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Publications News
12/02/2008
Production machinery for filling drinks, liquid foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics are complex. Thousands of individual parts must function in perfect unison. Most of the machines that Krones uses in manufacturing are unique – tailor-made to suit the client’s own requirements. The only way to avoid bottlenecks within these challengingly tailored production processes is to employ a holistic approach. The company will restructure its LEAN principles in order to guarantee smooth manufacturing processes and on-time delivery, in spite of an increasing volume of orders.
The logistic experts analyse every production station – starting with, the filling-valve fitting station – registering all the intermediate material storage, transport and fitting times. Together with the corresponding process experts from Krones, the J&M team conducted a value-stream analysis, using value-stream cards to illustrate the flow of material and information. Quality and productivity control circuits were developed for the critical bottleneck machines. This enabled the manufacturing team to take immediate action against deviations in the comparison between nominal and actual performance.
The concept led to the development of the 'Wertstrom 2009' implementation plan. The plan proposes less 'send-ahead' quantities between production steps, shorter set-up times and a reduction of manufacturing steps, that do not contribute to value creation. This will be organised according to the pearl chain principle: the final assembly is the source of production frequency for every preceeding step, with the consequence that the number of manufactured products should correspond exactly to the order.
The Assembly Director, Works’ Committee and Foremen were involved in the project right from the very start. This guaranteed the new system acceptance amongst the production crew. During the exploratory phase, the foremen were kept particularly well informed. They were trained in how to communicate the new operational procedures as progressive and necessary to the rest of the staff. Christian Loipeldinger, Director of the logistics department, is enthusiastic about the project: 'We managed to improve the synchronisation of the manufacturing processes and final assembly, as well as reduce processing times and material stocks, by employing a practical package of measures, which were the result of the LEAN production analysis.'
Further information: Frank Müller, Senior Manager, J&M Management Consulting, telephone +49 (0) 621 12 47 69 0 or via e-mail f.mueller
jnm.com.
Krones optimise value streams in production
Production machinery for filling drinks, liquid foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics are complex. Thousands of individual parts must function in perfect unison. Most of the machines that Krones uses in manufacturing are unique – tailor-made to suit the client’s own requirements. The only way to avoid bottlenecks within these challengingly tailored production processes is to employ a holistic approach. The company will restructure its LEAN principles in order to guarantee smooth manufacturing processes and on-time delivery, in spite of an increasing volume of orders.The logistic experts analyse every production station – starting with, the filling-valve fitting station – registering all the intermediate material storage, transport and fitting times. Together with the corresponding process experts from Krones, the J&M team conducted a value-stream analysis, using value-stream cards to illustrate the flow of material and information. Quality and productivity control circuits were developed for the critical bottleneck machines. This enabled the manufacturing team to take immediate action against deviations in the comparison between nominal and actual performance.
The concept led to the development of the 'Wertstrom 2009' implementation plan. The plan proposes less 'send-ahead' quantities between production steps, shorter set-up times and a reduction of manufacturing steps, that do not contribute to value creation. This will be organised according to the pearl chain principle: the final assembly is the source of production frequency for every preceeding step, with the consequence that the number of manufactured products should correspond exactly to the order.
The Assembly Director, Works’ Committee and Foremen were involved in the project right from the very start. This guaranteed the new system acceptance amongst the production crew. During the exploratory phase, the foremen were kept particularly well informed. They were trained in how to communicate the new operational procedures as progressive and necessary to the rest of the staff. Christian Loipeldinger, Director of the logistics department, is enthusiastic about the project: 'We managed to improve the synchronisation of the manufacturing processes and final assembly, as well as reduce processing times and material stocks, by employing a practical package of measures, which were the result of the LEAN production analysis.'
Further information: Frank Müller, Senior Manager, J&M Management Consulting, telephone +49 (0) 621 12 47 69 0 or via e-mail f.mueller
jnm.com. 