2021 年的新线路步行课程！

Manufacturers understand the need for continuous improvement. Whether it's about adapting to improve efficiency or satisfying customer needs, you'll succeed most when your production processes align with your overall business strategy. 生产线巡视 are an effective way for your team to discover missed opportunities, eliminate waste, gain insight into production workflow, support and unite your employees, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. I've come to believe in Production Line Walks because they almost always result in clear answers to a common customer goal…

"I want my team to do what we do but better than we do it now."

I can't count how many conversations I've had where customers echo that wish. I've worked with hundreds of manufacturers up and down the supply chain and no two of them have ever been the same, yet every single one has looked to do two things:

为他们的客户提供更大的价值
在他们所做的事情和他们做事的方式上尽可能高效

取自精益管理策略 现场散步, a Production Line Walk is a literal start-to-finish walk through your production process. You evaluate and observe everything. You see the process. You understand the workflow. You ask questions. You learn. Then you take everything you've seen and heard and locate the points where you can improve to make things faster, safer, easier, less costly, and just plain better.

This alone can solve some of your team's most 常见的生产挑战.以下是我在您的下一次生产线巡视中包含的前五项建议：

1. 以全新的眼光和诚实的态度开始您的生产线巡视

If you're like me, sometimes you can get lost in the day-to-day operations and lose sight of what's really going on in your business. As your business grows, it can also be easy to unintentionally create two sets of staff — the people who make decisions and the people who really know what's going on.

您可以通过召集您的团队一起提出以下问题来重置您的系统：

我们做对了什么？我们的哪些流程符合公司目标？
是否存在影响我们实现高质量输出能力的挑战？哪些因素会减慢进程？
我们可以实施哪些持续改进策略来使流程与公司总体目标保持一致？

Once you've taken an honest assessment of where your production is, you can bring in fresh eyes to help implement new ideas. This can be new staff, people from other departments, or other facilities — or 给 Optimas 一个电话，要求对您的流程进行诚实的自上而下的审查. Don't be afraid of what you might find; consider it an opportunity for improvement.

2. Don't Just Change for the Sake of Change

I know, I know, I just said to be open and honest about opportunities for change. But hear me out — not all change is good, effective or necessary. Are the changes you make moving your business toward your end goal? If yes, make the change. If not, or you're not sure, maybe it's not a priority you need to worry about today.

您的生产线巡视应该聚焦于现在需要解决的大问题、可能产生重大影响的小变化（继续阅读以了解更多信息），以及为决策者、设施经理平滑生产通道的总体步骤和您的员工队伍。

Consider triaging your challenges. Address the big problems. Fix the smaller things that can't wait. Then, create a list of what's left over — the lower priority items that you and your team can look at later. Make a plan to address these during future team meetings and correct them if needed.

3. 用你的线路寻找具有巨大潜力的小变化

I told you that we'd come back to this.

It's amazing how often I've seen Production Line Walks reveal small, seemingly inconsequential improvement opportunities that could easily go unnoticed. This is where line walks really earn your investment of time and staff resources. These small things can multiply quickly. Results from recent line walk recommendations by Optimas have included:

将每年使用 100,000 次的机加工销钉替换为更简单的分体销钉，将售价从 $5.00/每个降低到 $0.40/每个
材料的变化导致移除了现在不需要的水箱——释放了占地面积并减少了组装时间和能源使用量近 $3,000/年
将返修阶梯销铰链的方法从需要一小时工作的过程更改为需要五分钟的过程
将单个硬件重新构想为三件式系统，从而将每年生产的数千件产品的成本降低了 $10/单位
开发耐油漆螺栓以替代劣质螺栓——为客户节省额外成本和生产时间

大的改变肯定会导致成功，但许多小的课程修正也可以。着眼于调整您的操作并在此过程中引入小的改进——它们都会随着时间的推移而累积起来。

4.生产线走动可以确定要切割的东西和要添加的东西

You may have noticed that not all of the examples I mentioned above involved "cuts" or eliminations. You can only take away so much before you risk hurting product quality and team pride. In fact, adding costs along the way may still reduce overall costs. Sometimes making more work for yourself at Step 2 in the process means that Steps 5, 6 and 7 can be completed in half the time.

当您寻找降低成本和提高效率的方法时，还要考虑添加一些东西的方法。是另一个站点，另一个工人，利用新技术，还是使用更坚固的材料？并非每项改进都来自于减少浪费；有时它来自增值.

5. 有 Optimas 的 Line Walks 比没有 Optimas 的 Line Walks 更好

我们以制造商的心态进行巡线，因为我们是制造商. Optimas 工程师已经为数百家制造商走过生产线，现在您可以拥有丰富的经验。

We're with you through the whole process. We have the ability and the capability to become the source of changes you want to implement. Whether it's supplying 成品或原型解决方案通过 3D 打印，我们的工程师可以完成我们为您的团队提供的许多建议。

I promise you that a Production Line Walk is worth your time and a line walk with Optimas is your best bet for success. Line walks can be incredibly beneficial to your operations, your supply chain relationships, and your bottom line. If you're ready to schedule a production line walk at your facility, 立即与 Optimas 工程专家交谈 — we're here to help you 效率提升.