Formalising the Assembly layout

It was not possible to collect data with which to perform Assembly layout redesign calculations such as load-distance analysis, and block diagram. This is because the case study company did not deem these necessary. In any case, they have a point since the Assembly shopfloor is not large and the distance between work stations were quite miniscule; apart from foam making and drum balancing all the other tasks are carried out at the same place. Also, since the adoption of the small batch method, lack of space was no longer a problem. Finally, while the company was willing to allow rearrangement of the workbenches and relocation of the balancing machine they did not want to relocate the foam making work centre due to the expense and undesirable closeness rating.

Thus, all that was required is to use the information provided by the line balancing (including associated calculations) to bring work stations closer while ensuring that each work station have enough space. Accordingly, a new Assembly layout was formulated (figure 38) and

155

presented to the company. In the proposed layout, drums will be trued, balanced at work

centre 1 then passed to work centre 2. At work centre 2 the drum will be added to

prepared motors, then the prepared cases before passing the assembled unit to work

centre 3. At work centre 3 the various labels will be affixed, the unit tested and data

recorded. At work centre 4, the packaging foam will be made and passed to work

centre 3, where it will be used for packaging the unit as required.

up

down

Offices, Canteen, and Toilet

Case and Diaphragm Depot

0.70m True-up & Balance drum Work Bench 1.00m Work Bench Packing Area

Redundant storage space

Space has become redundant

Work Centre 1 Work Centre 2: Finish & Test Case and Motor tasks Work Centre 3 Finish, test and pack Work Centre 4 Make foam

Figure 36: Proposed Assembly Line layout

The proposed layout promises considerable gain space saving, time saving and reduction in component travel i.e. enhanced overall workflow. Presently, when drums and cases are brought back from the powder coaters, they are first delivered to Assembly who then deliver the drums to Manufacturing (a distance of more than 100 metres). At manufacturing department, the drums are trued-up at the Hand spinning workstation and then transported back to Assembly. Obviously, this involves a lot of

156

waste i.e. waste of excessive transportation, of excessive movement and waiting. Hence, performing true-up operation at the Assembly will result in many improvements including space utilisation. Also it would further increase the capacity of Hand spinning workstation (manufacturing), which is still a bottleneck.

As can also be seen, the space formerly dedicated for the balancing station as well as the space formerly devoted for storing in-process subassemblies such as Cases and Diaphragms have become redundant. Two reasons are responsible for this: first, through actual measurement of space requirement (which cannot be shown here due to confidentiality) it was found that the trueing-up machine and the balancing machine can be relocated to Work centre 1 (it normally houses the testing machine); secondly, due to introduction of small batch method, the company no longer require a lot of space for storing in-process-subassemblies.

The author also suggested investing in machines that can automatically affix the various labels as well as other means of preparing documentation, testing and recording unit’s data into the system. This can include bar-coding and barcode reading machine as well as radio frequency identification (RFID) tag technology, which are widely available in the market. This would save assembly time as well as removal of human error when recording unit information into the system.

6.5 Results

This proposed Assembly layout was presented to the company’s management who accepted the logic behind it and are now set to implement it. The company have now acquired a reconditioned hand lathe for trueing-up operation. Hence, in the proposed Assembly layout, Truing-up will be performed on Assembly shopfloor close to where it is really needed.

Other results include:

1. Availability of information for planning production in future. 2. Formalising the Assembly layout and identifying free space.

157

3. Improvement of Assembly quality, tidiness as well as health and safety due to properly marked out layout and implementation of standard Assembly steps.

4. Determination of accurate manpower requirement. For example, it is now clear that the company do not require more than 4 assembly operatives to achieve the weekly output.

5. As confirmed by the Quality Consultant and the MD, the introduction of assembly manuals and associated quality checks has removed assembly errors such as incorrect torqueing completely.

6.6 Conclusion

The ease with which the methodology used on the manufacturing shopfloor was deployed on the Assembly shopfloor further validated the approach adopted by this study. It demonstrated the role power plays when change is being implemented in an organisation (power is politics’ contiguous neighbour). At the assembly shopfloor, the Operations Director has absolute control and his words are not challenged, and cannot easily be challenged due to existing power balance. Recall that previously the case study company mainly assembled its products. Thus it has considerable knowledge and expertise in this area.

The assembly process was uncomplicated; the operatives did not own any special skills unlike the operatives on the manufacturing shopfloor. The skills and processes required to work on the assemble shopfloor can be learned within a few hours; as a consequence, use of temporary workers supplied by recruitment agencies was common. The assembly operatives cannot form a cohesive unit and have no bargaining power. Therefore, they cannot strive for job control; optimising their work was easy since all that was required was deployment of manufacturing optimisation tools. There was no need to pay too much attention to the human side unlike the situation met on the Manufacturing shopfloor. Deploying WCM tools may have their attraction because of their precise analysable characteristics but Politics is a fundamental part of all organizations – large or small, manufacturing or otherwise.

158

And although political issues by and large are not always easy to decode, knowledge of it should belong in the toolbox of academics and those wishing to implement process improvement particularly in SMEs.

159

Chapter 7

Discussion

The objective of this thesis was to gain insight into how to evaluate and assist SMEs to become cost effective within their business. Towards this ends, this thesis reviewed academic theories on optimisation of manufacturing techniques and methods of process improvement as found in literature and discussed their relevance to SMEs. Using a case study company, as an implementation and validation platform, a conceptual framework was developed which SMEs can use to achieve the most out of their existing and usually scant resources in order to become more competitive. The findings are put in three of the case study company’s contexts namely the business process, the manufacturing shopfloor, and the assembly shopfloor.

The results and findings confirmed the need for conceptual framework introduced in this study. The work demonstrated that the human side of process improvement is equally if not more important than the deployment of the World Class Manufacturing (WCM) tools and that the key to this is sensitivity to local sensibilities via the Political Approach. This recognises the role of power and politics in manufacturing environment such as in the case study company studied in this thesis.

In what follows, this chapter will discuss the result of the research presented in this thesis and consider their implications as well as any inferences along with analysis of new themes thrown up by the research. The discussion is presented under different headings to highlight chronological achievement of work carried out in this thesis.