What is measurability in production and what does it provide?

Previously, businesses would determine the price of a product by adding their desired profit margin to the cost of production. In the past, businesses could easily increase profits by raising prices. However, in today's competitive market, it is the market, not the producer, that sets prices. If a price is set above the market norm, it will result in a loss of customers. Since businesses whose aim is to make money do not have the option of changing prices, the only way to increase profits is to reduce costs.

In the production process from order to delivery, numerous operations are carried out. Some of these operations are not remunerated by the customer, but are conducted by the company or are required to be conducted by the company. These operations do not create value and are therefore considered waste. By eliminating these wastes, costs are reduced and company profitability is increased. Eliminating waste also means increasing productivity. In other words, the way to make money in production is through increased productivity.

To improve productivity, it is essential to first assess the current level of productivity. Without a clear understanding of the current state, it is impossible to identify areas for improvement. Furthermore, managing a system without accurate measurement is ineffective.

The provision of accurate and timely information enables the implementation of immediate intervention and solutions. The measurement results indicate that the line is managed only from certain points. The areas requiring improvement are clearly defined, and the line supervisor oversees the entire line by controlling only the individuals with negative measurement results, rather than the entire workforce. The identification and resolution of issues affecting the flow, such as waits, losses, and bottlenecks, can be achieved through prompt interventions, leading to an increase in productivity.

Providing accurate information to each unit will streamline management processes. Historical data offers invaluable insight into future trends, enabling the creation of realistic plans with projected targets.

The measurement of quality can foster self-awareness and encourage operators to work with greater care and precision. As an example, in a Kaizen study conducted at a company we previously worked with, we identified an issue with the number of errors occurring along a production line. We promptly shared this information with the operators to facilitate a prompt resolution. We conducted a brainstorming session to identify the root cause of the problem, but we realized that it could be caused by any process. We then asked the operators to provide us with suggestions on how to resolve the issue. Additionally, we observed a notable decrease in error rates without any other changes. This demonstrates the value of involving the people who are most familiar with the job in the solution process. By raising awareness among these individuals, we were able to identify and address several issues. Measurement is a crucial step in identifying areas for improvement.

A supermarket is an area where a process has a predetermined amount of intermediate stocks of a single or a wide variety of products that it uses to feed the processes that follow it. In accordance with the principle of "each process is the customer of the process before it," the same concept applies to production processes. Once customers purchase a product from an aisle in a supermarket, the supermarket's staff replenish that shelf. Similarly, in production, the process that comes before the one that withdraws a product must produce that product. The supermarket serves to trigger production and determine the balance of production according to customer demands. In an unmeasured system, it is not possible to see the instantaneous change of the intermediate stock amounts at these points. In a measured system, however, the safety stock between processes can be determined and the instantaneous tracking of this can be easily done.

What is traceability in production and what does it provide?

The concept of traceability in the context of management systems is the ability to trace a product or service backwards through the supply chain.

In the event of an error, you can navigate back to any stage in the production history to access comprehensive data, including the line number, operator name, quality control personnel, and date of occurrence. This allows for the swift identification of action areas and the implementation of a solution.

Furthermore, the company's access to such crucial data is highly beneficial for its customers. As the manager of a brand, you may have contract manufacturing workshops that produce your products. These workshops have a traceable production system. When a product you sell in your store is returned by a customer, you can access information about which operations were carried out by which operator in which workshop, on which line, and on which machines. In today's information-rich environment, access to such important information is invaluable for companies.

What is the bundle system, the basis of a measurable and traceable production system, and what does it provide?

The primary objective of the Bundle system is to establish a transparent and auditable tape system. The objective is to guarantee control with traceability, which is widely acknowledged as the initial phase of any improvement process. Furthermore, the bundle system offers significant additional advantages in production.

