What is a manufacturing process?

Many other industries have taken lessons from the manufacturing industry and have found that several of the manufacturing processes can help to reduce errors and increase efficiency in their organization. When it comes to picking a manufacturing process, you need to assess your company and your needs. Here are some of the popular manufacturing processes to choose from:

• SMED
• 5 S method
• Six Sigma
• Lean manufacturing
• Line balancing
• Value stream mapping

We will discuss a few of the manufacturing processes so you can choose one that is right for your company and focus on building a successful and profitable organization.

SMED
The SMED method stands for single minute exchange of die. When you implement SMED you will focus on quick changeover rates. Your focus is on fixing wasted time within the company and you want to produce products faster and focus on increasing efficiency throughout the organization. The goal is to reduce the time it take to change over one products on one line to another product on another line. Increasing demand for the products can lead to greater life cycles and when you focus on SMED you will reduce inventory so you don't have wasted money and space.

5 S Method
Another popular method is to turn to the 5 S method. This method focusing on reducing wastes within the company as you will get rid of all the unnecessary equipment and steps your employees need to take in order to do their jobs effectively. The 5 S method allows you to organize the company better in order to make your employees become efficient and productive with their jobs.

Six Sigma
Developed in the manufacturing industry, Six Sigma is one of the most popular ways to improve your company. You will focus on reducing your error ratio to a defect ratio of 3.4 per million units produced. As you reduce the number of product defects and errors that are produced within the company, you will have an efficient and effective organization. Six Sigma also helps to boost employee morale and it allows the entire manufacturing line to run smoothly and effectively.

Lean Manufacturing
Similar to Six Sigma, lean manufacturing focuses on the reduction of waste and the increase of overall production and efficiency. You will rely on your employees heavily with lean manufacturing as it is more than just principles you are implementing, it is also a mindset change on the employees behalf. Lean manufacturing has several different things you can implement, each of which allow you to focus on strengthening your company and boosting morale. Man of them use visual control tools and organization methods that make the company run effectively and make the overall organization more productive and efficient.

Line balancing
One other manufacturing process you will use is called line balancing. With line balancing you will focus on reducing waste. Line balancing is commonly used in service industries as it is a flexible way to focus on fixing the problems within the company. Line balancing is about adding value to the company within your particular job description. Many times companies will combine jobs to make everything more effective and efficient and to help reduce waste and make employee morale go up.

Value stream mapping
Turning to value stream mapping is a great option for service industries. Employees will become productive within their particular job segments as they are focused on certain things like return of goods, production of goods, and so on. With value stream mapping you will have a standardized process as to how the company is to be run and you will be able to create a decision-flow program that allows for standardized operations.