Triangle's Take on How to Increase Manufacturing Efficiency

If you search Google for "how to increase manufacturing efficiency," you'll be inundated with 5,250,000 results. Many of these tips enforce "lean manufacturing," as defined by Wikipedia:

Lean manufacturing, lean enterprise, or lean production, often simply, "Lean," is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the customer who consumes a product or service, "value" is defined as any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for.

Essentially, lean is centered on preserving value with less work. Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent) and identified as "Lean" only in the 1990s.

For many companies it's impossible to adopt every lean technique, here at Triangle we've found ways of increasing efficiency that work for us.

REDUCE STORAGE AND INVENTORY, DELIVER JUST WHEN NEEDED

Triangle ships just-in-time. We achieved this through custom software and internal IT department to integrate our scheduling along with our customer's scheduling systems. And their labeling requirements, EDI (electronic data interchanges), integrating customer schedules with computerized MRP (Material Resource Planning).

This has favorably affected our business, it's helped us to retain our customer base because of our flexibility and accommodating their unique needs. In lean economic times, you have to differentiate yourself. We've done that through adapting our business to be exactly what our customers need, when they need it; in shipping and in production.

AUTOMATE WHERE IT MAKES SENSE

Triangle Manufacturing uses industrial robotics in many capabilities, automation between metal stamping presses and packaging and material handling during the metal stamping process. We also employ the use of robotics for tasks that can be environmentally challenging, like welding. For increased efficiency, we also utilize robotics repeated tasks where human intervention is not required.

We will continue to adapt and modernize our current automation with a focus on improving the material handling and minimizing human interaction in product manufacturing. We also try to expand automation where safety can be improved

ADOPT THE "RIGHT" TECHNOLOGY, NOT JUST BECAUSE IT'S "NEW"

Our use of robotics has become essential because it lessens the amount of manual material handling required and facilitates lean production processes. We've also taken steps to improve our tool making technology, through full utilization of CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing) we spend less time designing and manufacturing tools and more time solving problems and working with customers. We've cut down on lag time through solid modeling CAD lessens time between conception and production.

Another tip is to always be aware of the benefits of new manufacturing processes, robotics and even more simple solutions, such as Triangle's shaft height adjustment mechanism. This idea can be used in many systems that require shaft height adjustment and when convenience and usability are large factors. Because of the ease of use, workers can adjust the shaft height without disassembling machinery and wasting time.

PROXIMITY OF FACILITIES

If at all possible plan your facilities around each other. What kind of processes will you be utilizing daily? What's most important to your business? Put them close together. Triangle's facilities house our Research and Development, Tool Room, Engineering Center, Onsite Shipping Warehouse and Production Shop. Along with our Accounts Payable and Receivable Departments, Purchasing, Internal IT, Quality Control and Marketing and Sales Departments. This way, our Export Coordinator and Shipping can interact, Engineering and R&D have a back and forth and Sales and Marketing can join forces.

Having all of this in such close proximity cuts down on lag time between design and production, lessens the travel time, expense and headache between departments and allows for a free flow of ideas between diverse departments.