Firstly, I will provide an overview of what a bundle is, how it is created and how it progresses. In traditional production processes, the quantity of products is not a factor when they are conveyed to the conveyor belt. While it progresses as a single piece flow between some operations, it creates a stock of approximately one day between some operations. In a bundle system, the parts that make up a product after cutting are separated by specified quantities and continue separately in production. The quantity in the bundle may vary depending on the standard duration of operations and the takt time. Products in each bundle are physically protected until the product is finished. Each operator picks up the product in the bundle trolley, performs the operation planned for him, and puts it back into the bundle trolley.

To ensure an optimal stock cycle in production, it is essential that each operator is provided with one bundle for the vehicle they are manufacturing and one for their own use. A 10% allowance has been made for situations where the ideal cycle will not be followed. For instance, if we consider a line of 45 individuals, this equates to 45 times two, or 90 cars. When the 10% deviation is taken into account, it can be seen that 90 cars will provide the ideal cycle. Therefore, using 100 cars in production will provide the ideal cycle. Each bundle trolley is numbered up to the maximum amount of trolleys determined by planning the ideal amount of intermediate stock in the line. In this example, the bundles are numbered from 1 to 100. Each operator performs their operations in accordance with the prescribed sequence. Once car number one has been manufactured, the same process is repeated for car number two, and so on. Each car is then taken, the product is removed and the operation is performed. The product is then returned to the car. In the event of a faulty product in the cart, it will not be passed on to the next process until the issue has been rectified. Consequently, the sequential flow in production, i.e., FIFO logic, is also applied. Let's consider the following example: a shirt is comprised of five distinct parts. The production process begins with the collar, then the cuff, front, back, and finally the sleeve. Each of these components is produced on a separate line. However, there are instances when operator error, confusion in production, or faulty products can disrupt the sequential flow. For instance, if the front of a product has not yet been completed, even if the other parts are finished, the completion of the other parts will be of no use.Other components will await the completion of the front section before proceeding. However, the sequential flow enabled by the bundle system will prevent such a scenario from occurring, ensuring optimal efficiency.

The bundle system enables the management of intermediate stock levels. The garment industry is a complex, labor-intensive sector. It is therefore essential to maintain a certain level of safety stock between stations. The safety stock allows the next station to proceed without delay in the event of any problem, ensuring continued efficiency. Furthermore, it is possible to ascertain whether there is a synchronized flow of production. As previously noted, there was an issue matching the front part with the other components. Similarly, consider a scenario where there is no intermediate stock control. In this case, if there is one day of intermediate stock from other lines, there is no stock from the prep line. This results in an idle assembly line due to a lack of the front part of the product. Without intermediate stock tracking, these lines are not balanced, and the product flow is uneven.

In the apparel industry, standard time differences between operations range from 0.1 minutes to 0.2 minutes. It is challenging to manage the 0.1–0.2 minute differences during line balancing. To illustrate, one operator is allotted 0.9 minutes, while another is permitted 0.7 minutes. When the line is balanced for 0.9 minutes, the first operator's time is fully utilized, while the second operator's time is approximately 78% utilized. Each job has a wait of 0.2 minutes, which is insufficient time to assign additional work to the operator. However, on the production line, these brief intervals are inconsequential in an irregular flow, and all operators appear to be working at an equal pace. Without the ability to measure production, it would be impossible to identify this discrepancy. Assuming 540 minutes of daily working time, the operator will have 540 minutes of occupancy in total, representing 78% of the available time. In other words, the operator will have worked approximately two hours less than the other operator throughout the day and will have completed tasks that do not create added value. This creates both an unfair and inefficient system. However, in a production system with a regular workflow, for example, if the number of bundles is 40, the first operator can define a bundle in 36 minutes, while the second operator can define a bundle in 28 minutes. This allows for the creation of another job for the operator with a simple 8-minute difference. In other words, by making the standard time differences between operations visible, it is much easier to balance the workload. Thus, operators' idle time can be reduced and productivity can be increased by balancing the line.

