Accessories & Gears

Module 6 :
MANUFACTURING CONCEPT
6.3 Continuous Flow and Process Balancing

Updated by: Rina Lukiandari

Date: November 2017
CONTENT

1 Definition & Objectives

2 Advantages

3 Process Balancing

4 Continuous Flow

5 One Piece Flow

6 Expectation & Evaluation

DEFINITION & OBJECTIVE
Definition

FLOW
Flow means to “move along in a steady, continuous stream.”

CONTINUOUS FLOW

A continuous flow process is a method of manufacturing that aims to move a single

unit in each step of a process, rather than treating units as batches for each step. No
breaks in time, sequence, substance or extent.

BALANCING
Balancing, is leveling the workload across all processes in a cell or value stream to
remove bottlenecks and excess capacity.
Objective

➢
Set up excellence manufacturing flow

➢ Fulfill customer’s needs

➢ Reducing work-in-process inventory

➢ Shorten production lead time

➢ Gain higher efficiency

ADVANTAGES
Advantage

➢
Easy to identify problem and imbalance

➢ No/Little Work In Process (WIP)

➢ Quality Improvement

➢ Improvement in Machine Availability

 PROCESS
BALANCING
How to Achieve Excellence in Manufacturing Process

Step 4: Change
manufacturing
Step 3: Process Organization
balance within
session

Step 2: processes
capacity and
balance – Session
level

Step1: Takt time

calculation
Step 1: Takt Time Analysis

Takt Time
Takt is the German word for the baton that an orchestra conductor uses to regulate the tempo of
the music. Takt time may be thought of as a measurable “beat time,” “rate time” or “heartbeat.”
In Lean, takt time is the rate at which a finished product needs to be completed in order to meet
customer demand.

Takt Time = Total time available

Total customer demand
Example:
Monthly Orders 50000
Working Hours 10
Shifts 2
Working Da ys/Month 25
Ava ila ble Working Hours 500
Ava ila ble Working Minutes 1800000
Ta kt Time (s) 36
Definition Of Cycle Time

Operator cycle time

The total time required for an operator to complete one cycle of
operation, including walking, loading/unloading, inspecting, etc.

Machine cycle time

The time between the instant the on button is pressed and the point
at which the machine returns to its original position after completing
the operation
Step 2: Process Balancing : Simple Example

Overproduction which
causes the other 6 wastes
Over-processing
Inventory Waiting Rework
Transportation Motion
5 mins 25 mins 15 mins 10 mins

1 2 3 4

Constraint This operator This operator

Overburden must WAIT for must WAIT for
25 operator 2 operator 3
20
mins 15
10
5

1 2 3 4
Process Balancing : Simple Example

Promotes one- Avoids Minimizes the 8 Reduces

piece FLOW overburden wastes Variation

15 mins 15 mins 15 mins 10 mins

Cutting Printing Printing Packing

Redistribute the work

25
20
15
10
5
What Is Process/Line Balancing?

➢ Everyone is doing the same amount of work

➢ Doing the same amount of work to customer requirement

➢ No one overburdened

➢ Variation is ‘smoothed’

➢ No one waiting

➢ Everyone working together in a BALANCED fashion

ECRS principal on process balancing

Eliminate
In this step, it’s important to identify the steps that can be quickly eliminated. Where possible, eliminate the
details of work.
Combine
When work cannot be eliminated, then seek to combine them. In this step, the Combine phase addresses the
Who, Where, and When.
Rearrange
Work can also be rearranged.
Simplify
A good rule of thumb regardless of the situation is to simplify anyway. Of course, we want to Eliminate first but,
if not, then Combine, Rearrange, and Simplify will be helpful.
Identifying Value Added and Non-Value Added Operation

Value Added Non-Value Adding Waste

Any work carried out that
Any process that changes All other meaningless, non-
does not increase product
the nature, shape or essential activities that do
value but unavoidable with
characteristics not add value to the
current technology or
of the product, in line with product you can eliminate
methods.
customer requirements. immediately,
e.g: inspection, part
e.g : machining, assembly e.g. looking for tools,
movement, tool changing,
waiting time
maintenance
Questions to ask on process balancing

The full set of questions to be ask during process balancing:

• Why do we do this step? Is this step needed?

