Article list
Why use SMED ?
The SMED concept appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was developed by Shigeo Shingo together with Mazda, Mitsubishi, Toyota. The need to implement a fast and efficient method of change came after the analysis of the process of injection / pressing of automotive components. Through the implementation of SMED, the production concept has changed, offering them flexibility and reduced production costs.Single Minute Exchange of Die or in short S.M.E.D. : is one of the many methods of...
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Professional statistical programs: MINITAB
Minitab is a powerful data analysis and graphing software used worldwide.Minitab helps companies monitor process trends, easily apply automotive / aero (SPC, MSA) requirements and solve even the most complex problems.
Main uses:
Graphic analysis (Histogram, Boxplot, Dotplot, Bar Chart, Time Series Plot, Pareto Chart, Graphical Summary etc),
Testing normality and identifying the type of distribution
Statistical Process Control: Stability (I-MR control charts, Xbar-R, P chart, etc.) and...
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A3 problem solving
The A3 process is a problem-solving tool. Toyota has developed this system to encourage learning, collaboration and personal growth of employees. The term “A3” is derived from the special size of paper used to outline ideas, plans and objectives throughout the A3 process.Steps to achieve A3 improvement:
Identify the problem or need.
Understand the current situation / state.
Develop the initial state - Develop the future state.
Perform root cause analysis.
Brainstorm /...
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8D Problem Solving? Procedure ?
It often happens that in the production process we have problems of quality, flow, cycle time, organization, supply, etc. In the literature have been developed several tools that define methodologies for solving more or less complex problems depending on their difficulty. Obviously, the ‘price paid’ for the application of these methodologies varies depending on the instrument chosen.Analyzing these problem-solving methodologies, we drew attention to the 8D method that helps solve...
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Do we really need the MSA procedure?
Today's production companies collect a large amount of data, through measurements and inspections, on the basis of which decisions will be made with an impact on processes and business in general.Inspections performed either automatically (more and more often) or by specialized personnel, can also generate erroneous decisions, with effects in artificially increasing defects or sending non-compliant products to customers. In both situations we lose money and even customers.
To prevent these...
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What should an SPC procedure contain?
Knowing that all production processes have some variation, about 100 years ago Walter Shewart discovered a way to distinguish between common causes and special causes of variation in a process. Shewart also understood the danger of "firefighting" actions to react and act depending on where individual values are located in relation to the tolerances of a process.This discovery of Walter Shewart, together with the methods developed later, is today called statistical analysis of a process...
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Efficiency of Warehouse Activities
Do we have enough resources? Correct answer: I don't know!Efficiency means the extent to which the effort or resources consumed generate value for a process.
How efficient are the activities defined in your warehouses? For the efficient measure in the logistic activities we must first of all have defined the processes and the activities in the warehouses - do we have them?
Are the responsible persons qualified for those activities? Are times defined for each activity (norms) and can...
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Dynamic Array – FILTER
To extract information from a table according to one or more criteria we can use Advanced Filter. It's a pretty good solution but it has a big problem: it doesn't update. Then we have to intervene with a macro, possibly a "filter" button.The Dynamic Array solution is much simpler and much more "dynamic": FILTER.Article dedicated only to Office 365 users.Here is the file used for example: http://bit.ly/384Lv59The problem is to extract information from a table into a form.In the Extras...Read this article...
Office process automation
These days, more than ever, we wanted some of the activities carried out even at home to be automated. Working from home is not easy, and the need for some of our office activities to be automated has become more acute.Even if we work from home, we still have a series of repetitive or time-consuming jobs (reading emails, extracting data from emails, responding to emails, obtaining approvals, preparing reports). Statistics say that a third of work time is spent on repetitive and time-consuming...
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Production Planning – Loss and Profit!
Product planning is the brain of a production unit, the product represents a strong resistance (bone and muscle) and logistics for circulatory care, if needed, food and cleaning the "body". It is very important to plan the production and the first information for a greater correction in time or time, then information on this matter is first planner, the finished product being a correct product planning.Proper product planning means predictable and high accuracy estimates over the medium and...Read this article...
Optimizing Warehouse Space Use - How to Get More Resources?
Both in Production and outside the production area one of the most expensive resources is space. When we enter the Logistics area and we talk about warehouses and warehouse service spaces (access roads, loading / unloading ramps, parking and waiting areas) the space seems more and more important and more expensive. If in the production areas we have dedicated departments and functions that deal with spaces (layout in production, spagetti diagram, VSM) to optimize the movements and obtain a...Read this article...
Production Planning - The Supreme Purpose !
In any production organization as well as those in the sphere of services, there are products that are made easier or harder or some with high loss rates (scrap and remedies). In general, it is considered that if we leave Production Planning (PP) to Production, we will only plan products that are easy to make with a small scrap, with a generally high productivity, but to the detriment of those for whom we have demand. On the other hand, PP switched to Logistics can decrease productivity but...Read this article...
