Manufacturing shop floor is all about optimizing SQDC performance, in that specific order. We can't compromise the order. Customers often want product earlier than prescribed cycle time. While fulfilling this demand one must ensure the product Quality before reducing cycle time. Lean tools like VSM, 5S and 7 wastes come handy to find the bottleneck and eliminate it. One tool I found useful is "core / non-core" analysis. It helps you identify most important processes and helps deciding the investments to make them better. The operators running these processes should go through frequent trainings. Poka Yokes should be implemented on these processes to enhance quality. Non-core processes should be automated or eliminated completely.

While conducting VSM workshops and following Lean principles is a must, a thorough PFMEA/DFMEA will also help in introducing poka yoke's and automation at the necessary stages of production to reduce the risk of quality issues during production while ensuring maximum efficiency.

listen to the operator or floor employees, their opinion mostly "very valuable" but often ignored. Start from basics, conduct some study test, experiments and optimize. Don't overlook methodologies either.

Design For Manufacturing (and Test) is one of the fundamentals. Data gathering and statistics can hone efficiency and don't forget to train and congratulate your people.

- Implementing lean manufacturing principles, such as eliminating waste, streamlining processes, and reducing lead times, can significantly enhance productivity. - Leveraging advanced technologies like automation, robotics, and IoT can further boost efficiency and precision. - A robust quality control system, incorporating methods like Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Six Sigma, is crucial to ensure product excellence. - Empowering employees through training and fostering a culture of continuous improvement can further elevate overall performance. By effectively integrating these strategies, manufacturers can achieve substantial gains in both efficiency and product quality.

In my experience, everything starts with an optimized product design that considers production constraints and lifecycle requirements. This approach ensures quality and efficiency, leading to 'design for eXcellence' products. Manufacturing engineering then prepares the production launch, adapting processes and controls to optimize quality, cost, and lead time. Continuous improvement follows, using KAIZEN principles and LEAN methods to reduce waste. It's crucial to properly select, train, and qualify the workforce to ensure they have the skills to produce quality products efficiently. Production quality control identifies deviations and initiates preventive, corrective, and curative actions

One thing that I found useful while working for highly regulated industries is to ensure that tooling and fixtures are always looked after, maintained and checked prior use. Simple yet so overlooked, this is the difference between an efficient manufacturing business and a manufacturing business that just survives.

Understand the factors that contribute to variation of critical product characteristics via DOE. Adjust the processes to minimize variation, center within two sided specs, and avoid violating one sided specifications. Study design factors to improve the design by making the product insensitive to product variation. Use inner-outer array DOEs to maximize the signal to noise ratio for critical performance factors.

To enhance manufacturing efficiency while maintaining product quality, you can implement strategies such as automation, lean manufacturing techniques, real-time monitoring systems, and quality control checkpoints. These approaches ensure streamlined processes without compromising standards.