When a production result does not meet expectations, the manager often goes straight to the workplace and asks the operator: “What’s wrong?” If the problem is even bigger and raises questions for higher management, lists of malfunctions and problems are compiled in order to clarify and justify the low efficiency. Often the problem is related to the traditional “breakdown” or “poor maintenance” card, which, according to production monitoring data, is often refuted.
A common practice is to entrust the solution of problems to the operators themselves, but here obstacles arise. Either the operator cannot accurately name the causes, or the problems are many and they have become deep, chronic. In addition, employees often get used to such working conditions, because the problems are not solved.
Effective production monitoring can solve these problems. Often operators do not have the time or motivation to write down the reasons for downtime or malfunctions, especially if they have occurred in the past. This leads to interpretations that can mislead managers and lead to inappropriate decisions.
Lean2S equipment monitoring system records process failures in real time and can automatically identify downtime. Most importantly, operators can immediately identify the causes of downtime or stretching slowdowns from a pre-compiled list. This helps to make work more efficient - record and forget. Managers and technicians can monitor equipment operation, respond to disruptions and thus prevent major losses.
In addition Lean2S offers a notification module that allows employees to register problems or make suggestions to responsible persons. This improves communication between employees and managers, providing the opportunity to respond promptly to emerging problems. Most importantly, everyone is responsible for registering and resolving problems.
Top-level managers can monitor the overall extent of non-conformances, responsible departments and persons, as well as their reactions and solutions. This prevents situations where information about problems is lost or incorrectly transmitted, which is important for optimizing OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) indicators.
Valdas Bindokaitis,
Change moderator