CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Work Design & Production Flow

Plant Layout and Work Design to Improve Production Flow.

Plant Layout and work design play a big role in maximizing your production flow and overall manufacturing efficiency. Sometimes even simple changes can improve the smooth flow of production, minimizing waste by shortening the production path wherever possible. Many factors come into play when planning the production layout for your facility, including physical limitations of your building and production floor space, ergonomics and physical demands on employees, workplace safety, equipment requirements, electrical power, forklift traffic, material storage, racking systems and more. Don’t forget about things like emergency exits, lavatories, break areas and other Workplace Safety and Health issues. The goal is to strive for a linear production path through your facility, from the point where things come in to where they go out.

It’s All About Balance.

With so many factors coming into play it’s simply not possible to achieve perfection in your production flow, but there is almost always room for improvements that can help you enhance efficiency and grow profits. Naturally, an existing building will have inherent limiting options, and almost all manufacturers have to work within the constraints of their existing physical space - most manufacturers don’t have the luxury of constructing a new building to fit production flow. So, it’s all about balance. Eliminate wasteful steps in processes wherever possible, ensure materials (raw, in-process and finished) enter and flow through the process efficiently, streamline task transfers from one station to the next - all while considering the strengths and weaknesses of your physical space, respecting people and their workspace, and maximizing your production flow to meet customer demand efficiently.

We’re Plant Layout and Production Specialists.

Like so many disciplines in manufacturing excellence, Plant Layout and Production Flow Design are highly specialized skills, and the opportunities to gain hands-on experience implementing these skills is limited in a typical company environment - manufacturers simply don’t rework their Plant Layouts or design new layouts for expansion very often. Instead of taking on the task alone with limited experience, it makes sense to bring in an outside expert who’s done the job dozens of times before. When it comes to Plant Layout and Production Flow design, our Project Managers have the years of “been there, done that” experience you need to help you through this critical process.

Contact Us if you’re thinking of assessing or reworking your current Plant Layout, or if you’re expanding or moving your facility and need to set things up right from the beginning.