Manufacturing Tip – Layout fixes = big time savings!
We are working with a client where they started with 4000+ feet of travel due to a broken layout spread out across three rooms and two buildings.
This is about 15-20 minute of walk time one way for one person pushing a heavy batch cart.
I believe that the actual impact is 5 to 10X when you include the time supervisors, team leads, operators, QA, and material handlers spend looking for material, checking on work order progress, and managing the line.
Through rearranging machinery and operation sequence, we were able to reduce that to under 1500 feet.
With the rearrangement, nearly the whole line is visible from 2 spots, making it much easier to manage.