Every business has its own way of maintaining its processes and operations. Some are successful in ways, while others often find themselves stuck in unsustainable practices that affect their entire business.
When it comes to sustainable manufacturing practices, the keyword is “sustainability”. You need some level of consistency. In other words, you need to formulate a strategy, explain it to the team, test the plan, and actually maintain it long-term. There’s no point in using all your resources to formulate a plan and end up losing sight of it after some time. The best strategy would then be to keep an eye on your team and ensure every person comes to the party to sustain these good manufacturing practices.
In our podcast interview, we chatted to manufacturing consultant Tomas Brignell of IMIG UK, about ways to sustain good manufacturing practices. Be sure to watch the interview to get the lowdown on a four-step method that’ll really help you and your manufacturing team.
Here’s a summary of Tom’s 4 step method for Sustaining Good Manufacturing Processes:
Preparation
Ensure you have suitable foundations before you start. Make sure you’ve got a really solid foundation and a well-prepared process in place.
Also, if you’re looking at making a modification to your line, ensure there’s a suitable buffer in place.
Demonstration
Clearly define the process to those that will need to follow it. This could be in the form of a visual work instruction or a specification drawing or document.
Try Out
Make sure that the team have clearly understood the process. Ensure they’ve got everything they need and that they are capable of performing the process in the way you’ve designed it.
Follow Up
Finally, and probably most importantly of all, is to ensure that there’s a well-established layered audit in place to prevent any backsliding.
Don’t assume that people will maintain the process unchecked. Make sure that you have everyone involved as a top-down approach.
For example, your line managers are checking your operators, your seniors are checking line managers and even up to the director level, someone is held accountable for making sure regular updates and checks are kept in place.
Summary
So, the four steps to follow for sustaining good manufacturing practices are:
- Preparation – ensure you have a stable foundation in place.
- Demonstration – clearly define the process to those who need it.
- Try Out – make sure your team are capable of performing the process.
- Follow Up – have a well-established layered audit in place.