In a production environment with high variability, maintaining a consistent balance is challenging. In addition to the fact that the standard duration of the operations is different, the operator's speed, efficiency, and quality are different. Absenteeism, material waiting, machine breakdown, sample making, or waiting due to the personal needs of the operators can also impact the balance of the in-band intermediate stock. Some processes do not flow products, while others have excess intermediate stocks. This can cause a serious loss of efficiency. Operators who experience work waiting will inevitably adjust their speed according to the flow of the belt. This is contrary to the objective of increasing productivity. Over time, the belt will be shaped according to the slower worker, which will result in a significant loss of productivity.

Bundle system makes it easier to allocate work. Instead of an indefinite number of helpers, a perfect line balancing can be done. For example, an operator can very easily be told that every hour 5 bundles will be made from the side framing operation and 3 bundles from the arm attachment operation. Thus, there is no undefined point in the field regarding workload distribution.

The Bundle system is a very good visual control tool. As standard time differences are opened up, job waits and bottlenecks will become visible. Thus, the management of the line becomes easier.

The bundle system enforces an organized workflow. Normally, in production, one can see people moving work from one place to another by hugging the products. However, since it would be very difficult to do this with a bundle cart, the line supervisor has to have the sequential operations close to each other. This prevents transportation waste, which is one of the 7 basic wastes, and work transports are naturally minimized.

Model changeover time is minimized. Let's assume that during the model changeover, the line supervisor spends a standard 5 minutes for adjusting each machine, explaining the operation to the operator and waiting for the operator to make a trial. Let's assume that there are 10 operations in production and there are 1 job between some of them and 50 jobs between some of them. So I am talking about irregular intermediate stocks. On top of this, due to spending +5 minutes more time at each station, the operator with less intermediate stocks will be idle while the operator with more intermediate stocks will be working to finish the intermediate stocks. Sometimes it may even happen that the rest of the band is completely idle while the band supervisor waits for the operator to finish the excess intermediate stocks. This situation prolongs the model changeover time and serious productivity losses are experienced in the meantime. However, in the bundle system, intermediate stock balance can be achieved by establishing a rule so that each operator has 1 bundle of work and 1 bundle of intermediate stock from the previous station. In this case, the line supervisor will be able to make all the adjustments until the operator finishes the work next to him. Thus, loss of efficiency due to idle waiting of operators is prevented.

Conclusion;

  • Problems that arise in production should be seen as opportunities for improvement to achieve process excellence. In particular, the bundle system, traceability and measurability concepts create a good problem solving environment by revealing problems.
  • Bundle system is the basis of traceability and measurability.
  • Operator-based productivity and quality can be easily measured.
  • It provides sequential and simultaneous flow.
  • Work sharing and half man utilization is easy.
  • Reduces the vulnerability of production to variability.
  • It is a very good visual control tool. Production can be monitored more easily.
  • Intermediate stocks are easily visible and easy to control.
  • Bottlenecks and line imbalances can be easily seen.
  • Reduces the loss at the time of model change.
  • Transportation waste is minimized and the product flows into the line by itself.

What is Quality?

Quality is the degree to which customers can the best meet their expectations. At the same time, it is a performance indicator that shows the conformity of the product to the determined criteria and its error-free status.In other words, quality is a performance indicator that shows the amount of deviation of the product or service produced from the product or service desired by the customer.

Quality is a complete process from production to distribution. In this article; We will talk about production quality, which is the most costly and critical process in labor-intensive industries.In order to ensure production quality, quality must be traceable in each process from the raw material input to the product delivery.

What is Quality Control?

Quality control; is the process of checking the conformity of the product to customer demands. As a result of in-production quality control processes, production losses and product errors are detected.

In factories, it is aimed to transfer each operation of the previous operation, each process of the previous process without errors by accepting the customer as the customer of the last process at the end of the process.For this reason, statistical process control is performed for the next operation, end-of-line quality control is performed for the next process, and final quality control is performed for the last process.

Eliminating activities that do not create added value is important for businesses to achieve their profit goals in a competitive environment.

