A car is not built by throwing the pieces together in random order. It takes careful planning and set systems to transform steel, plastic, electronics, and rubber into a large machine capable of traveling thousands of miles with minimal maintenance.
A manufacturing company that acts without following processes will eventually fail. No amount of brilliance or luck holds out long enough to create repeated success. Successful manufacturing has set and repeatable processes to turn a collection of raw materials (or components) to a completed product.
This may seem like a self-evident truth, but it is incredible how many manufacturing facilities do not assess their manufacturing processes or how to improve them. It is common in China for a factory to solve a problem by throwing more bodies at it. This method can work, however it is not efficient nor desirable.
Establishing the Differences Between The Types of Process Consultants
Lean Manufacturing Consultant
Lean manufacturing consultants work on stabilising processes and making a factory more "presentable" for sales purposes. They use superficial 5S, documentation of instructions, excellent posters, painting, etc., to bring much-needed stability, but usually minimal gains in efficiency. It might be a worthy goal if product quality is very inconsistent leading to high costs.
Operational Efficiency Consultant
Operational efficiency consultants work on bringing operations closer to their full potential and challenge old habits. They can get significant gains in speed (and lead time reduction), drops in inventory, and much higher efficiency.
We'll be focusing on the second type of a manufacturing process consultant. Again, the goal is lasting improvements.
How to Choose a Manufacturing Process Consultant
Now that we have established the need for process improvement, how do you find a notable consultant? Process improvement consultants will use several techniques to analyse any manufacturing process and propose valuable solutions. To find one that's worth their rates, here is what you should look for.
Understanding Takt Time
Takt time is the time needed to complete customer demand. Like many manufacturing terms, takt time has its origins in Japanese. Takt time is a borrowing of the Japanese word takuto taimu (タクトタイム), which in turn was borrowed from the German word Taktzeit, meaning 'cycle time.' (That does not imply that takt time and cycle time are identical despite the word's origin. We will cover cycle time later).
A consultant understanding takt time lets them know how often the product should be produced and then "right size" the process. The right size means keeping the process consistent by producing only as much as needed. Capacity may exist to make more products, but that would create waste since there would be no customers to buy those products.
Takt can be understood with this simple formula:
Total Available Production Time/
Average Customer Demand
= Takt Time
Understanding Cycle Time
Cycle time is the time it takes to complete specific tasks from start to finish. For example, a piece of metal must be stamped before being polished and packaged. Each step, including moving the product to the next step, is a different cycle time. The overall cycle time is how long it takes for a product to move from raw material to finished product.
A process consultant needs to understand the cycle time of every process to see where there is downtime and how changing the process can improve overall effectiveness. A good process consultant should know the difference between cycle and takt times. While these sound like the same thing, they are different. Takt time is the rate needed to meet consumer demand, while cycle time is the actual time to complete all the processes. If the process consultant does not know this difference, they are not worth it.
Combining Takt Time and Cycle Time For Process Improvement
Process improvement requires understanding the cycle time to make changes to the process to meet the required takt time. Doing so prevents underproduction (unable to meet customer demand) and overproduction (producing more products than customer demand). Both are of waste. A good process has precisely as much as needed as quickly as required.
Let’s take the previous example about the pressing and polishing of a product. If stamping takes 10 seconds and polishing takes 30 seconds with no break between the process, a new product will be produced every 40 seconds, so the factory produces 720 units over an 8-hour shift. If the customer demand is 960 units per day, no problem. However, that is too high if the customer demand is 720 units per day. In such a case, the process consultant would advise reducing the manufacturing time from 8 to 6 hours or slowing the line so that there is a 10-second delay between the processes to match the cycle time with the takt time.
It works in the other direction as well. For example, if the customer demand is higher, the process control recommends additional working hours or equipment.
The Value of Process Improvement and How a Consultant Can Help
This is a highly simplified version of what a manufacturing process could look like; however, it gives a good idea of what a process consultant can do. Process improvement creates a huge value add for factories and any process consultant worth their salt knows how to use these tools. A study by Cycle Time Management (CTM) showed that companies that enhance their processes could see an improvement in profitability by 12 points. A good process consultant can improve profitability, reduce excess inventory, and increase customer satisfaction.
