In the afternoon of that day, Niu Xiaobai immediately held a meeting of machine shop managers and required all production foremen, production engineers and planners to attend.
At the beginning of the meeting, Niu Xiaobai gave everyone a brief introduction to the problems currently faced by the machine shop, and then said: "At this meeting, we must find out the bottleneck process as soon as possible and use 'brain power' to
Storm' way, let's study together how to maximize the effective output of the bottleneck process, thereby improving the effective output of the entire machining production workshop."
Seeing that everyone had their heads lowered, still digesting what Niu Xiaobai had just said, the big man Hu Xiuping held his chin and pretended to cough twice, and said with an inscrutable look: "According to
As far as I know, there are two main forms of bottleneck processes in production lines."
The first form of expression is the bottleneck process in a single-line production line. A single-line production line refers to all the processes from raw materials to finished products, and is a production line connected by a single line. In a workshop that produces a small variety of products,
It is generally believed that a process with a large amount of semi-finished product inventory between processes is a bottleneck process. The fundamental reason for this bottleneck is that the quantity of work-in-process flowing to the process exceeds the production capacity of the process, which leads to the accumulation of semi-finished product inventory; in
When there are many types of products produced, different production methods will lead to different bottleneck processes. In this case, process analysis must be carried out, focusing on the stagnation points. And processes with long product stagnation times mean that
The possibility of bottleneck process is high.
The second form of expression is the bottleneck process in the assembly production line. Since the products produced are assembled from several parts, the assembly production line is a combination of multiple single-line production lines that produce parts. Due to its process
The process is quite complex, so when formulating the process plan, it is necessary to conduct a capacity analysis and identify the bottleneck process. The most rapid identification method is to regard the production process where the parts that often appear on the shortage list are located as the bottleneck process.
Hu Xiuping concluded: "Obviously, the production line in our machine shop is a single-line production line, and we do not produce many types of products. Therefore, as long as we go to the site to see: which process has more semi-finished products accumulated,
Which process product stays longer, this is the bottleneck process."
Although everyone here didn't really like the arrogant and domineering way Hu Xiuping spoke, they all had to admit that what he just said was on point. If he followed the method he said, it would be very
It is convenient and easily locks the bottleneck process in the machine shop.
After another discussion, everyone agreed that the finishing process in the machine shop should be the current bottleneck process. It has the slowest rhythm when making products, so the work-in-progress stays here the longest and is stacked in front of it.
has the most work-in-progress.
"After finding the bottleneck process, let's discuss together how to effectively utilize the bottleneck process and tap its production capacity potential as much as possible. Do you have any suggestions?" Niu Xiaobai asked.
Hu Xiuping immediately followed Niu Xiaobai's words and said carelessly: "Let's just let the operators in the finishing process work in three shifts! In this way, the bottleneck process will not be available 24 hours a day.
Are you producing output without interruption?"
Planner Jiang Hui replied loudly: "You don't need to remind Hu Gong! When I found that there were too many products in front of the finishing process, I arranged for them to work in three shifts!" Jiang Hui looked at it with disgust.
Hu Xiuping, that expression seemed to say: Do you still need to talk about such a simple thing? Otherwise, what use would I be as a planner?
Hu Xiuping didn't pay attention to Jiang Hui's emotional tone, but continued to pretend to be profound: "Haha... As a senior production engineer, although I am not familiar with your production planning work, and I am transferred to machining
The workshop hasn't been long yet, but I still discovered that there are big loopholes in your plan for the bottleneck process." When he said this, he deliberately emphasized the word "advanced" in his tone.
"Oh? Is it true? Then I am willing to ask Hu Gong for advice!" Jiang Hui said with an unhappy look.
The tall Hu Xiuping suddenly stood up, crossed his arms, raised his face and said to Niu Xiaobai: "Manager Niu, the reason why I dare to say this is because I feel that we have not fully utilized the bottleneck process.
To the most vivid degree. On the surface, the planners have arranged three shifts for the finishing process, and everyone naturally assumes that by arranging the bottleneck process, products can be produced continuously 24 hours a day. However, the shift time
, during meal time, rest time, etc., during non-working hours, is the lathe for the finishing process parked? Is there no output for the finishing process at this time? "
After hearing this, Jiang Hui stood up and said angrily: "Mr. Hu, do you mean to tell our employees not to eat, not take breaks, and not go to the toilet?"
Niu Xiaobai waved his hand towards Jiang Hui: "Xiaohui, don't be impatient. Listen to Hu Gong continue."
