Whether you are involved in a small, medium and/or large scale

manufacturing business, production losses can disrupt your schedules

and adversely impact the delivery to the customers. This can result either
in reduced profitability or even in losses. The good news, however, is
that you can take measures to arrest the losses and or maximize
profitability. This article deals with some of them and it is aimed at you
not falling into the trap of incurring major losses or forego profits due to
the non-functioning of your machinery and installations.
Causes of Production Losses
Down-Time Issues
Downtime problems arising out of breakdowns, material shortages and
not taking timely actions related to setting up and adjustments of the
equipment, can result in the halting up of production.
Speed Losses
The speeding up of processes could be hampered by frequent, even if
they are brief, stoppages, which can upset the general flow of
production. Some of them include component jams, misfeeds, mishaps,
etc that occur, for example, when an item falls out of or gets positioned
wrongly blocking a vital component, (e.g. sensor), which prevents
access to the delivery point. The fact that these stops are not frequent
and not needing maintenance personnel to set them right, does not
change the situation, as it adds up to form a chunk to cause the loss.
Production Rejects
Due to the malfunctioning of equipment or an error in the processing, a
large quantity of the output can fall below standards and risk rejection.
Such setbacks could be machine or human-related but the outcome is the
same in that the losses are real.
Action Measures
We have several prescribed measures and standards under supply chain,
operations management and workable standards have been set up by
pioneers, for instance, Ford Motors, (Hendry Ford’s) first auto assembly
lines established in the early 20th century and later honed by Japanese
manufacturers, especially Toyota Motor Corporation. They all focus on
lean manufacturing processes, (LMP), overall equipment effectiveness,
(OEE), KANBAN, which aims at eliminating wastes. By applying any
one or a combination of the above tools and techniques:
You can track the maintenance schedules
Machinery setup times, etc. which would avert the problems.
The production rejects can also be handled by mapping out the pattern of
rejects, for instance, they may occur during a certain work shift and, if
so, we can act to curb occurring of similar incidents in the future.
Improving Productivity
The manufacturing productivity could be improved by following the
three principles, VIZ,
Collect the information
Analyze it
Act
Collect Information
Capture the information accurately, say by having a properly setup
Management Information System, (MIS)
Analyze
Undertake an analysis of the data to determine the priorities
Act
Take thoughtful action, implement, monitor, modify and sustain it
By adopting such improvement processes previously mentioned, VIZ,
lean manufacturing process  (LMP), overall equipment effectiveness,
(OEE), KANBAN, it is possible to realize a comprehensive and holistic
improvement process.
We can conclude that by taking proactive measures, it is possible not
only to avoid losses arising out of your machinery but increase
productivity gains as well.