While performing value added analysis 3 main questions are asked.

  1. Do we physically change the product or service?
    1. Does the customer agree to pay in return of this process?
    2. Was it done correctly the first time it was done?

Work done outside of these is extra labor which does not save money for the business, but only creates costs.

In quality control, it is necessary to establish a system that will prevent the repetition of previous mistakes by recording the control and evaluating it together with the analysis.Otherwise, the control process will bring additional cost that does not add value to the business and the cost caused by the problems will not be reduced by repeated operations.A correct quality control system established in the enterprise, recording the results and making improvements according to the analysis results will significantly reduce the additional costs arising from rework and increase the profitability of the company.

Benefits to be obtained by establishing a quality control system;

  • Ensuring that the product or service conforms to the customer demands,
  • Increasing customer satisfaction by minimizing customer complaints,
  • Increasing employee awareness and minimizing errors and related lost times,
  • Ensuring that the problems will not be repeated by producing solutions to the continuing problems,
  • Minimizing the maintenance process, which is a non-value-creating operation,

Keeping the quality at the desired standards in labor-intensive production is quite difficult compared to other production types.In order to achieve this standardization, method standardization studies should be carried out, the product and quality should be monitored instantly, and solutions should be found immediately to the problems.

 

 

Traceability

The concept of traceability is that a product or service can be traced back instantaneously from the perspective of management systems in general.

Thanks to traceability, when any error is encountered, returning to the production history;it is possible to access detailed information such as on which line it was produced, which operations were carried out by which operator, which errors were found by which quality control personnel, and when they were made. Thus, action areas can be determined easily and solutions can be reached.

In addition, the company's access to such important information is very valuable for its customers.Imagine that you are the manager of a brand and there are contract manufacturing workshops that produce your products.There is a traceable production system in these workshops.When a product you sell in your store returns from the end customer for a reason, you can access the information on which operations were carried out by which operator in which workshop, on which line, on which machines.In this period when information is rich, reaching such important information is invaluable for companies. With the @rgeMAS production tracking system, both the measurability and quality traceability of the production are ensured.

Importance of bundle system for quality tracking

The bundle system is the basis of traceability and measurability. Operator-based productivity and quality can be measured instantly.If an error is detected, an immediate solution is provided by having the error repaired by the person who made the mistake.Therefore, a discipline about maintenance is created and semi-finished products waiting to be repaired are not seen in production.

The real-time measurement of quality creates a chance to intervene immediately to problems.

In the bundle system, besides knowing which product belongs to which bundle, the labor and material history is also clear.By knowing which operator is performing each operation of each product, the source of the problems is analyzed and a permanent solution is provided.At the same time, awareness is created on the part of the operator. Raising awareness in the people doing the work will often ensure that the problems are solved directly.

Thanks to the @rgeMAS system; By displaying quality information on each operator's own device and on the TV screens, awareness of the people doing job is further increased. In addition, quality results are used as a complement to the bonus system.

Quality control in @rgeMAS system consists of 6 main parts. The system allows these data to be recorded and analyzed at the same time.

The concept of bottleneck in production refers to the weakest link of the process. The production capacity of the factory is only as much as the production capacity of the bottleneck process.

The most important issue to be considered in bottleneck management is; The bottleneck is to provide timely and quality products to the process.As Eliyahu M. Goldratt states in his book "The Goal"; Having the quality control process in front of the bottleneck process will ensure that the wrong goods processed in the bottleneck are reduced and more sales-oriented materials are processed in the bottleneck.

The first and most important bottleneck of garment companies is the sewing process.Therefore, to manage the sewing bottleneck, the fabric, accessory, and thread given to this department should be given on time and in good quality. For this purpose, fabric quality control and classification processes are extremely important.For this purpose, fabric quality control and classification processes are extremely important.