Dynamic Array - Unique Sort
We start from the last article on XLOOKUP (https://bit.ly/39dN8yq) and try to solve the problem of extracting unique data and sorting them using the new dynamic array functions. Bonus, an optimization of data validation. This article is for Office 365 users only.Here is the file used for example:http://bit.ly/2UZAEGTProblem 1. Extract unique data. For example, the product list.We want to make a data extraction form (XLOOKUP) where we find out the quantity delivered for a particular product.In...Read this article...
Process Optimization Workshop
On March 12, our company organizes a workshop in Arad at the Continental Forum hotel with the theme "Process Optimization", where we will have as guests: InterMarium Company from Poland, Centro Software from Italy and company Arkite NV from Belgium. This workshop is intended for CEO's, Plant Manager, Operational Manager, Manager Engineering as well as other people who are responsible for improving processes in the factory.InterMarium company from Poland is an IT company that will present a...Read this article...
Dynamic Array – XLOOKUP
What we wanted in the last article (https://bit.ly/2sQCWvL), was done in mid-January: Microsoft has activated the Dynamic Array for all Office 365 users, not just for "Insiders". In the following articles we will describe these new functions. For today, XLOOKUP.As usual, we start from a problem and try to identify the elements to solve.Problem: Data table and extracting information in various situations.Access to the work file:Problem 1. We have a data form, where when choosing the product code...Read this article...
Analysis of Measurement Systems with Q-DAS or MINITAB ?
Measurement systems analysis (MSA) is meant to show us whether the data we use to analyze processes are reliable or not. MSA is a first step that should precede any decision, including the use of Statistical Process Control (stability and capability).There are several software used for statistical data processing. Often used today are MINITAB, Q-DAS but also Excel.Regardless of which software is used to achieve the MSA, all must comply with the standard required by the client, as the case may...Read this article...
Microsoft Power BI
For some time, the area of Business Intelligence has gone from predominantly IT to what we call self-service business intelligence. We need to process and analyze data much more often than we did before, on all levels, not just in the management area. We need to automate our processes and access information faster, in real time. Let's see how Microsoft Power BI can help us.From the beginning we must admit that the old BI solutions were the result of the collaboration between analysts and...Read this article...
Box Plot Chart
A Box Plot is a type of graph used to show quantitative data patterns. It provides information regarding the central tendency and the shape of the studied distribution.The elements of the Box Plot diagram are:Vmin - The minimum value named and is the smallest value observed in the string of values, excluding outliers;Q1 - The lower quartile delimits the lowest 25% of the observed values;Med - The median delimits 50% of the values (it is exactly halfway between the minimum and maximum...
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Teamwork
Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most efficient way.The team receives the goals, understands them and commits to achieving them. Team motivation is strengthened when the organization has clear expectations regarding its work, goals, responsibility and results.From the point of view of team building, they can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. By homogeneity, the team will be much faster aligned with the objectives and the way of...Read this article...
Materials Management Operations Guidelines/Logistics Evaluation V5
Initially defined to establish the requirements of the quality standard in the Automotive Industry for Logistics, MMOG / LE, or the Instructions for Materials Operations Management / Logistics Evaluation, it has become one of the most important tools for standardizing operations in the Automotive industry. The instrument has a multiple role:• Defining a common language throughout the automotive industry regarding otherwise differently perceived notions (eg stock level, recovery plan,...Read this article...
Risk Management
Risk management means identifying, evaluating and prioritizing risks (defined in ISO 31000 as an effect of uncertainty on objectives), followed by a coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor and control the probability / impact of unfortunate events or to maximize opportunities .The risk management standards have been developed by various institutions, including the Project Management Institute, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the ISO...Read this article...
VDA 6.3: 2016 - why do our customers "stress" us?
Life in a provider organization for the automotive industry is very ... alive. You just don't get bored. One of the special moments is when the customer announces that he is following a process audit according to VDA6.3, whether we are talking about a potential analysis or a process evaluation in series production.What and how do you continue? What is this and what does this VDA6.3 help us with?According to VDA6.3, process audit is a method of impartial analysis and evaluation of product...Read this article...
PPAP - Production part approval process
The Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) is designed to demonstrate that a supplier has developed its design and production process to meet customer requirements, minimizing the risk of failure through the efficient use of APQP. Therefore, the request for approval of the new product must be accepted in official PPAP format and with documented results.The latest PPAP edition, published by AIAG, has been completely restructured to describe the requirements regarding the approval of new or...Read this article...
