Natel Production System

• Basic Planning
• Customer Requirements
• Material Availability
• Manpower Available/Needed
• Equipment Capacity Available/Needed
• Miscellaneous
• Organize Production Room/Each Production Line
• Value Stream – Eliminate non-value added activity
• Spaghetti chart – Reduce/eliminate wasted steps
• 5S + No unnecessary material or equipment. Everything in its place and specific place for everything [equipment, tools, kits, shadow boards for all tools etc.]
• Balance the Lines – Goal is zero WIP. No storage shelf.
• Until it is fine tuned [or if not practical, due to product mix] have a “hot line”
• To remove bottlenecks
• To respond to customer requests
• The intent is to have virtual conveyor belt manufacturing. Continuous Production Line with Manufacturing Cycle = Process Time.
• Small lot size of <10 pieces will help
• Few exceptions may be there, due to some automatic equipment steps [which also can be reduced/eliminated by better planning]
• Standardize Work Instruction
• Only one way to every process, all operators performing “specific work” must follow the process [independent of the individual operator]. If someone has a better idea, PDCA and then this becomes new Work Instruction.
• Training area of work – eg: Print, punch, solder, Die attach, Wire bond, saw, braze, potting, testing, troubleshooting, inspection [in process, final etc.]
• Training on a specific job, based on the traveler
• Determine Cause[s] for defects – (4Ms)
• Machine
• Process (Method)
• People (Man)
• Materials
Attack aggressively all of the above & eliminate before the next step. Goal is 100% first pass yield. Initially, with inspection, eventually without inspection.
• Why do operators get up from their stations? Solve all issues so that they do not have to. [e.g. missing tools, missing drawings, missing materials, lack of training, do not know what to work on, unclear process, ambiguous instructions, etc.]
• Do not start any lot without 100% kit. JIT or earlier material to make sure of efficiency.
• Find ways to encourage operators to bring up problems [not hide the problems] and reward them for it. The goal is to eliminate these problems.
• Three top issues of the room that are hurting throughput. Attack them aggressively. As one issue is resolved, add next important issues so that we are actively working on three issues. Use Kaizen/PDCA to achieve these.
• Preventative maintenance of all equipment and if/when required quick repair process.
• Identify Wastes and eliminate [Look at TPS 7 Wastes]
• Quick [1 minute] changeover from one product/ model to another product or model

Keep in mind Respect for employees in all situations. The intent is to eliminate all potential sources of errors. NPS approach with employees is to [1] Teach and Train, [2] Encourage [3] Motivate and only as a last resort – Discipline. Discipline must also be with respect, even though it needs to be firm.

Kaizen & PDCA

Before implementing any new procedure or changing the present way of doing anything;

Go to the Gemba [Place where work gets done]

Talk to all the stake holders [All previous owners of the procedure]

• Operators/ workers
• Process group
• QA
• Engineering [EE]
• Equipment engineer or in charge etc
• Anyone else

Revise

Check again

Implement on a small scale [experimental] and monitor for any unexpected issues If all good, create new work instructions, then proceed with training and implementation PDCA may or may not be required in each situation. Use whatever is most effective and efficient.