Five Areas That Make Your Plant More Efficient

By Evan Gurley

Everyone likes to reduce costs where they can to help lift the bottom line. Usually cost savings are measured in terms of lower utility bills, producing less waste or purchasing more efficient machinery. But there are also some efficiencies to be found in your processes, from the fundamentals of communication to the complexities of production scheduling. Here are five areas you can address now, and some insight on how to approach them.

“What are a few key items you address in your plant to help run the plant efficiently?” This is the question I posed to various NPCA producer members to gain insight on how they strive to operate efficiently on a day-to-day basis. Here are their main ideas and some insight on how to address them.

1. Communication

Effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills are critical in the workplace. Good communication skills go beyond conversations, as employees must also know how to communicate well in written reports and emails. Understanding the benefits of effective communication helps companies focus on developing a workforce that can effectively communicate within the plant and among customers, vendors and business partners.

“Communication is improved by holding management meetings with all company leaders present so that each department better understands the roles and issues of each other’s department,” said Stephanie Loud, owner/operator of Mountain West Precast in Ogden, Utah. For example, the plant person might not understand the role of the purchasing department and how they can’t just go to Home Depot to purchase a part for the plant, because the protocol is to get three competitive quotes. Or perhaps the payroll department might not want to hire any new people for a specific job, but if they understand the overtime incurred by plant employees, it might make more sense financially to get that extra person. “I think that sometimes employees focus solely on what they are responsible for and don’t understand how all areas of a company overlap and intertwine. When they look outside of their scope, there are company efficiencies that can be realized for everyone’s benefit.”

John Lendrum, president of Norwalk Concrete Industries in Norwalk, Ohio, said there must be a clear direction and focus from the top that is recognized by every employee. “This translates to daily production schedules that are shared in advance; consistent product drawings; proper notice of shipments; and a method to provide immediate feedback and correction when something is not right,” he said. “Value-added services such as coatings, fit of components and special installations need to be scheduled just like casting the product. This takes man-hours and is often overlooked until it impacts the ability to ship products on time.”

Lendrum added that he has never considered it a waste of money spent on a system or tool that has improved communication. “Real-time information is here to be harnessed to our advantage,” he explained.
Communication supports all aspects of the working environment, and no organization can exist without it. The quality of the communication is what makes the difference in having a successful organization.

 2. Production scheduling

Fluctuations in product demand are a big headache for precasters when it comes to production scheduling, but they are inevitable. Construction projects rely on timely deliveries of materials, and as precasters have experienced all too often, there are times when a contractor will contact the precast plant at the eleventh hour and request a product for delivery the next morning.

Production control means coordinating manufacturing activities in accordance with the manufacturing plans so that preconceived schedules can be attained with optimum efficiency. Precasters strive to deliver the required quantity and quality of products on time, but this cannot be achieved without a solid production control system.

Communicating the production schedule well in advance (to contractors/owners as well as precast plant production workers) is a vital ingredient in successful project management. When all involved parties have a good understanding of the production schedule, everyone better understands their assignments and the relationships with other activities needed in order to complete the task.

“The person scheduling has to have a good feel for products, plant function and people,” said Lendrum. “It is often more an art than a science.” When plant errors or customer changes happen, the production scheduler must be able to compress and change the schedule, sometimes on a daily basis, which may impact delivery dates. “This job should not fall entirely on one person,” he added. “There has to be a backup person in place. There can only be one gatekeeper to the schedule with a daily lock-down point to avoid disruptions and missed castings.”

Production scheduling is intended to match the resources of equipment, materials and labor with project work tasks over time. Sound scheduling can eliminate production bottlenecks, facilitate the timely procurement of necessary materials, and otherwise ensure the completion of a project as soon as possible. In contrast, poor scheduling can result in considerable waste as production workers and equipment wait for needed resources or for other tasks to be completed.

Precasters often are limited by operational constraints related to production capacity, the quantity or availability of molds/forms, demand satisfaction and other issues. Developing a production schedule in advance will help optimize production efficiency even when limitations exist.

3. Shop drawings

For certain projects involving an outside architect and engineer, the following scenario may sound familiar:

A building project is broadly divided into two major phases: the design phase and the construction phase. First, the architect conceives of the building and then puts the concept down on paper in the form of presentation drawings. Next, the architect and the engineer work together to decide on materials and construction methods. The engineer determines the loads the supporting structural members will carry and the strength each member must have to bear the loads. He or she also designs the mechanical systems of the structure, such as heating, lighting and plumbing. The end result is the preparation of architectural and engineering design sketches that will guide the draftsmen who prepare the construction drawings. These construction drawings, plus the specifications, are the chief sources of information for the supervisors and craftsmen who carry out the construction.

But this isn’t always the case for precasters. Precasters who get involved with custom projects will likely work with an engineer and architect when developing the drawings or will be supplied with the drawings.

Obtaining/developing the drawings is the first half of the issue. Once the drawings have been received, personnel working off the drawings must be able to comprehend what they are seeing. It is critical that those working with shop drawings can comprehend the information for the setup, manufacture, handling and erection of the particular precast concrete product. Understanding these documents and the information contained within them is critical to all phases of production and quality control. Otherwise, there is no control of quality at the plant. Openings can be misplaced, lifting devices may be incorrectly embedded, reinforcing steel may be improperly spaced – all which jeopardize the structural integrity of the product.

The primary function of blueprints and shop drawings is to transfer information from the contract documents/drawings into information pertaining to the manufacture, handling and erection of the precast concrete product. Using the information on the drawings correctly will confirm that the products being fabricated are in fact what were specified.

Workers should be familiar with all aspects of shop drawings including the various views, sections, symbols and lines.

4. Production goals

Nearly every manufacturing company has a daily or weekly meeting where issues concerning production, customers, materials, personnel and more are addressed.

The daily/weekly production meeting should be a set duration of time at a regular interval throughout the course of the year to assess, measure, communicate and plan production schedules. Objectives of this meeting should be to:

• Assess rate and schedule performance from the previous day
• Confirm the schedule for the current day
• Set the schedule for the next day or two
• Discuss, report and resolve production and customer issues
• Maintain valid production dates on all production schedules (or work orders) and customer orders for use by materials and customer service

Production goals matter greatly, because they have a direct impact on profitability. They also have a direct impact on competitiveness. Every precaster should be setting, tracking and monitoring crew productivity.

5. Outsourcing materials

To improve the efficiency of a precast concrete plant, prefabricated reinforcement (cages, mats) and cast-in components (lifting hardware, castings) should be considered in situations where production schedules do not allow for the plant to make the unit in-house, even if it has the capabilities to do so.

When it makes sense, outsourced components can contribute to net cost savings of time, handling, storage space, labor and materials. For custom or specialized items such as cast iron hatches, Lendrum says it is essential that you order and receive them in plenty of time. “Long lead times for cast-in items can severely impact customer delivery times,” he said. “That needs to be identified up front at the time the order is placed. Adequate inventory stock of fast-moving components such as lifting hardware needs to be checked frequently by someone who can do the ordering immediately. Running this through two or three different people may add days to the actual order being placed.”

It starts with you

A plant can address numerous items to help improve efficiency on a day-to-day basis. What works for one plant may not work for another, but a few things are certain: Communication, planning and a mutual understanding of the end goal is essential. Take a minute before your next production day, sit down with your key personnel and address these issues from the top down to ensure there isn’t something your plant may be overlooking that could affect how efficiently your plant is operating.

Evan Gurley is a technical services engineer with NPCA.