Operation Analysis: Methods and Approaches

• Operation analysis focuses on improving productivity by redesigning organizational structures, motivation, work processes, work operations, tools, products, and the work environment.
• Operation analysis looks at the bigger picture than just how Methods Engineering focuses on productivity

The 9 Primary Approaches to Operation Analysis

• Operation Purpose

• Part Design

• Tolerances and Specs

• Material

• Manufacturing Sequence and Process

• Setup and Tools

• Material Handling

• Plant Layout

• Work Design

• Management and reward changes should also be considered

• When making improvements, multiple approaches and factors should be looked at and considered.

Operation Purpose

• Start by asking if an operation serves a useful purpose and is really needed
• Eliminate or combine operations where possible
• As much as 25% of operations in American Industry are eliminable

Operation Elimination

• The requirement for customers to sign credit slips for small totals (less than $15 - $50) has been dropped by many stores
• It makes payment transactions very fast
• For example, a coffee shop study showed an average payment transaction time of 27 seconds when signature was not required

Outsource Operations

• Ask if a supplier can operate more economically than operating in-house
• Instead of packing ball bearings in grease, purchase sealed bearings from a supplier

Eliminate Rework

• Have measuring lines inside of the beaker
• Coffee shop workers will then not have to estimate how much milk to pour

Part Design

• Design for manufacturing and life-cycle by reducing parts and simplifying designs
• Reduce processing operations and utilize better materials
• Loosen tolerances where possible
• Choose an easily manufactured shape over a difficult one

Minimum Cost Design

• Designers knowing processes (casting, molding, punching, bending, etc.) is helpful
• Instead of using four bends in sheet metal to make a part, use a lower-cost extrusion with four bends already in it
• The above thinking is called "Design for Manufacturing"

Tolerances and Specifications

• Designers put in place tolerances that are more rigid than necessary to be extra sure that the product will function in all situations
• Higher specifications reduce risk, but increase costs
• A risk/cost trade-off should be considered
• Taguchi methods develop quality products and reduce cost

Material

• Incorporate better, more economical materials in designs
• Less expensive materials are easier to process while using supplies and tools more economically,
• Standardize materials
• Finding the best vendor for price and stock can achieve 10% to 15% reductions by shopping around, sometimes every year

New Material Examples

• Substitute glass tubing for Micarta spacer bars in transformers
  • Micarta is a glass cloth epoxy resin laminate material
  • Glass tubing is less expensive and provides better cooling
• Replacing stamped gear with a plastic gear in assembly saved $0.13 per unit and $10,000 per year

Keiretsu

• (Japanese term) interlocking relationship between manufacturers and suppliers

Manufacturing Sequence and Tools

• Re-sequence operations and group operations that can share common fixturing
• Mechanize manual operations where it makes economic sense
• Use more efficient facilities
  • Substitute Super automatic cappuccino machines for old style
• Manufacture near-net shape
• Use robots where use is economically feasible
  • Usually for long product runs and small product variability

Re-sequencing Example

• Original sequence: Paint part 1, 2, 3, 4 then rivet parts together.
• New sequence: Rivet parts together then paint one assembly

Setup, Tools, and Fixtures

• Economic trade-offs should be carefully looked at
  • Tools/fixtures should justify their expenses by usage
• Tool makers and planners often make too much specialized tooling and fixturing

Tooling Example

• Saving 10% on each job frequently is a good choice
• Saving 90% on each job but only being used twice a year is a poor choice
  • It will likely not recover the costs of creating and storing the tooling

Material Handling

• The best way to handle material is not to handle it
• Movement, storing, positioning, and tracking are all material handling
• Materials should get where they need to be when they are needed
• The Material Handling Institute determined 35 to 85% of the cost of getting a product to market is associated with material handling

Better Material Handling

• Reduces cost and time while also increasing safety, health, and the well-being of workers
• 40% of plant accidents happen during material handling, and 25% are caused by lifting and shifting material

Reducing Material Handling Time

• Reduce time spent picking up material and use mechanized or automated equipment
• Make better use of existing handling facilities and handle material with greater care
• Consider bar coding

Plant Layout

• A poor layout can result in major costs through increased travel time and increased material handling
• Two types of layouts for plants: product and process

Product Layout

• Machines are placed in the order that they are used in the manufacturing process
• The main advantage is reduced travel time

Process Layout

• Machines are in the order used for manufacturing
• Machines are grouped by type; e.g., all lathes together, all drill presses together, etc
• The main advantage is easier training

Muther’s Systematic Layout Process (SLP)

• To identify how to rearrange space to make it more effective for a task
• Goal: identify how to rearrange space to make it more effective for a task
• Chart out relationships between areas based on the magnitude of material handling
• Establish space requirements and make activity relationship diagrams
• Develop a space relationship layout and Evaluate alternative layouts
• Select the best layout and plan installation

Decision Matrices

• A performance parameter is whatever is important to the decision maker in the situation
• The goodness score for each option i is Σ (importance weight j * performance score i j)
• Select the layout with the highest "score" from the decision matrices

Work Design

• Eliminate operations, re-sequence, and re-design operations