Fabric quality control

It is the quality control process that detects fabric defects before the fabric cutting.The operator performs the quality control of the fabric on a lighted board that moves at a speed of 8 – 20 meters per minute.As soon as it detects any fault, it stops the motor that moves the fabric, marks the location of the fault on the fabric and starts the motor again.

When the entire fabric is checked, the fabric is classified according to the number of faults per meter.During the inspection, if the operator encounters more than normal number of errors of different types or a large number of errors of the same type, it makes the necessary warning to the production department and ensures that possible errors in production are eliminated.

With the @rgeMAS system, detailed analyzes can be made by recording the number of defects, the type of defects, the number of attachments, and the fabric quantity detected in each fabric roll.

Classification

After the fabric is cut, before it enters the sewing line and becomes a product,the section where all parts of a product (body, sleeve, collar, cuff, etc.) are checked and matched is called the classification section.At this point, all the parts to be assembled are checked, and the faulty parts are separated and replaced with a good part.It is the first part where the checkpoint is made for a model. Now the fabric has been specially cut for that model and its control has begun.

Inline quality control

Product control within the production line is carried out by inline control staff by controlling all the operation products.

After the collar is prepared in a shirt production foundation, it is attached to the shirt in the assembly section and closed.After all these processes are completed, due to the collar preparation,if there is a disorder in the collar symmetry;Only after the collar closing stitch and collar fitting stitch are removed, repair can be made.After the process is completed and other workmanship is done on it, it is repaired again.it will both waste of time and unnecessary labor will be done.Here, the purpose of Inline quality control is to detect possible errors in advance and in the place, and to prevent the sewing department, which is already a bottleneck, from wasting time and labor unnecessarily.

In the sewing line, the inline control elements control a certain number of random products from each operation, from the first operation to the last operation of the line, which they are responsible for ,in the first period, while the product is being sewn, and detect possible errors that may arise due to measurement, fabric, machine and sewing.In the second period, it only checks critical operations where  faults are found in the first period and have a high probability of failure.When the single period passes, all operations are checked again… In this way, 8 periods are completed until the end of the day.The measurements and controls made are recorded in the @rgeMAS system using hand terminals.

In reports; informations such as how many observations were taken from each operation in each period / hour, how many errors were found, the error classes found and their explanations can be easily accessed.The performance of each inline control element can be tracked with the information of how many observations and errors detected throughout the day.

Operations and operators detected errors during inline control can be compared with the results of the end-of-line control report, which is 100% control.By determining the relationship between these variables, the direction and severity of this relationship with the correlation analysis, how successful is the inline quality control process  can be determined.

End-of-line control

It is the section where the control personnel control and record the products 100% at the end of sewing.In end-of-line control, it is aimed not to go to the next process with faulty products.

In the end-of-line control analysis in @rgeMAS system; the results of operation quality, operator quality, line and production order quality can be evaluated.

Quality defects; It may be due to the operation method, operator competence, the operator working with the wrong method, not using the right person for the right job, the need for methodological change due to fabric type, machine quality and environmental conditions.With this type of control and interpretation of its results, the most common operation/operator/production order can be handled, and the causes of errors can be investigated and solutions can be found.By examining the change in the date-based quality performances of each one of them, the impact of the solutions found on the quality can be discussed.

Final quality control

It is the section where the control personnel control and record the products 100% for the last time just before packaging.Data obtained from final quality control; is recorded as 1st quality, 2nd quality, repair, stain, defect.

Final quality control; It is the section where all the products are checked, in order to prevent the sending of faulty products to the customer.

Product-based analysis can be performed in both end-of-line control and final control.

While performing product-based analysis with the @rgeMAS system;

 

  • The order quantity of each production order,
  • The number of products checked,
  • Faulty product quantity,
  • Number of checks (including repeat checks),
  • Number of errors,
  • Rates of quality,
  • Instant quality status of the product
  • Quantity of first quality product (1. quality)
  • Quantity of 2nd quality products (defects, stains, etc with details),
  • The number of products to be repaired (products with instant repair),
  • Number of repaired products (including products that have been repaired and are in good condition),
  • Rft (Right First Time) - Number of products rightly produced the first time,
  • Each product, how many times it has been checked by which controller,
  • Error details found in each control,

 

Detailed analyzes can be made by accessing their informations.

