Monitoring Repair time and age of WIP

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PFyffe

Hi All,

I'm a newbie - this is my first post!
I've recently started as an account manager in a repair centre, responsible for the repair of consumer products.
Basically the process involves receiving products for repair from the end users (approximately 300/day on my account) and repair within SLA of 3 days.

Our typical daily output is around the 300 mark, however our WIP can rise and fall based upon variation in infeed and internal issues, such as material shortages and engineering.

This means that aged WIP can and does often go over the 3 day mark, and also if WIP increases too much our average repair time also increases due to us not touching some units until days 2 and 3 rather than day 0 and 1 as is the optimum.

I need to try and establish some kind of KPI by which I can measure our service performance, both based upon aged WIP, total WIP and repair time.

I'm new to statistical analysis, so I'm looking to make use of your expert knowledge. I do know that using averages doen't really give an accurate measure (based upon my observations) and I'm sure there's a statistical method that can be deployed to help us improve and control our performance.

Have any of you had a similar experience, or know of a tool that would work well in such a case?

Thanks for your help
 
H

Hondo812

I would suggest that before you get hip dip in some statistical analysis that you spend some time to map your processes. You haven't said just how many different kinds of consumer goods your firm repairs so it is difficult to know how to help you without understanding your process bottlenecks. Once you have mapped the processes conduct a time study for each one to determine exactly where your bottlenecks lie.

Once you know exactly what your problem is it will be much easier to attack it. Are each of your processes neccessary? Can 2 or more be done at the same time or at the same station? Can you make use of a Kanban system? Is 5S employed? None of those thing require advanced degrees in math but they may yield big dividends for your operation.

For what it's worth I used to manage a medical device repair unit for a large medical device manufacturer. I got a lot more "bang for the buck" from the techniques I listed above than a statistical analysis.

I would advise using a swimlane type of process chart and include the times it takes to perform the tasks as well as the lag time between handshakes(where the widget moves from one person/station/department to the next).
 

SteelMaiden

Super Moderator
Trusted Information Resource
sometimes statistical analysis can be as easy as what you already seem to have a grasp on. Number of days to repair, ave, min, max causes of variation. Number on time vs. number past your goal. Number in, vs. number out. Time needed to repair, vs. time available. Start simple, see if you can find some info that is useful to you and your organization, and then move on to the harder stuff. I always learn better when I learn by stages...but maybe it is because I am getting old and gray!

Oh, welcome to the Cove, we are glad to have you here!
 
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