Efficiency has always been a buzzword in business – at least since the time in which industrial technology became something that would help companies produce far more in far less time. These efficiency savings have driven much of the consumer economy for the past 300 years, with cheaper goods produced in less time for more people. Now, though, as well as being a money-saver, efficiency is a target of those companies that also wish to be green: kinder to the environment, and proud of it. Being green works well for businesses, as the general public are looking to invest in companies that are actively trying to reduce their carbon footprint.
As such, this article aims to make an intervention in your business production line, advocating for enhanced efficiency in the year 2020. Read on for more information.
Finding Inefficiencies
There’s no use in trying to improve inefficiencies if you’re not totally aware of where exactly they’re arising. And to know where they’re arising, you’re going to have to assign some managers and auditors the responsibility of making a complete review of your business, and most especially the processes that take place on your production line. This can take some time: complex businesses, with a serious aim to reduce inefficiency, will have to make calculations about all their processes – from fuel, to energy, to materials, to working hours. But at the end of the review, you’ll know which areas to target.
You need to be aware that there is space for many inefficiencies in a production line or in the manufacturing industry. Many of these issues can remain undetected, too. Control systems, like programmable logic controllers (PLC), can be integrated into your production line. By doing so, you can find where to improve workflow.
Onboarding Efficiency-Savers
Meanwhile, there are some elements to a production line that you can know will save you in terms of efficiency. Most of these, you’ll be aware, are generated from the fact that advanced automation and robotics have produced some of the most dexterous machines known to man, and they’re able to perform tasks faster, better, and with less energy used than ever before. One of the main considerations you’ll need to make when considering your investment in new technology is when it’ll pay for itself. Again, calculations based on efficiency savings will help you calculate just that.
It is, however, difficult to balance your production line’s emissions when this line of work does require more machinery than other industries. You can play your part in the fight against climate change, though, by detecting any leaks in what should be a sustainable production line.
Through extra sensing equipment, you can help monitor your production line and see how much waste your production line/products are producing. You will also want to monitor if any harmful substances are being introduced into the environment through a leakage, as this cannot only harm your workers or employees but also your brand’s reputation.
Recycling Materials
When you measure efficiency, it’s common to think of waste as a cardinal sin: one to do away with at your earliest convenience. But the truth for production lines is that waste is entirely acceptable as a by-product of your work, and reducing it to zero is quite often impossible. Instead, it’s far better to try and make all your waste recyclable, and to recycle this waste in balers that crush recycling into small cubes. Then, with strong wire provided by Baling Wire Direct, you’ll tie up these cubes, ship them to a recycling unit, and do very little damage to the environment through your wastage.
Reduce Waste
Not to be confused with the above point, but you need to reduce your material waste as much as your raw material waste. Technology and machines are prone to breaking, especially with such an increase in processing rates production lines are expected to do now.
Breakage is usually down to poor maintenance and inaccurate control equipment; they do not regulate the quality of the equipment or show if there is a fault that could cause further (and greater) damage. If your production line breaks down, then your business is left with a downtime that can cause issues to your revenue – you are unable to work, causing excessive waste.
Luckily, you can use a user required specification (URS) that helps you identify key performance indicators (KPIs). A URS and KPIs can help you tighten up the process, lessening downtime.
Train Your Staff
Finally, you may perform all the steps above, but you’ll only be guaranteed an optimal and efficient set-up when you have your staff all singing from the same hymn sheet. Get them well-trained – in a big group, if possible – in order to move forwards with some new procedures and new company values that work towards efficiency and green savings as a company badge of honor in your path into 2020 and beyond.
You will also need to improve company morale, especially as work on a production line can be repetitive at times. You can review your production line, see which processes are better performed by a machine, and which should have a more human touch. Machines can do the more repetitive duties, whereas your staff can carry out jobs that are less repetitive and give them more morale.
What’s more, you can have staff look after the machines. A human eye can ensure faults keep to a minimum so that uptime increases. Reducing downtime improves efficiencies, increases revenue and brand reputation.
These above tips are imperative to help you reduce inefficiency and to make your company greener and less wasteful into the new decade of the twenty-first century. The world is continuing to develop, so always look towards the future for more ways to improve your production line. Technology is crucial to ensuring your production line is working efficiently and to the best of its ability. What’s more, looking to make your production line more environmentally friendly means your production line will also be more efficient.