Traceability - curse or blessing? Logistic approach
Traceability is a basic requirement of any industry, in some cases traceability at the batch level is sufficient to meet the requirements, in others it must go in detail and demonstrate that a finished product was made according to the established process, using the materials and quantities established, produced by operators trained to perform those stages of the process, with the recording at the piece level of the date and time of execution of each transformation of the raw material into the...Read this article...
Santa Claus ... hoping to bring us the Dynamic Array
Santa Claus ... hoping to bring us the Dynamic ArrayCareful! This article is for Microsoft Excel-dependent users.Any Microsoft Excel-dependent user wants to be able to benefit from Microsoft's Dynamic Array promises by 2020. Don't you know about them?You had problems with the VLOOKUP function because they didn't even look at the data to the left of the column, you wanted to extract data from a column faster and sort it automatically, you wanted to generate a Data Validation for a much faster...Read this article...
IATF 16949:2016 vs. ISO 9001:2015
Want to access the automotive supplier market?If you are sure you want more projects with large volumes (but with relatively small profit margins and with a few more headaches), the solution is the proper implementation and management of a Quality Management System according to the IATF 16949: 2016 standard.The IATF standard 16949: 2016 is based on ISO 9001: 2015 and defines the requirements of a Quality Management System for the design and development, production and, if applicable, service of...Read this article...
MSA - Open session (Ploiesti)
The practical and interactive applications within the Effective Flux sessions were and are to the taste of all participants 😊.Right now, in Ploiesti, George's expertise is being felt at the Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA) course. At this type of course, participants from various fields (automotive, food, medical, textile, aeronautical) learn how to verify the effectiveness of the inspection.In the interactive part of the session, the application is made, the data is collected and then...Read this article...
APQP - Advanced Product Quality Planning
APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) is a standard designed to support the framing of the launch of a new product as well as the reduction of costs since the product definition phase.Increased product complexity, reduced implementation time and increased competition have a growing influence on the cooperation between car manufacturers and their supply chain. This manifests as intense interactions between the customer and the supplier throughout the product development process, which leads...
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Reverse FMEA (RFMEA)
Do you happen to receive complaints from customers, maybe even repeat ones, even though you have implemented P-FMEA risk analysis for production processes? The cause could be given by the purely theoretical realization of these risk analyzes without a practical verification at the workstations (shop floor) of the potential ways of failure.One of the methodologies that can be used to avoid these complaints and to continuously improve the quality of the products is R-FMEA.
R-FMEA helps:
-...
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Transport management - suggestions for the future
From the very beginning Supply Chain Management (SCM), whose existence was defined as the process dealing with the management of inventories and costs in the distribution chain, it was observed that the orientation only towards the management of inventories was not sufficient to improve and optimize. logistics costs. Transport management has been and continues to be one of the difficult topics to tackle in logistics.Transport represents 25-30% of the logistics costs of the distribution chain,...Read this article...
QRQC - Quick Response Quality Control
Usually, PROBLEMS are viewed in everyday life as a real pain and something that must be avoided at all costs.In business, PROBLEMS can lead to low productivity, poor quality, high costs and ultimately loss of customers if they are not dealt with quickly and completely prevented their recurrence.The QRQC method can be used for:• resolve and respond to a customer complaint• solve an internal problem, selected on the basis of its importance.It is suitable for problems of medium...Read this article...
Robots - the machines that continue to change our lives
From the construction of the first robot in 1770 that could write a 40-character sentence, made by a Swiss watchmaker, and to this day these machines have been amazingly developed, mainly due to the automation revolution in the industry.A robot is a programmable machine capable of performing a series of actions.Their shape is not unique, it is consistent with the applications it is used for.Currently, the largest spread of robots is in the construction industry, they are now present in any...Read this article...
Preventive maintenance
What does preventive maintenance mean? It is a regularly planned, repetitive activity, made to keep the equipment in working order and to optimize their efficiency and accuracy.This activity involves routine operations such as periodic cleaning, lubrication, testing, calibration and adjustment, wear check and possibly replacement of components.Preventive maintenance is performed while the equipment is functional and has the role of reducing the risk of unexpected failure. It must be planned in...Read this article...
5S - one of the first steps
5S is a powerful LEAN tool, a tool that provides the basis and then a healthy development for a KAIZEN approach to a workplace, a department, a company, and even at the level of civil society. 5S does not only apply to mass productions, large series, small or unique but also in services, administration, medical, banking, wherever there are people, flows and processes.The 5S are the initials of the 5 Japanese words Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Arrange), Seiso (Clean), Seiketsu (Standardization),...
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How is Minitab helping us
MINITAB is a statistical software package developed at Pennsylvania State University that has become one of the most widely used in the world.The program is used intensively for various applications such as graphical data interpretation, quality tools (SPC, MSA), Six Sigma and Reliability (maintenance) projects.MINITAB helps us to:• Explore data by graphical analysis: The Pareto chart helps us prioritize project activities, Histograms and Dot Plot are used to show the frequency of...Read this article...
