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Production Management of Small Batch and Variety

The production mode of small batch and multi-variety is to adapt to the changing market, according to market demand, order, quality, quantity and punctual production. In the market economy, consumers tend to diversify their hobbies and pursue high-level, unique and popular commodities different from others. New products emerge in an endless stream. In order to expand market share, enterprises must adapt to this change in the market. The diversification of enterprise products has become an inevitable trend. Of course, we should see that the diversification of products and the emergence of new products will also lead to the elimination of some products before they are out of date and still have usable value. It is a great waste of social resources, and this phenomenon should arouse people's attention. Its goal is to shorten the delivery time and reduce the inventory of the production system.

1.Improve adaptability to changing demand

Small batch, single piece transmission

Multi-skilled employees

Internal Quality Assurance System of Processes

Universalization of Equipment and Fixtures

2.To expose manufacturing problems and their weaknesses

Quality failure

Equipment failure

Workload imbalance

Transfer time

3.Eliminate waste caused by improper production management and reduce production management costs

Material waiting due to improper production management

Unnecessary type change due to improper production management

Increase in indirect operations due to improper production management

4. Improve the adaptability of manufacturing to short delivery time

Eliminating Stagnation ( Information of it)

Reduce the number of intermediate products in process

Synchronization

Characteristics of small batch and multi-variety

1. Multivariate Parallel

Because the products of many enterprises are aimed at customer configuration, different products have different needs, and the resources of enterprises are in many varieties.

2. Resource Sharing

Every task in the production process needs resources, but the resources available in the actual process are very limited. For example, equipment conflicts are often encountered in the production process, which is caused by project resource sharing. Therefore, limited resources must be appropriately allocated to meet project needs.

3. Uncertainty of Order Result and Production Cycle

Because the demand of customers is unstable, and the planned nodes are inconsistent with the complete cycle of human, machine, material, method, loop, etc., the production cycle is often uncertain. The project with insufficient cycle needs more resources, which increases the difficulty of production control.

4. Variable material requirements lead to serious procurement delays

Due to the insertion or change of the order, it is difficult for external processing and procurement to reflect the order delivery time. Because of small batches and single source of goods, the supply risk is very high.

Difficulties in small batches and multi-varieties

1. Dynamic process path planning and virtual unit line deployment: emergency plug-in, equipment failure, and bottleneck drift.

2. Bottleneck identification and drift: before and during production

3. Multi-level bottleneck: assembly line bottleneck, parts virtual line bottleneck, how to coordinate coupling.

4. Buffer size: either backlog or poor anti-jamming. Production batch, and transfer batch, etc.

5. Production scheduling: We should not only consider bottlenecks, but also the impact of non-bottleneck resources.

There are also many problems in the practice of multi-variety and small-batch production mode in enterprises, such as:

It is very difficult to arrange mixed production for multi-variety and small-batch production.

If delivery is not on schedule, there are too many "fire fighting" overtime.

Orders require too much follow-up

Frequent changes in production priorities prevented the original plan from being executed

Inventories are increasing, but critical materials are often lacking

The production cycle is too long and it expands indefinitely in advance.

Multi-variety and Small-quantity Production

1.Necessity of Import

Purple: to shorten the manufacturing cycle, reduce inventory and adapt to load changes.

Conditions: shortening the preparation time, multi-frequency handling, process internal quality control, rely on improving manufacturing technology to shorten manufacturing cycle, standard operation, parts synchronous supplying mechanism (parts matching, Kanban management), flexible equipment, production plan to be divided into small batches to organize production.

The ultimate goal: balanced production: daily multi-model production + single-piece transmission production with different models mixed

2.Are all types of machines suitable for small quantity batch production?

This is not the case. Manufacturing should match the sales speed, so the market demand for large-scale or medium-batch production of models.

ABC analysis method is derived from the PQ analysis method which can distinguish the boundary.

Mode of production:

1. For mass production

1. For Medium-batch production

1. For small batch production

Because the market is changing in many directions, mass production is the reason for the increase of inventory. We should try our best to avoid this mode of production, so that we can reduce the inventory by daily production (small batch production).