Inspection

Inspection is carried out in order to make the final controls of the products delivered to the warehouse to be shipped by sampling ,and to make the product comply with the quality standards before being sent to the customer.

In the @rgeMAS system, for each production order, the number of products to be controlled, determined according to AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) standards, is determined on a size basis.Inspection personnel performs measurement and visual control according to this determined number and records the observed errors.If the number of detected defects and the criticality level (minor / major) are below the lower error limit determined according to AQL standards, all products are opened and rechecked in production.

Inspection is a statistical quality control process to confirm that no faulty product has been sent to the customer. Therefore, customer satisfaction is increased by ensuring that the highest quality product is sent to the customer.

 

                                                                                                      Compiled from the training notes of ARGE BILIŞIM LTD

                                                                                                       Pınar EKMEN

 

What is measurability in production, what does it provide?

In the past years when determining the price of a product, businesses determined the price of the product by adding the profit share wanted to the cost spent for that product. Businesses that want to earn more money could easily do it by increasing the price.However, in these periods of intense competition, the market determines the price, not the producer anymore. If you set a higher-than-market price, you will lose customers. If you give price below of the normal you will loose. Businesses whose purpose is to make money do not have the chance to change much the price, so the only way to make money is to reduce costs.

Many operations are done during the production processes from the order to the delivery.Among these operations there are jobs that the customer does not actually pay but the company does or has to do, named "waste" which does not create value . By eliminating these wastages, costs are reduced and company profitability is increased. In other words, the way to earn money in production is through increasing productivity.

 

In order to increase efficiency, you must first of all know your current efficiency.You cannot improve something that you don't know its current state. Also, you cannot manage a system that you cannot measure.

It provides accurate and timely information flow, immediate intervention and solution.According to the measurement results, the line is managed only from certain points.The points of improvement are very clear and the band chief manages the entire line by checking only the people with negative measurement results, not everyone in his band.Productivity can be increased by identifying points affecting the flow, waitings, losses and bottlenecks  and resolving them with instant interventions.

Every correct information reaching each unit will make management much easier. Having historical data is a very serious tool for predicting the future.Realistic planning can be made with the predicted goals.

Measuring quality can create self-awareness and enable the operator to work more carefully.          For example, in a kaizen study we did in a company where we worked before, we saw that there were too many errors coming out of a line, and we shared this issue with operators.We had a brainstorm about how we could solve that. But there was no single cause of that problem, it could have been caused by any process. We asked the operators to give us advice on how to fix this problem.Other than that, without any other work, the number of errors decreased significantly. The people who know the job better are the people who do that job, and you can solve many problems just by raising awareness for those people.Measuring is essencial for all improvements.

Supermarkets are regions where there are intermediate stocks with predetermined quantities of single or multiple products used to feed the processes behind a process.In accordance with the principle of "Each process is the customer of the preceding process", just like in a supermarket, after the customers buy a product from the rayon, the authorities in the market fill that shelf; As soon as the process after the supermarket in production pulls the product, the process before it must produce this withdrawn product. The supermarket , by triggering the production , determines the production balance according to customer requests.In a system that is not measured, the instant change of the intermediate stock quantities at these points cannot be seen, while in a measurable system, the safety stock between processes can be determined and followed up easily.

In production what traceability means ,what doest it provide?

The concept of traceability,in terms of management systems is in general the retrospective traceability of a product or service .

When you encounter any error, you can go back to any point in the production history and access detailed information such as in which it was produced, which operations were performed by which operator, which errors were found by which quality control personnel, and when they were made. Thus, you can easily determine the action areas and reach the solution.

