If your manufacturing organization is striving to become more efficient (and let’s be honest, who isn’t?), one measurement you’ll need to know is each product’s lot cycle time. This term refers to the total time is takes to manufacture one batch of product at the plant. Taking a calculated and responsible approach to reducing lot cycle time has many benefits, including improved productivity, increased output, and fewer resourced used. It also improves on-time delivery for customers, which is key to running a successful long-term business.
Ultimately, shortening the lot cycle time comes down to one primary goal: eliminating opportunities for disruption or variability throughout production. Achieving both objectives is no small task, but by implementing strategic procedures, your plant can reduce cycle time and significantly improve its overall efficiency.
Revamp the Maintenance Program
When your manufacturing plant relies on multiple pieces of equipment to complete production, any unexpected malfunction or breakdown can cause extended delays and increased lot cycle times. Investing in consistent and preventive maintenance of crucial equipment can help the plant avoid hours or days spent waiting for surprise repairs. To build your list of preventive maintenance needs, consult each machine’s manufacturer for the specific activities involved in equipment upkeep and the recommended frequency of maintenance checks. You can then block out time to complete maintenance on a consistent basis, ideally when each machine is already on downtime to lower lot cycle time most dramatically.
To further enhance maintenance efficiency, consider cross training all technicians at your plant so each employee can work on multiples pieces of equipment. No matter who’s on the clock on a given day, they’ll be able to complete all maintenance needs and quickly address any last-minute repairs that still happen to appear.
Reduce Over-Reliance
Variability and disruptions can also emerge when plants are completely dependent on a single piece of equipment. For example, if every product batch must eventually run through one individual machine, any problem or stoppage with the equipment will bring production screeching to a halt. If you’re running a large batch of product at once, there’s an increased chance of encountering even a small interruption. Once that singular machine is thrown off schedule, the total lot cycle time will only grow longer.
If possible, consider allocating funds to add a second (or third or fourth) machine into the process. When both machines are functional, you’ll be able to produce more product in the same amount of time, and if one of them must go under repair, you can still continue production in some capacity. If adding machines isn’t an option, look instead at your existing tools to see if processes could be adjusted to temporarily use alternative equipment in emergency cases. Even if it’s less efficient than the typical machine, slow production is better than no production.
Optimize the Schedule
Once you’ve decided to implement preventive maintenance and reduce reliance on singular machines, it’s time to effectively put those plans into action with an optimized production schedule. An advanced planning and scheduling tool can identify the best times to fit in activities like maintenance while causing as little disruption to regular production tasks as possible. These tools can also seamlessly add in additional plant equipment or shift the schedule to a backup plan, providing an updated and re-optimized plan of attack.
Our scheduling tool, VirtECS®, has been utilized effectively by numerous manufacturers to lower lot cycle times. In fact, VirtECS® improved lot cycle time of a complex global biologics company by 5.9% and reduced their cycle time variability by 22%. If you’re interested in achieving those kinds of result for your plant, you can get in contact with a VirtECS® expert here.