Balanced production

3.Promotion of Manufacturing Engineering

(1)Establishing flexible production system

Multi-variety and small-batch production is the mechanism of efficient manufacturing

• Short operation preparation time can achieve rapid transfer of production

• Quality in-process control

• Balanced production, standard operation

• Multi-skilled employees

• Universalization of Equipment and Fixture

(2) Shortening Manufacturing Cycle

• A system of prompt delivery after receipt of orders

• Eliminate stagnation (material, information)

• Improve the Synchronized Purchasing Rate of Departments

• Reduction of intermediate manufactured goods

• Improve layout (shorten work station)

4. Specific measures in process

(1) Automatic plug-in process

(a) Reduction of work-in-process products

(b)Shortening the transfer time of self-plugging machine

(c) Improving the shutdown of machinery and equipment

(d)Overall and thorough maintenance of machinery and equipment

(e) Establish standard quantity of work-in-process products

(2) SKD process

(a) Shorten the preparation time for the transfer

(b) Rapid preparation of debugging rack

(c) Completely reduce the number of products in the process to zero

(3)CTV assembly

(a) Shorten the preparation time for the transfer

(b)Completely realize the process balance of wire body

(c)Repair the machine on the day it breaks down (don't leave it till tomorrow)

(4) Injection Molding Plant

(a) Shorten the operational preparation time for conversion

(b)Logistics discussion

(c) Maintain adequate inventory

(d) Overall and thorough maintenance of machinery and equipment

5.The Role of Indirect Sector

Design Department

(1)Promoting standardized design

(2)Shortening the design cycle.... Design Specification determines high efficiency and short period design of process

(3) Improve the design completeness

Procurement Department

(1) Strengthen cooperation among departments

(2) Shorten procurement cycle

(3) Rethink the Unilateral Form

(4) Separation of order and delivery instructions

(5) Delivery date management and supplier guidance

(6) Establishment of material management and parts delivery system at manufacturing site

Production and Technology Departments (Including Related Departments)

(1) Development of basic technology (including equipment and instruments)

(2) Introduce production design method

(3) Shorten the time of transfer

(4) Shorten manufacturing cycle

(5) Train generalists

Production switching of multi-varieties and small batch orders

The switching action on the production site can be divided into the following types:

Type 1: Mould, Tool, Fixture and Mould Switching

This type of switching can be seen more in mechanical processing plants and plastic injection plants, and it is also the most common example of switching action.

For example, the die of punch, injection moulding machine, lathe, drill tool replacement, etc. Therefore, it is sometimes collectively referred to as "die changing operation" or "die changing". However, this usage is easy to mislead people who are not sure about it, or beginners. They think that the switching action is limited to the switching of moulds and so on. Therefore, I think that it is more appropriate to use "switching" as a general term.

Type 2: Switching of Standard Change

For example, when computers and numerical controllers are used in precision cutting or chemical devices, once the product is changed, the setting conditions must be changed. In fact, in the whole process of "switching", adjustment is the most time-consuming and difficult part to overcome.

Type 3: Switching of parts and materials in assembly line

In the assembly line, when the product changes, the parts or materials used must follow the change. This kind of action is generally called "line-changing operation". In traditional Line-Changing operations, it's common to wait until the last product is finished before the whole production line stops to change.

As an assembly line with many assemblies, this method will cause a long time of shutdown and a great loss. In fact, if we can change the line in sequence, no matter how many stations there are on the assembly line, the loss of the change time is only cycle time of one station.

Type 4: General preparation before manufacture

It refers to the preparatory work that must be done before the start of manufacturing, such as drawing review before mechanical processing, job assignment and cleaning up after work.

Four kinds of switching actions, though different in content, result in production standstill is the same. However, most people only focus on the improvement of switching action in the first mode changing operation, while ignoring the improvement of the other three modes. In fact, the improvement of the latter three types is easy to achieve. It also saves considerable switching time

HASCO is a leading European manufacturing company for moulding services and moulds, and is considered to be the standard maker for European moulds. The company recently developed a Quick-Change Mold System. This enables injection moulding manufacturers to quickly and effectively replace their moulds to reduce the time and cost of resetting their machines. Mould printed by Stratasys 3D Printer makes the whole process cheaper. It can make cnc prototype china samples faster and cheaper, or make small batch production with reasonable cost.

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