Floor Plan Lay-out - How to make material handling requirements clear

[Sushil Kumar]

hi everybody,
My company is a leading automotive supplier in appearance items category. Last month, our TS pre-audit had conducted. we have make a floor plan lay-out, which is showing maximum of the data in detail. i.e. flow, material storage, how much bins are required & what height is to be kept during storage etc. But auditor were not satisfied & they commented that material handling requirements are still not clear. Does anyone has floor plan lay-out with this type of requirements?

 

[Howard Atkins]

Tell me was the comment connected to the appearance items issue?
How does the part move between stations, is this described?

I am sorry that I do not have any layout

Can any one help?

 

[Sushil Kumar]

Floor Plan Layout

Hello Sir,
Thanks for reply
But auditor did not raise any appearance related points. He was taking about cycle time, material storage, maximum time for storage etc.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Hello Sir,
Thanks for reply
But auditor did not raise any appearance related points. He was taking about cycle time, material storage, maximum time for storage etc.

I'm not clear. Are you talking about a "plan for facility to be built" or description of "existing facility?"

If the facility exists, merely walk a product through the process from beginning to end and note the data.

If it is a "plan" you should have a "theory" of how long the product will be at each step - any "choke points" or other anomalies? (does product become "obsolete" if left too long in inventory?)

Once you have the theory, you can check actual process against theory for possible improvement or modification.

Seems to me your auditor did you a favor.

 

[Joe_winter]

Hi, Wes
The same plight troubles me, as an existing floor transit, the auditor asked us to provide first in-first out definition for inventory, spec. raw materials, due to a little company,JIT is actually performed, since my boss told him FIFO.procuring materials once is just as much as one week use, and some materials stand oppositely, once procuring is neough for one month or more. How to determine the store rate? With no rate specific, the auditor asked us to improve preventing against plastic humidity.there are some points, but we have done FMEAs without this failure mode. If we need proofing FMEAs when add some specification for plastic material, which will cause a big plague.
Hope some illumination!

Joe

 

[Wes Bucey]

Hi, Wes
The same plight troubles me, as an existing floor transit, the auditor asked us to

• provide first in-first out definition for inventory,
  as part of FIFO, you have to explain how you identify material by chronology (tags? location? etc.); how you "mistake proof" inventory pull to assure older material goes out before newer material; how you designate material to be pulled and subsequently discounted or scrapped because it may be "too old" -WB
• spec. raw materials,
  "spec." mean "special" or "specify"? -WB
• due to a little company,JIT is actually performed,
  I'm sure! lots of reasons, mostly because can't afford to tie up capital and space with inventory of raw materials -WB
• since my boss told him FIFO.
  The whole point from an auditor's point of view is that he wants "documentation" of exactly what your organization means by FIFO and records that you follow your plan. -WB
• procuring materials once is just as much as one week use, and
  Right! You ought to show how you determine a week's worth of production and how you assure the following week's materials will be ordered and delivered. (Internally, you should have a process to determine that week's worth of material is optimal for price break, delivery charges, storage space, etc. That is - is a different time interval between deliveries more economical (daily, two weeks, what?) -WB
• some materials stand oppositely, once procuring is neough for one month or more.
  Why do you buy some materials at different frequencies? I presume it is by minimum purchase allowed by seller, or packaging, or shipping consideration matched to best price. This should be part of your plan and storage areas designated accordingly. Perhaps you have an in-house plan to separate monthly shipment into weekly usage quantities once it is on your premises - then you can maintain your production inventory at one-week quantity and refill the one-week bins every week, regardless of whether the weekly shipment comes from outside supplier's warehouse or from across the aisle. In any regard, you need a plan to assure you do the separation and resupply of the weekly bins consistently to maintain your FIFO system. -WB
• How to determine the store rate? With no rate specific, the auditor asked us to improve preventing against plastic humidity.there are some points, but we have done FMEAs without this failure mode. If we need proofing FMEAs when add some specification for plastic material, which will cause a big plague.
  
  
  Yep! This is technical consideration to ensure your raw materials don't deteriorate. You need to get a handle on this. Best source of help is your material supplier, who can come in and make suggestions to make your storage facility and conditions optimal for the material he supplies. -WB

Hope some illumination!

Joe

Just in case you need and can afford a pro like me, my passport is in order and I like to travel. -WB

 

[Joe_winter]

Hi, WB
That is rejoiced to your opinions, internally, documented FIFO would save more capital and space, externally, which would help to understanding and approval from customers, but, there would be big difficult to make operators follow it wherever as QC or upper management. The procuring is too flexible to monitor in order.weekly bins, that is good idea, so IMO we need a lot marking instead of a formal procedure which would produce a lot troubles and many ambiguous claritfied in it would cause further doubts from customers and more non-conformance will lead us to low satisfied. 'spec.' sorry, means special.
do you think so?and thanks again for your reply and analysis, soon Christmas, best regards!

Joe

 

[Wes Bucey]

Hi, WB
That is rejoiced to your opinions, internally, documented FIFO would save more capital and space, externally, which would help to understanding and approval from customers, but, there would be big difficult to make operators follow it wherever as QC or upper management.
An organization must figure out a way for the system to be simple and mistakeproof for operators to follow. It might be as simple as labeling and sealing (shrink wrap?) the lots using alphabet or simple numbers or dates ("this lot is for use during December 12 - 18, 2004. Do not use before that date!)


The procuring is too flexible to monitor in order.weekly bins, that is good idea, so IMO we need a lot marking instead of a formal procedure which would produce a lot troubles and many ambiguous claritfied in it would cause further doubts from customers and more non-conformance will lead us to low satisfied.
If you follow the concept of mistakeproofing described above, you remove any ambiguity. Documenting the practice and recording that it is followed will remove doubts from the customers and lead to better customer satisfaction.

'spec.' sorry, means special.
With special raw materials, you often have to order in quantities fixed by the supplier, regardless of what your usage is. It is important to consider expirations of special materials and have a plan to use or discard such material before the expiration date. The labeling and segregating of these materials to assure FIFO is doubly important.

do you think so?
What I think is that it is a pity your organization can't afford to hire a short-term consultant who knows his business who can show you methods and tools that will save a lot more money than his fee and expenses, resulting in a net savings to your organization. The nature of a Forum like the Cove is that the experts who provide answers are limited to providing "generic" answers or answering specific questions in a limited way. An experienced and competent consultant who comes on-site can see and observe opportunities for improvement that the average person doesn't recognize and so can't ask questions about.

As much of an expert as I may believe myself to be, I have always been willing to "outsource" for added insight and efficiency when I come across problems that seem to elude solution. I don't consider it a "weakness" to hire somebody to help me. Anyone who thinks he can do everything and knows everything is either completely clueless or from a different planet than the rest of us.

and thanks again for your reply and analysis, soon Christmas, best regards!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, as well!

Joe