FlowVision understands that one significant difference between a world class manufacturer and an average one is how quickly they are able to get high quality products through their factories and into customer hands. There are numerous factors that play into this process and FlowVision has over 20 years of experience delivering tangible, measurable improvements across all aspects of production.
How to Implement Lean Flow
For Manufacturing
Fully understanding the delta between how many labor hours or machine hours it takes to manufacture a product versus how long it takes to ship a product from the order being received is the first step in identifying significant areas of improvement. FlowVision creates Process Flow Charts of all the current manufacturing processes, links processes together and identify areas where improvements can be made.
Typically the work content time is a tiny fraction of the time it takes to manufacture a product (from order receipt to customer delivery) and we are able to reduce or eliminate a significant portion of this waste. Because our process is math based we are able to develop and deliver consistent measurable results that can be compared to previous benchmarks.
While gains can be achieved by making incremental improvements (kaizen event) to various improvement projects throughout the manufacturing floor, the real gains happen when all processes, end-to-end, are linked and then evaluated (holistic approach). This is where FlowVision differentiates itself; rather than improving the flow of a single machine, tooling station, cell, or process we look at how that process fits into the overall flow of the line. We then make sure that each process is efficiently linked to the next and designed to run at capacity.
As FlowVision works with manufacturers to implement Lean Flow Principles throughout the facility, we also focus on designing quality checks into the process. Inspections at the end of a line (inspecting end quality) add significant costs and contribute to delays. FlowVision will design quality into the process.
Lean factories by design are able to carry significantly less inventory (raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods) and FlowVision’s ION software gives manufacturers a powerful solution to better optimize inventory levels and fill rates. As a manufacturer starts to adopt pull methods and lead times shrink throughout the factory, inventory optimization is needed and dynamic reorder points will become imperative. ION is able to drive improvement in inventory turns while increasing fill rates.
FlowVision delivers reduced lead times and inventories coupled with greater productivity and quality which translates into strong improvements in both working capital and cashflow. Along with that manufacturers are able to be more responsive with greater speed to market giving them a significant edge over their competition.
Alliance Laundry Systems
Lean Flow helps Alliance Laundry Systems deliver a highly configurable product without carrying significant inventory.