 

In addition, the access of the company to such important information is very valuable for its customers.Imagine that you are a manager of a brand and there are contract manufacturing workshops that manufacture your products.These workshops have a traceable production system.

When a product you sell in your store returns from the end customer for a reason, you can access informations about which operations were performed by which operator in which workshop, on which line, on which machines.In this period knowledge is wealth, access to such important informations is priceless for companies.

In our other article, I will explain what is the bundle system we use as a tool for providing traceability, how it is created and what are its benefits.

 

Pınar Ekmen 

Arge Bilişim /Productivity and Quality Consultant

In our previous article, I tried to explain what is measurability in production and what it provides. In this article, I will explain what is the bundle system ,which is the basis of traceability and measurability  ,and how it is created.

The main purpose of the bundle system is to create a trackable band system.  It is to provide control with traceability, which is accepted as the first step of any improvement.  In addition, the bundle system has other very important benefits in production.

First of all, let me talk about what the bundle is, how it was created and even how it progressed.In classical production structures, the number of products is insignificant when taken from the line.Some operations progress in a single piece flow between them, some operations progress with by creating a stock of approximately 1 day between them.Bundle system is a system where the parts making up the product after cutting are separated by the specified quantities and continue in production separately.The number of items in the bundle may change depending on the standard time and takt time of operations. Until the product is finished, the quantity and the products in each bundle are physically protected.Each operator takes the product inside the bundle car, performs the operation defined for it and drops it into the bundle car.

In order to create an ideal stock cycle in production, it must be arranged to have 1 bundle car and 1 bundle reserve per operator. A deviation of 10% is predicted for situations where the ideal cycle will be exceeded.For example; If we consider a line of 45 people, it means that there are 45 * 2 = 90 cars.When the 10% deviation is also taken into account, 90 * 1.1 = 99, that is, using 100 cars in production will provide the ideal cycle.Each bundle car is numbered up to the maximum amount of cars determined by planning the ideal intermediate stock amount in the line. In the example here, it is numbered from 1 to 100.Each operator follows this sequence and performs their operations.After making the car number 1, car number 2, then car number 3… takes the product in the car and leaves it back to the car.If there is a defective product in the car, the car is not given to the next process until that product is corrected.Thus, sequential flow named fifo logic, is also applied in production.Let's think like this, the shirt consists of 5 main operations.Collar, cuff, front, back and sleeve preparation.Each of these is produced in separate lines. During this production, both operator carelessness, confusion in production and faulty products can cause disruption of the sequential flow.For example, there are all parts of a product, but the front of the same product is not completed yet due to any of these reasons.Other parts will wait front part to be combined. However, since sequential flow is provided with the bundle system, such a situation will not occur and efficiency loss will be prevented.

The Bundle system also allows controlling the intermediate stock quantity.

The textile industry due to it is a labor-intensivity, it is a multi-variable sector .Therefore, it is necessary to keep a certain amount of safety stock between stations.Thanks to this safety stock, in case of any problem, the next station does not wait for work and there is no efficiency loss.In addition, it can be checked whether coupled flow is achieved or no in production.In the example above, I mentioned that the front part cannot be matched with other parts for some reason.In the same way, let's assume that there is no intermediate stock control,  while there is one day intermediate stock from other lines, there is no stock from the preliminary preparation line.In this case, as the front part of the product is missing, the assembly line will wait for nothing,  having an intermediate stock from other lines will  mean nothing.However, if the intermediate stock is followed, these lines are balanced and the product coupled flow is provided.

