Lean thinking in manufacturing has always been a practical means to that most desirable end: A better quality product produced in less time at lower cost. For the past two decades, manufacturers have constantly striven for tight integration of shop floor activities, hopefully resulting in a streamlined environment capable of achieving this Lean sense of “perfection”.
In more basic terms, at its core Lean thinking is informed by the goal of shop waste minimization through the elimination of those activities that do not add value to the product. Simultaneously, the use of scarcer resources is maximized, such as capital investment and personnel. However, while capital investment in tooling and infrastructure (i.e., building, land, etc.) is encumbered by a sense of being “fixed” with regards to improvements in efficiency, the human side of the manufacturing process (i.e., personnel) has much greater flexibility in terms of being able to make immediate adjustments in process toward a better way of doing things.
As a production resource, employees (both production and management) have the capacity for revealing and solving problems at the source, as well as making instant alterations toward “a more perfect” manufacturing process. However, these decisions are–must be–driven by relevant, reliable, real-time shop data entry. Constant process analysis as a Lean principle must involve empowered employees who participate in the collection and dissemination of real-time data; this empowerment always results in improving efficiencies in the shop floor system.
Built as a single point, multi-purpose shop floor/work order management tool, the paperless Touch Screen Data Collection system (TSDC) is designed to be a central collection point and rapid analyzer for important shop floor-generated data. In a Lean production environment, where the need for data is constant, it is paramount that a single integrated system of total shop floor activity tracking controls exists, including costing, purchasing, scheduling, materials management, tracking, inventory control, and labor management (both direct labor and indirect labor).
TSDC provides real-time shop floor control in all aspects of the system, creating the maximization of efficiencies and reduction of waste that are the values at the heart of Lean production. However, any good enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing tool must depend upon the human variable – shop floor personnel – to provide the input of data through the system. Without accurate and consistent attention to data entry, error margins increase to the detriment of reliability. This is why it is important that employees feel not only empowered and vested in the ERP system, but that they are comfortable enough with the technology to include the data entry process as part of their production routine. Without a personnel commitment to total integration of the ERP data collection and the inputting of data into the job flow, analysts are faced with incomplete, if not error-filled, data. This mandate of shop floor data entry is especially important in job shops, make-to-order, make-to-stock, and mixed mode manufacturers where budgets prohibit the addition of a dedicated IT person or staff.
To this end, ERP shop floor …
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All You Need to Know – Using Computers, Printers, Touch Screens, Monitors and LCDs in Harsh Areas
The use of computer equipment is now as wide spread in factories, warehouses and in the industrial sector as it is throughout our offices and homes. There is no wonder really when you consider how useful computer equipment is to monitor and control factory processes or stock levels.
There are challenges in using this type of technology in less than perfect surroundings though, as many industrial and factory settings contain many hostile and harsh elements that can permanently damage and disable this type of computer equipment.
Protecting this type of equipment in these areas can be extremely challenging as industrial areas vary on the types of harsh elements around. Some environments are Electrical Apprenticeship Program dusty and dirty with forklift trucks whizzing up and down the aisles; other areas may be spotlessly clean but water could be used liberally to wash areas down.
Industrial computer enclosures, printer enclosures and touch screen enclosures provide an ideal solution to countering these harsher elements. Most manufacturers of these enclosures produce them to international guidelines such as NEMA 4 or the European IP65/IP54. Not only can they protect against nearly everything modern Manufacturing Engineering Job Summary can throw at them – dust, dirt, water (including jet washing), extreme temperatures, vibrations and heavy impacts – but also they can house any standard off-the shelf piece of equipment.
This has major benefits as inexpensive devices can be used rather than specific industrial computers, industrial printers, industrial touch screens or displays. Even standard TVs can be used in industrial applications for digital signage by housing them in an industrial LCD enclosure.
LCD enclosures and touch screen enclosures are now regularly being used outside for the purposes of outdoor digital signage as they are secure and can withstand everything the weather can throw at them.…