• Why do we do it this way? Is there an easier way to do it?
• When is the best time to do this? Is it now?
• Would two peoples doing the job make it faster?
• Who is the best person to do this?
• Where is the best place to do this?
 -
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
35.0
40.0

5.0
30.0
Inflate bladder&inspection
Inspect roundness&cleaning
Gluing on bladder
Patch carcass
Unload and reload curing machine

33.0
Inflate carcass and measure circumference
Deflate bladder Patch carcass, 33.0
Weight carcass and record
Apply glue/latex&Put carcass in drying…
Unload and reload curing machine,

Laminate PU in one roll

Laminate POE in one roll
Laminate Canvas in one roll
PU cutting - auto cutting
Sheet sizing
Laminate PU in one roll, 37.6

Semi-auto cutting
Sheet sizing
Semi-auto cutting
Patch punching for vale hole
Sheet sizing, 12.1

Patch cutting -- small piece

Printing
Inspection panels before assembly
Printing, 33.0

Cleaning
POE stack and fixture cleaning
POE edge spraying

CT(s)
Drying, remove the film
PU&POE assembly
Collect panels after CUP
Panel forming
Panel cool shapping

Takt Time
Drying, remove the film , 33.0

Panel repair by gluing

Panel forming, 15.3

Corona treatment
Inspection and panel punching for vale
Panel cool shapping, 35.0

Auto panel edge gluing

Less CT
Corona treatment, 29.2

Collect panels after drying

Panel back side gluing
Build Panel sets for assembly after drying
Auto panel edge gluing, 5.7

1st 4 pcs panel assembly

weight and match panel and carcass
last 2 pcs panel assembly
ball curing
Remove tape and cleaning
Inspection and repair
ball curing , 14.7
Step 3: Process balancing within session

Shapping
QA in line inspection
Shapping, 10.4

Repairing
Inflate ball
Cleaning
Final inspection
Inflate ball, 10.4

Inflate ball for 24hours air leakage…

Inspect the air-pressure and measure the…
Final inspection, 33.0

Cleaning
Quality inspection before shipment
the circumference, put

Folding OMB ball box

Insert in bag/ball box
label, 6.3

put label *3
Inspect the air-pressure and measure

Scan
Stick label of carton and put balls inside…
11.5label *3, 16.4

Folding/seamling carton&carton

Folding/seamling carton&carton label

Step 4: Change Manufacturing Organization
THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTIONAL
MANUFACTURING ORGANIZATION

Factory Manager

Planning Maintenance
Quality Costing
Purchasing Merchandising

WIP WIP WIP

Cutting Printing Sewing Packaging

Step 4: Change Manufacturing Organization

Factory Manager
Core
Management
Team

Scheduling Quality Scheduling Quality Scheduling Quality

Purchasing Costing Purchasing Costing Purchasing Costing
Maintenance Merchant. Maintenance Merchant. Maintenance Merchant.
U
Cutting
UUU UUU U U U Cutting
UUU U Printing
Printing
UUU UUU Sewing
Sewing UUU U UU Packaging
Packaging
Summary of Line Balancing Process
Capture the current state Balance to TAKT & eliminate waste
Calculate Takt Balance to TAKT
time
Reduce Non Value Added
Time the process and eliminate waste
2
1
5hrs
Break down the Re-allocate work & re-
work elements balance

Draw current Update calculations &

state Line Balance update S.O.P

Calculate target
manpower Can this be
improved?
Yes
Calculate Line No
Balance Ratio & Complete work instruction
Efficiency (standardise) & implement
CONTINUOUS
FLOW
Flow in Lean Manufacturing

The goal:
• Create conditions for continuous movement of
each product through the entire value stream.

• Be able to explain the outcome/purpose of

flow

• Be able to see fake flow and rebalance the

process
Identifying Fake Flow

Question to ask
• Do operators wait while machines cycle?
• Is there more than one piece of material between workstations?
• Do operators produce in batches
• Do operators ever wait for work from the preceding workstation?
• Do some operators finish their work ahead of takt time?
• Is any part of the cell more than five feet wide?
• Does output of the same product varies during the day?
• Can operators keep up cycle time?
 The 3 Kinds of Flow

The Value Adding Flow In order to determine the work

involved in establishing a flow, it is
A B C D E F G necessary to delimit the task. There
are three kinds of flow:

1. The internal value adding flow that

focuses on production processes
2. The internal supply flow (material
flow)
Inventory 3. The external supply flow (raw
The Internal Supply Flow materials and finished products)

The External Supply Flow

ONE PIECE FLOW
One Piece Flow
Definition:
• Single piece flow is the ideal state where parts are manufactured one at a time, and flow throughout the
manufacturing and supply chain as single unit, transferred as customer’s order.
• Manufacturing large batches of parts simultaneously, or accumulating parts in a bin for shipping or
transferring 2 or more parts at the same time is opposite or contrasted to the definition of Single Piece
Flow.
• Single Piece Flow (SPF) supports Just-in-Time, Toyota Production Systems, Lean Manufacturing.

