Whether you are a small, privately owned manufacturing business or a larger, more corporate company, any business within the manufacturing and production industry is constantly striving to increase their productivity and efficiency levels.
Here are some top tips to grow and expand your manufacturing business that are relatively simple to introduce.
Maintain Equipment
As in other areas of modern life, it is better to thoroughly and regularly maintain equipment and technologies, rather than having to replace said equipment when it inevitably fails to function.
If you are in charge of a larger manufacturing business, you could even consider outsourcing your information technology and equipment maintenance functions to an established, knowledgeable and professional third-party company who will ensure all your equipment is adhering to the latest government guidelines and is in full working order.
Additionally, it would be strongly advisable to stay abreast of current manufacturing technology trends and study your competitors processes and preferred equipment suppliers.
Lean Manufacturing
Whether you are currently experiencing a lower than expected warehouse productivity level, a poorer standard and quality of products, a lapse in the delivery of your stock in a timely fashion or a mismanagement of quantities of different stock items, warehouse optimization can significantly improve all areas of your company’s production model using the Lean manufacturing philosophy.
Depending on the company you choose to handle your warehouse productivity management, the practical application of the lean philosophy will understandably vary, however each consultancy business tends to follow a similar, five-step process when applying the lean tools and techniques to a business.
- Understanding the Current State of Your Business
- Identifying all Steps in Your Business that Fail to Add Value
- Determining How to Eliminate Those Steps
- Creating the Future State of Your Business
- Building a Sustainment Plan for Your Improved Business to Move Forward
Improve Employee Training
Not only will investing time and money into ensuring every single one of your employees are correctly and regularly trained in the equipment they are using ensure you adhere to the health and safety regulations, it will also offer a greatly appreciated sense of appreciation and belonging to the individual.
When regularly trained, every member of your workforce will naturally be on a level with their co-workers, resulting in a much needed and exceedingly beneficial consistency of working processes and procedures. Standardizing the working processes of your employees, particularly pertaining to those in the factory or warehouse, will result an increased quality and standard of the goods being produced.
There is a plethora of additional benefits to investing and improving in the training of your employees, which include a reduction in wastage, a reduced need for supervision and therefore a greater deal of time saved which can be directed in other areas of the business, a feeling of appreciation and respect felt from your employees to their managers and a general improvement of the skills and knowledge of your workforce as a whole.
