Line 5 was behind from ten o'clock
At the end of the day the finishing count shows line 5 produced well under target on the new shirt style. The supervisor explains: the collar operation was slow from mid-morning, a machine was down for an hour, and two operators were learning the style. All true, and all known on the floor by ten o'clock. The planner found out at six.
The hourly board by the line had the numbers on it, in marker pen. Nobody in the office walks past it.
Why output is found out late
Most factories do count output. The trouble is where and when it is counted, and that the target is rarely worked out properly for each style.
- Pieces are counted at finishing or packing, hours after they leave the line.
- The hourly board is paper or whiteboard and stays on the floor.
- Targets are set by habit rather than from the style's SAM, operators and hours.
- Downtime, style changes and absences are not recorded against the hour they happened.
- Nobody compares one week with the next for the same style.
What late numbers cost
A line that is behind at ten can often be helped at ten: move an operator, fix the machine, split the slow operation. At six it is just a missed target and a later ship date. Without the record of why an hour was lost, the same problems repeat on the next order. And when output is only known at the end of the day, the planner's promises to brands are always slightly out of date.
Targets set by habit cause their own trouble. A line given an easy target on a simple style looks brilliant, and a line given the same target on a style with a tricky collar looks poor, when both were working well. Supervisors know this, and it makes any figure the office produces easy to dismiss.
Hourly output tracking we put in place
- At the end of each line, completed pieces are counted with a scan per bundle or a simple tap counter on a tablet.
- The hourly target for each line is calculated from the style's SAM, the number of operators present and the minutes available, using the efficiency level you expect for that product.
- A screen at each line and in the office shows actual against target for each hour, with the gap in pieces.
- Supervisors record the reason for a poor hour from a short list you define (machine down, waiting for work, new style, absence, quality stop), with a note if needed.
- Downtime reasons and output by hour are kept by style, so you can see how the second week of a style compares with the first.
- The planner gets an up to date view of completed pieces per order, which feeds the ship date.
| Information | Today | With hourly tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Output | Counted at finishing | Counted at the end of each line, per hour |
| Target | Habit | Worked out from SAM and operators |
| Reason for a bad hour | Remembered | Recorded by the supervisor |
| Office visibility | End of shift | Throughout the day |
A shift with numbers in it
The production manager sees by mid-morning that a line is behind and why, and can do something while it matters. Supervisors have a record of the hours they lost to machine breakdowns, which strengthens the case for maintenance. The planner's ship dates start to reflect what the lines are actually doing.
Do these apply to you?
- You learn about a poor day on a line at the end of the shift.
- Hourly boards exist but nobody off the floor sees them.
- Targets are not worked out from the style.
- Reasons for lost hours are not recorded.
- Ship dates are regularly revised late.