Assembly Productivity / Production Flow
Increasing assembly productivity from 0.8 to 2.5 machines per person per day
Redesigning machine assembly from individual bench builds into a four-station production flow.
Previous hands-on production-engineering work; not presented as a FlowForge customer engagement.
- Machines produced per person per day
- 0.8 → 2.5
The initial condition
Each operator effectively built a machine from start to finish. Before beginning a build, they walked through the warehouse and collected roughly 160 individual components, then returned to their own workbench to assemble the machine.
Material collection was part of the assembler’s job rather than a separate material-supply process. Each operator had to manage the complete build, the material and the workspace.
The benches had accumulated tools, jigs and equipment that were no longer needed for every build. Clutter left limited clear space for preassemblies, the machine, assembly trolleys and organised material.
What we observed
Operator time and workspace were being consumed by the activities around assembly: collecting a full machine’s worth of material, managing components at the bench, working around unnecessary equipment and finding space for the build.
Operators also performed many different assembly operations rather than working within a defined production sequence. The assembler was compensating for weaknesses in the way the production system had been designed.
What changed
The individual build benches were replaced with a four-station production line. The machine build was divided into four defined stages, with each station arranged around the work performed there.
- Station 1
- Station 2
- Station 3
- Station 4
- Give each station only the tools and jigs required for its operation, and remove unnecessary equipment and clutter.
- Define the components and preassemblies consumed at each station and present them at the point of use.
- Move responsibility for supplying material toward the warehouse/logistics process, rather than having assemblers collect the complete build themselves.
- Create defined floor locations for preassemblies, trolleys and production material, using floor markings to make the expected condition visible.
- Create a repeatable sequence through the four stations. Repeating the same group of tasks improved familiarity and contributed to faster, more consistent execution.
- Collecting a full machine’s worth of material from the warehouse.
- Managing a large number of components at an individual bench.
- Working around tools and jigs not required for the current operation.
- Finding space for preassemblies and the machine itself.
- Performing many different operations without a defined production sequence.
The change gave operators more time for assembly and reduced the collecting, searching, organising and working around an unstructured workstation.
The result
Assembly productivity increased from approximately 0.8 to 2.5 machines per person per day. This was the combined effect of improved flow, cleaner workstations, defined production stages, point-of-use material, reduced material collection, clearer workplace organisation and greater repetition and familiarity within each station. The improvement is not attributed to one countermeasure.
The production lesson
Low productivity does not automatically mean the operator needs to work faster.
If an assembler is walking, collecting material, searching for tools, organising parts and making space before they can assemble, those losses belong to the production system.
“How much of the operator’s day is actually spent doing the work we hired them to do?”
Review the work in your operation
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