With inflation keeping the cost of raw materials high, it has become more important than ever for manufacturing companies to reduce waste as much as possible. Not only is this strategy good for the environment, and the company’s bottom line, but it can also boost employee well-being and morale.
Below are five ways to help prevent waste at your company:
Use Less Material
One seemingly obvious solution is to cut down on the amount of materials used, but achieving this goal isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. To help identify where waste is coming from – whether it is using more energy or thread than needed to produce a shirt, or printing reports that could easily be shared digitally – a thorough examination of your company’s practices using KPI management is an essential first step. KPI management helps companies measure and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide insights that help employees make better decisions, and ultimately drive costs down.
In addition to reevaluating materials and packaging, think about going paperless. Digital technology offers many ways to cut paper use down. If you haven’t done so already, conduct a waste reduction audit, a methodical process to help figure out how much excess your office is producing and where it is coming from. Recycling should be prioritized, and not just bottles and cans from the breakroom but also printer cartridges, old computers, monitors and batteries from small devices. Recycle containers should be at every workstation or within a short walking distance. At World Emblem, we also recycle cardboard, wood from pallets, plastic from thread cones and metal including aluminum, bronze, and steel.
In addition, we recently made the change from fluorescent lights to LEDs, reducing our average electricity consumption from 75 watts to 35 watts. Other energy reduction measures we are working to implement include the installation of 10,000 square feet of solar panels, as well as translucid roof panel installation to reduce the need for electricity during the day by bringing in more outside light.
Save Time
The old adage “time is money” certainly applies to today’s manufacturing world. If done properly, time management can help cut down on waste substantially by reallocating unnecessary work to more important tasks that will help boost profit. One way we to improve time management at World Emblem is through real-time tracking utilizing radio-frequency identification (RFID), which uses radio waves to follow a product from the beginning of manufacturing all the way through to shipping.
This enables us you to see how long it takes for each step to be completed and helps identify how to potentially streamline and speed up the production process. Additional tracking technologies worth investigating include GPS, which can be used to monitor remote worker locations and activities; motion tracking, used to measure speed and distance; and eye tracking, which allows for continuous assessment of visual attention.
Embrace AI
One of the most exciting and talked about technologies that can help companies reduce waste is AI, which has the potential to discover new areas for improvement that humans may not be able to identify on their own. For example, AI could be used to analyze the motion of workers and products throughout the manufacturing process. However, for AI to be successful, it is essential to first organize your company’s data in a way that AI can properly analyze it and form logical conclusions. In the case of viewing motion, cameras can be placed throughout a factory to capture the necessary information for the AI system to review and analyze.
We are actively exploring AI for use by our in-house design team. Typically, when a new design order comes in to World Emblem, there is a lot of back and forth with the customer. We believe AI can be used to cut our design proof times significantly and initially plan to use the technology for vectorization, font mapping and color assignments.
Optimize Workflow
Another type of waste that may be less obvious to some, but can be just as important to a manufacturing company’s success, is excess movement. When an employee is able to produce more without having to work as hard physically, there is less wear and tear on their bodies. This results in less injuries and sick time needing to be taken, happier employees and ultimately an increase in worker productivity.
At World Emblem, we perform motion studies on our processes. We not only look at large scale movement but also micro movements of our operators. In one process, we reduced movement by 30%, which resulted in an 8-second per piece savings. Team members work less but produce more per hour, a win for both the employee and the company.
Utilize Your Talent
Initiating training programs to educate employees on best practices is also a great way to reduce waste. Oftentimes, employees perform work that unnecessarily squanders both materials and time, without realizing there is a better and often easier way to complete those jobs. Additionally, employees may be assigned tasks that are too easy, or difficult, for their skill levels. If the former is the case, then their talent is being misused. On the other hand, if a worker is struggling with an assigned task, the solution may lie in education rather than reassignment or other more drastic measures.
While there is often an upfront cost involved to develop many of the methods and programs that can help reduce waste at your company, the end result will be money saved, happier employees, and ultimately more satisfied customers.