Hu Xiuping nodded towards Niu Xiaobai to express his gratitude, then glanced at Jiang Hui with a proud look on his face and continued: "Haha! Don't you know that these arrangements can be changed? Manager Niu also said just now
Having said that, our current goal is to maximize the effective output of the bottleneck process, but our demand for the output of non-bottleneck processes is not so urgent. In this case, when the operators of the bottleneck process need to eat,
During breaks or shift changes, can we stop the non-bottleneck processes and transfer the operators from those processes to ensure that the bottleneck processes never stop? In this way, this seemingly difficult problem to solve will be perfect.
Has the problem been solved? Haha! Even I appreciate my perfect suggestion!"
"This?" Jiang Hui, who originally wanted to refute, thought about it seriously, and finally nodded in agreement with a blushing face: "This, I really didn't expect..."
Niu Xiaobai also gave Hu Xiuping a thumbs up to express his praise: "I think this suggestion from Mr. Hu can be implemented. Indeed, if even the bottleneck process is stuck, no matter how much the output of the non-bottleneck process is,
, it cannot be converted into the effective output of our machine processing workshop, and will only increase the accumulation of useless work-in-progress. Then we might as well stop the non-bottleneck processes at the appropriate time and use all high-quality human resources and technical resources to support
Bottleneck process.”
Seeing that Niu Xiaobai was also on his side, Hu Xiuping sat down happily.
, shaking his feet rhythmically, looked at Tang Cheng and Lu Minghui sitting next to him with a proud expression. Especially when looking at Lu Minghui, Hu Xiuping's eyes were full of disdain.
Of course Lu Minghui understood Hu Xiuping's provocative look. He fiddled with his long hair a few times, stood up slowly and said: "The suggestions put forward by Hu just now are just temporary solutions and do not address the fundamental issues."
to solve the problem."
Lu Minghui glanced at Hu Xiuping meaningfully, and then said to Niu Xiaobai: "Manager Niu, I think that after finding the bottleneck process, we must first determine what is the real cause of the bottleneck process, is it the insufficient production capacity of the equipment itself?
Or is it that the operating skills of the personnel are insufficient? Or is the management process itself causing a bottleneck? Only by clarifying these problems can we find a solution to the root cause."
Lu Minghui raised his voice a notch: "If it is determined that the equipment's production capacity is insufficient, then we can upgrade the equipment or even add equipment; if it is determined that the problem is the personnel's operating skills, we can change the job.
Increase the number of personnel and use training to improve skills. If the bottleneck is caused by the management process itself, then the process needs to be simplified, fully authorized, and key nodes controlled. Of course, I think the bottleneck process in the production process, management
This aspect of the process can be eliminated directly.”
There was a burst of warm applause in the conference room. Except for Hu Xiuping and Niu Xiaobai, everyone else in the conference room had smiles on their faces, and they all felt that Lu Minghui's brilliant answer seemed to win them back.
It can be seen that due to Hu Xiuping's various bad performances in the past, everyone dislikes him from the bottom of their hearts and has a kind of rejection mentality towards him.
In fact, if you ask yourself, is it possible that Niu Xiaobai is not like this at this moment? Although he does not like Hu Xiuping, Lu Minghui will leave his job soon, and Niu Xiaobai must make good use of Hu Xiuping. Otherwise,
At Tang Cheng's current level, it is simply impossible to shoulder the heavy burden of process and technology management in the machining workshop.
"In addition to equipment problems and personnel problems, I still think that improper arrangement of production plans is the main reason for the bottleneck process." Hu Xiuping ignored everyone's rejection of him and continued to speak loudly.
"This Hu Xiuping! Why does it involve me again?" Jiang Hui muttered dissatisfied.
"Clearly knowing that our bottleneck process has insufficient production capacity, our planners should communicate with the production engineers to see if some products can bypass this bottleneck process through process changes, or replace this bottleneck process with other processes.
If it is impossible to replace and bypass these two steps, in order to release the production capacity of the bottleneck process, the planner will even make suggestions to Manager Niu to see if they can help us through outsourcing. I am here
Think about it, isn’t this a good way to cure the root cause?”
"Furthermore, I would like to remind everyone: once the old bottleneck process is solved, new bottlenecks may arise again. In the process of continuously eliminating bottleneck processes, production efficiency will be greatly improved. Bottleneck processes may also drift, which
It is determined by the products, manpower, and equipment produced within a specific period of time..."