 Standard time differences between operations in the textile industry are as low as 0.1, - 0.2 minutes.It is very difficult to manage these 0.1 - 0.2 minute differences during line balancing. For example, an operator is operating for 0.9 minutes and another is operating for 0.7 minutes.When the line is balanced for 0.9 minutes, the first operator's time is 100%, while the second operator's time is approximately 78%.Each job has a 0.2 minute wait and the operator cannot be given an additional job for such a short time.However, in-line these waits are irregular in not visible in the flow, and all operators appear to be working at an equal rythm.If there is no measurability in our production, we may not see this difference at all.  Considering that 540 minutes is a daily working time, the operator will have 540 * 0.78 = 420 minutes in total.In other words, he or she have worked for about 2 hours less than the other operator throughout the day, doing works that do not create added value.This creates both injustice and inefficiency. But in a production system with a regular work flow, for example if the number of bundles is 40.The first operator defines a bundle in 40 * 0.9 = 36 minutes, the second operator defines a bundle in 40 * 0.7 = 28 minutes.In other words, by creating a difference of 8 minutes, another job can be defined very easily for the operator with the difference. Therefore, it will be much easier to balance the workload by making the standard time differences between operations visible.Thus, the idle time of the operators can be reduced and productivity can be increased by balancing the band.

In productions with a lot of variability, keeping the production in the same balance constantly requires a serious effort.In addition to the difference in the standard time of the operations, the difference of speed, efficiency and quality of the operator, absenteeism, material waiting, machine breakdown, sample making or waiting due to the personal needs of the operators, are among the common problems that the in-band intermediate stock is not balanced.Situations are among the frequently experienced problems.This situation does not flow from some processes, while excessive intermediate stocks are formed in some of them and causes serious  efficiency  loss.Operators who are on standby will inevitably adjust their speed according to the flow of the band. Contrary to the efforts to increase efficiency, the band will take shape after a while according to the slow worker and this will cause serious efficiency loss.

Thanks to the bundle system, job sharing becomes easier.

A perfect line balancing can be done instead of the uncertain number of help logic.For example, an operator can easily be said to be "done from 5 bundle side-hitting operations, 3 bundle arm attachment operations" every hour.Thus, there are no undefined points on the workload distribution in the field.

The Bundle system is a very good visual control tool. Since standard time differences are opened, job waiting and bottlenecks will be visible. Thus, the management of the band becomes easier.

Bundle system makes regular work flow mandatory.

Normally, people can be seen doing work moving from one place to another by taking products in production.However, since it will be very difficult to do this with the bundle car, the band chief has to do the sequential operations close to each other.This situation prevents the transportation waste, which is one of the 7 basic wastes, and work transports are naturally minimized.

Bundle system minimizes model transition time

Namely; Suppose that during the model change, the head of the belt spends a standard 5 minutes on setting up each machine, explaining the operation to the operator, and waiting for the operator to make a trial.Let's assume that there are 10 operations in production, some of them 1, and some 50 jobs.I am speaking about irregular intermediate stocks.As a result of spending +5 more minutes at each station, the operator with a low amount of intermediate stock will wait idle while the operator with excess will be working to finish the intermediate stocks.Even sometimes we can meet situations such as the band chief waiting for operator to run out of excess intermediate stocks while the rest of the band is completely empty.This extends the model transition time and serious efficiency losses occur during this time.Whereas, in the bundle system, the intermediate stock balance can be achieved by creating a rule such that each operator does 1 bundle work and 1 bundle is an intermediate stock from the previous station.In this case, the band chief will be able to make all the adjustments until the operator finishes the work next to him. Thus, the loss of efficiency due to idle waiting of the operators is prevented.

As conclusion;

  • Problems arising during production should be seen as an opportunity for improvement to achieve process excellence.Especially the bundle system, traceability and measurability concepts create a good problem solving environment by revealing the problems.
  • Bundle system is the basis for traceability and measurability.
  • Operator-based efficiency and quality can be measured easily.
  • Provides sequential and paired flow.
  • Job sharing and half man use is easy.
  • It reduces the fragility of production against variations.
  • It is a very good visual control tool. Production can be followed more easily.
  • Intermediate stocks are easily visible and easy to control.
  • Bottlenecks and line imbalances can be seen easily.
  • It reduces the loss of time during the model change.
  • Transportation waste is minimized even the product flows on its own.

       Pınar Ekmen 

Arge Bilişim /Productivity and Quality Consultant