SHOP FLOOR MANAGEMENT
SHOP FLOOR MANAGEMENT
• What is shop floor management-
Shop floor management is developing
and managing the shop floor operations,
inventory, equipment and workers.
• Concerned with issuing production orders,
controlling the progress of orders through
different work centres, and getting current
status of the orders.
• Deals with managing WIP.
The following diagram displays the
general phases of a
manufacturing/processing/assembly
business.
Shop Floor Control System -- Phases
input is collection of production plans ( eg: results
of process planning, MRP, capacity planning etc)
typical system consists of 3 phases:
◦ order release
◦ order scheduling
◦ order progress
these phases are executed by a combination of
computer and human resources
PHASE 1: ORDER RELEASE
Documentation needed to process a production order through the
factory
Collection of docs is sometimes called the “shop packet” which consists
of:
◦ route sheet
◦ requisition for required materials
◦ job cards / other means to track labor time needed for the order
◦ part list (if required) material handling personnel to transport parts between work centres
◦ move tickets: to authorize material handling personnel to transport parts between work centres
Paper documents are unnecessary in automated methods
Driven by 2 inputs”
◦ authorization to produce <- comes from master schedule
◦ engineering and manufacturing databases
Phase II: order scheduling
Deals with the allocation of production orders to
different work centres and priorities for each job
Follows directly from order release module
Solves 2 problems in shop floor control:
1. Machine loading problem
2. Job sequencing problem
Priority Control : denotes the function that
maintains the priority levels for the different
production orders.
◦ important input for order scheduling phase
◦ some rules for determining order priority are:
1.earliest due date
2. shorter processing time
3.least slack time
4.lower critical ratio
Relative priorities of order may change over time due to
equipment breakdown, change in demand, order
cancellation, defective raw material etc
Factory Data Collection System
• Consists of various paper documents, terminals, automated
devices for collecting data from shop floor control operations
• Also includes compilation and processing of data acts as
input to order progress module in shop floor control
• example: number of pieces completed at a certain work
centre, scrapped parts, parts requiring rework etc
• Purpose is to supply data to “order progress module” and
provide current info to concerned personnel
• Can be online (real time data collection) or offline
(temporary data storage in some device)
Automatic Identification Methods
Bar codes
Radio frequency systems
Magnetic stripe
Optical character recognition
Here shown the shop floor system.
Combination of computer and human system.
Benefits of Shop Floor Management
Some vital benefits of shop floor
management are given below −
1. Increased operational efficiency through
standardization of operations.
2. Reduction in occurrence of errors in work.
3. Revealing of loopholes in production or processes.
4. Increases productivity of the staff.
5. Positive impact on the revenue of a manufacturing
business.
The next generation shop floor management – how to
continuously develop competencies in manufacturing
environments
• Manufacturing companies have to cope with a rising number of product variants as
well as ageing personnel due to the demographic change. These challenges require
companies to develop their employees’ competencies – problem solving
competencies in particular – especially on the shop floor. In order to support a
value-driven material flow, shop floor management systems have been introduced
in many manufacturing environments. The integration of a competency
management system that continuously develops problem solving competencies
through shop floor management seems to be a promising approach. In this paper,
today’s understanding of shop floor management as well as its connections and
differentiations to other managerial systems are developed in order to fully grasp
its potential for competency development. To use shop floor management as a
facilitator for competency development in production environments the problem
resolution cycle known from lean production is picked up and thoroughly analyzed
regarding the integration of competency development. An outlook is given on a
current research project which aims at concretizing these means of competency
development through shop floor management.
• Keywords: shop floor management; comptetency development; lean production.
THANK YOU