Symptoms indicating that it is needed:

• Long lead times.
• High inventories.
• Large batches of defects & rework, all with the same or similar defect.
• Slow changeovers.
• Left-overs at beginning & end of production run.
One Piece Flow
Benefit:
• Improved quality and fewer defects.
• Reduced inventory, thus easier to see production problems.
• Less space required to build product.
• Shorter lead time.

Condition to have One-Piece-Flow to work:

• Processes must be able to consistently produce good product. If there are many quality issues, one-piece
flow is impossible.
• Process times must be repeatable and not much unpredictable variation.
• Equipment must have very high (near 100 percent) uptime. Equipment must always be available to run and
not plagued with downtime.
• Processes must be able to be scaled to takt time, or the rate of customer demand. For example, if takt time
is 5 minutes, processes should be able to scaled to run at one unit every 5 minutes.
• One-piece-flow cannot work where the operation times were very short or with equipment requires big
batch to run efficiently (e.g due to excessive distance between facility or large capacity of the machine)
How material’s flowing

Conventional line:
• No conveyor
• Operator sits side by side and facing each other.
• Large material stock
• Each operator works on big batch.

One piece flow line:

• With feeding line (conveyor belt)
• Operator sits with conveyor on left side.
• 1 basket contains 1 set of materials
• Each operator works on 1 basket

Conveyor Solution Push Solution

Space and WIP

Conventional line:
Material stock (racks) occupy space

One piece flow line:

Cleaner space, no racks
Set Up

1 • Works are balanced among operators.

If using conveyor belt: speed is set up according to article takt time.

Example:
• Line target is 100 pcs/hour. Meaning, takt time is 0.6 mins.
• Conveyor speed is set up in a way that 1 basket has to come
out of conveyor in every 0.6 mins.

• First operator in the line input materials set into the line. One
basket contains complete set of 1 product. No basket should be
lifted of the line nor stacked.

• Sewing operators arrangement is by having the feeding line on

their left side for closer handling distance. Therefore on each
side of the line, operators are facing opposite direction.
Set Up
• No main material are delivered to individual operator. They have to come
2 from basket.

• On each side of feeding line there are 2 operators doing same job. Ensure that
they don’t work on the same basket! Therefore, in case it is a single feeding
line they have to use the baskets alternatively.

Single Flow Double Flow

Set Up
• On MSB: basket stops at bladder inserting operation.
3 • Empty baskets are stacked, picked up and transported every certain time to the beginning of the line.

• On MSB: hand sewing doesn’t require basket as the ball is transported by chute conveyor.

Bladder Inserting End of the line Hand Sewing

One PIece Flow Layout

6 5 4 3 2 1

chute conveyor belt conveyor trolley

6 5 4 3 2 1

Inspection/ hand sewing bladder inserting cylinder arm flat bed sewing panel
packing sewing machine machine preparation
One PIece Flow VIdeo
Video - sample
EXPECTATION
Expectation: roles & responsibilities

✓ To create timeline for one piece flow.

✓ One piece flow is applied on sewing/modular lines.
✓ Operators are working with correct method.
FTY ✓ Processed/line balancing are being measured and analyzed.
✓ Continuous flow with measured WIP in place after process balancing.

✓ Support and monitor the progress of the one piece flow, continuous flow, line
balancing and WIP reduction.

✓ Drive and support factory on running the one piece flow, continuous flow, line
ME balancing and WIP reduction..
✓ Collect and analyze of the results of the project from factory.
EVALUATION
The score

Advance
One piece flow,
continuous flow,
process balancing
and WIP reduction.

2
are fully
implemented in all
processes

Intermediate
One piece flow, continuous flow,
process balancing and WIP
reduction. are partially
implemented 1
Basic
One piece flow, continuous flow, process balancing and
WIP reduction. are not implemented
0
 Document Modification Record
Revision Date Versions Revision Content Revised by

2014-1-12 V 1.0 New build Bono

2018-01 V 2.0 New format Rina

2018-03 Add One Piece Flow subject and update Continuous Flow Rina
subject