space, hours worked, materials and even energy can be wasted.

To avoid wasted time, Precinov, a Lévis-based company, makes sure all of its machines are ready for use when their employees arrive. They do this by employing someone who is responsible for warming up machines that are not running 24 hours a day so that they are at the optimum temperature by the time the machinists come to use them. This not only avoids wasting precious time but guarantees maximum precision.

2. Improve training

Keeping your employees up to date is a must. If you invest in high-performance machines, but neglect training your workforce, the efficiency that could have been provided by these machines could be zero and even translate into longer production times.

This is why the G.E. Gilbert company ensures that all its employees are adequately trained and updated on a regular basis. They have a system of cyclical training where, at intervals varying from 1 to 3 years, almost all employees are upgraded.

For example, for the training of their employees who program CNC machines, they form 4 groups of people corresponding to 4 levels. Thus, from the less experienced, who are part of the first step, to the experts, who are part of the fourth step, all get the appropriate training. Over the past 5 years, each of the groups has taken 3 training sessions with a college-level teacher to improve their knowledge and better support the business.

3. Organization is the key

The organization begins with knowledge of all the resources necessary for the production of each contract. The organization begins with quantification.

Even if you have a pretty good idea of ​​the material costs, these are only a small part of the quantification needed. After all, you have to add up the wear and tear on the equipment, the hours of work of the employees, and the resources that were required for each contract, so that you can refer to them. These items do not constitute a complete list. Indeed, anything that can be quantified and evaluated should be.

By having all this data at your fingertips, you will be able to greatly improve your organization and thus your efficiency. You will be able to precisely schedule the time required for certain tasks and ensure that you do not simultaneously schedule the production of two parts that are not identical but require the same tool.

The whole organization can seem complex at times, but one of its most Cartesian facets is the organization of the workplace. Making sure that all materials, parts, tools, and instructions have their own proper location and that employees know where they are at all times might seem like a small detail, but it saves a lot of unnecessary back-and-forths.

4. Be proactive

In manufacturing, you need to make sure you are proactive, not reactive. Proactivity brings several benefits, such as those mentioned in our previous article “The Benefits of Using New Technologies” under “Smart Production”.

Conclusion

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