Plastic
Plastics are a constant presence in everyday life, having uses in various fields such as heavy industry, machine building industry (automotive components), food industry (packaging), aeronautical industry, pharmaceutical industry, light industry (goods). consumer goods or toys) and many more.One of the most used techniques for processing plastics is by injection because in this way complex parts with various uses can be obtained as mentioned above.Knowing the classification method, the types,...Read this article...
What is Six Sigma ?
More and more people are learning about Six Sigma.Many people ask themselves, "Would I use a Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification?" But what does Six Sigma really mean?Jack Welch, president and general manager of General Electric, said that "Six Sigma is a quality program that, when all is said and done, improves your customer experience, reduces costs and builds better leaders."Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology that follows the following 5 steps (DMAIC):Definition:...
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FMEA AIAG / VDA
As most of those connected with the automotive world have probably already learned, in June 2019 the first unified edition of AIAG / VDA for the FMEA standard was published.The initial idea that started from this reunification was the standardization of the tables for the evaluation of Severity, Occurrence and Detection, which were treated differently by the North American and European industry, often leading to confusion or high complexity in the product development or improvement activities....Read this article...
Quick Statistics for Minitab
The QUICK STATISTICS application meets the requirements of our customers to significantly reduce the time that engineers spend in collecting, processing and analyzing production data.Access to data: Data extraction takes a few minutes. We use the most common files (csv, txt, xls, etc.).Data filtering: The operator interface allows to choose the data to be analyzed by: car, period, etc.Minitab analysis: We statistically analyze stability and capability.This is an analysis solution that reduces...Read this article...
Who's paying us the salary?
How many times have you heard of colleagues at the Acquisitions as "working for suppliers"? But about my colleagues at Sales as "as if they were working for clients"? In this article we talk about the money that I give to suppliers and customers in the desire to do a good level of service ... and not only. What if I told you that all your employees, as long as they are not supervised, "make gifts" to your clients and suppliers?Read this article...
Modern method of job optimization and error reduction
Effective Flux is in partnership with the producer of a modern technology for organizing the workplace to promote the Romanian market.This method guides operators in their daily collection and assembly tasks to reduce human errors. This leads to improved quality, efficiency and human capital.Read this article...
Introduction to acquisitions
In their long way of transforming raw materials into shining finite products and meeting the needs of the current market, materials and services manage to make the whole world spin around: there are stock exchanges that, through their evolution, make savings to grow and crash, sometimes politically, but often strictly economic, dictated by the market.Read this article...
Production or planned production
Any business that has production units in the back is confronted with a major problem: rational and efficient sharing of resources (people, cars, materials and financial). This division aims to maintain the business in a competitive environment and in a permanent change. Customers and their customers are increasingly demanding variations and flexibility, and they can only be met by maintaining and improving the price of the product or service we sell.Read this article...
CEN/TS 17091:2018
December 11th, 2018, Deloitte Office, London – in front of an highly interested audience, which was also bearing worries related to the consequences of the fast-approaching Brexit, CEN/TS 17091:2018 was officially released.
The standard aims to bring out directions and steps for crisis management, regardless the size and complexity of the organisations and their activities.
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Cluj interactive workshop 28.09.2018
Update (17.09.2018)Find out more about this event.Read this article...
Workshop Arad 16.03 - Optimization and quality for your business
On March 16, 2018, Effective Flux organized the interactive workshop "Optimizing and Quality for Your Business".The session took place at the Continental Forum Hotel in Arad.The Practical Seminar has been geared towards leading companies and was an excellent opportunity to understand how we can become more productive without large investments, but also for networking.Among the topics addressed were:- Value Added. Waste identification. Techniques to reduce waste. Lean production systems....Read this article...
Workshop - Optimization and quality for your business
On 29.11.2017, Effective Flux with the support of the Iasi Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized the workshop "Optimization and Quality for Your Business".The topics discussed were:- Value Added. Waste identification. Techniques to reduce waste. Lean production systems. Implementation.- The quality. Efficacy vs. Efficiency. Quality Link - Lean Production System.- Common Problem Solving Techniques: 5 What, Ishikawa, Brainstorming, PDCA, 8D, Six Sigma. Advantages and disadvantages in use.We...Read this article...
QC Story
QC story is a systematic methodology commonly used in practical procedures and practical methods of problem solving in team.It appeared at the Seisakusho Li Tianjin plant, which is in Komatsu, Ishikawa in Japan and has developed continuously, Its merits being recognized in "Journal of Quality Vol. 23, no. 1 (2016).QC Story Methodology is a tool that has its roots in TQM (Total Quality Management), starts from the general principle of continuous improvement - PDCA and consists of 7 steps:•...Read this article...
