What is the impact of the rapid growth of production on costs for a manufacturing company?
2016-06-16
Peter Bílik, EMANS Solution Designer, ANASOFT
High Employees Turnover
The automotive industry recorded growth in 2015. However, rapid growth in production may also have an undesirable effect on the business environment. Suppliers more frequently point out the growing turnover rate of employees. This situation has a significant impact on the costs of the companies, but the labor shortage also complicates the flexibility of their reaction to the increased demand of automotive factories in particular.
Industry 4.0 Can Resolve the Labor Shortage
The concerns that the fourth industrial revolution would take work from people seem to be unjustified. It is Industry 4.0 or the onset of the closer link of machines and devices which can help manufacturers deal with the skilled labor shortage. If, for example, manufacturers need to operatively change their process of assembling, they can use software tools for manufacturing control and monitoring. This will enable them to visualize the work processes directly on terminals situated next to the assembly workplaces. Thanks to these tools, it is also possible to electronically generate and distribute work orders for individual assembly workplaces. The time sequence for the implementation of the manufacturing of individual orders is clearly defined based on a manufacturing plan and standard technological procedures with no need for human intervention.
The automatic online distribution of manufacturing orders and navigation of operators through monitors during the entire course of manufacturing will enable manufacturers to carry out manufacturing even without spending time to train new workers. The assembly line operator does not speculate about how various types of products should be put together; instead, all of the necessary information is depicted on a monitor by the workplace.
Ergonomics and the Effectiveness of the Operator
The form of presentation of information to the operator through the software system is much more important than the amount of information. The user’s environment of this information system must be created with respect to ergonomics and the effectiveness of its use when developing the software, because it is unacceptable if obtaining the information and recording a description of the performed work takes more time than it takes the operator to actually perform the work.
From practical experience we have learned that every page and document that should be visualized at our clients’ worksites must be adjusted to the requirements of the actual type of manufacturing and the specific requirements of the client. If it is possible to identify sufficient data related to the work of the operator from the signals acquired from manufacturing devices, our effort is to eliminate as much as possible any need for the operator to enter other data directly.
The proper form of visualization of information can significantly accelerate the process of training new employees, which considering today’s high employee turnover rate, will certainly be appreciated by many manufacturing companies.
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