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idle time – how to track and reduce?

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Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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  • September 15, 2005 at 3:45 pm #40697

    Ranjan
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Hi,
    I am finding it hard to monitor and study the idle time and match it to resources needed.
    The volumes we receive fluctuate. I have done a trend study for the last 2 months and the time we receive workload has no consistent pattern.
    Resultant, the idle time, or non-productive time for my team is high. I have been able to reduce it to some extent based on shift timing changes, but it still is high.
    My client is not too keen to provide me extra FTE’s to cover the idle time, even though they are aware of this. Due to this, my team members have to stretch often.
    What tools/methods are suggetsed to solve this better?
     
     
     

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    September 15, 2005 at 4:11 pm #126911

    CT
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Rahul
    Try using OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) This is

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    September 15, 2005 at 4:11 pm #126912

    CT
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Rahul
    Try using OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) This is a

    0
    September 15, 2005 at 4:14 pm #126913

    Ranjan
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    CT, can you please explain this tool better. I am not familiar with it. Thanks

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    September 15, 2005 at 4:18 pm #126914

    CT
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    OEE is a great tool for tracking downtime, idle time, and codes can be assigned to stoppages for various reasons. From this, the highest percentage of stoppages can be tracked and delt with.
    for more information try this link http://www.reliabilityweb.com/art04/misled by oee.htm
    Copy and paste into address bar
    hope this helps
    CT

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    September 15, 2005 at 4:22 pm #126915

    CT
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    This book has everything you need to know about how to set-up spreadsheets and collecting data. Available at Amazon.com
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    September 15, 2005 at 6:11 pm #126920

    AB
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    CT
    I looked at the page which you pointed Rahul to. From the description OEE is primarily used for measuring equipment effectiveness. Rahul’s question is more about resource and workload levelling. I am interested in learning how you would use OEE for that purpose.
    Thanks
    AB

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    September 15, 2005 at 6:21 pm #126922

    AB
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Rahul
    This is and will remain an optimization challenge. I am not sure about what your product and your process are so pardon the generalities in the response please.
    Let me start by summarizing my understanding of your situation. It seems that all your requests are coming from the same client. The rate at which requests come in is unpredictable. Your challenge is how do you service the client requests in a timely manner with a constant number of FTEs at all times, including peak load times.
    You should start gathering more data around the following parameters:
    – Time Request In
    – ETA for completion
    – Time Request completed
    – Type of request (if there is a relative sense of urgency around some requests compared to some others)
    – Time taken to assign the request to resource(s)
    – Time taken to complete the request
    The above data will help you understand how real and how big the problem is. The data will also help you see if you are doing things in the right order and whether your loading issues are caused due to delayed assignment of request or work taking longer than planned to complete. That should be your first step.
    If you determine based on the data that the problem is critical, then you can use the following guiding principle towards developing a solution for your specific problem.
    When faced with constrained resources, the most important guiding principle is to ask the customer, what is most important for them and what can wait? This should lead you to establishing a more granular level of SLA which in turn will enable you to load your resources more effectively.
    Hope this helps.

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    September 16, 2005 at 10:17 am #126967

    Ptalaia
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Hi guys,
    Let me say that i agree with AB, and OEE is a great tool to help you identifying stopages e so on.
    But Rahul, with the last 2 months data maybe you can work on. In my opinion you must remove the variance of the orders (quantity) from the machine. Put the machine working in constant quantity orders using buffers storage calcucated by previous data. Then use OEE.
    Hope this help,
    Ptalaia

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    September 16, 2005 at 12:25 pm #126971

    Tronan
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Member

    Hi Ptalaia,
    The OEE metric does not care about the loading of the machine, it is either loaded or not, and it is how well the process is running when it has a demand, so the metric can be put in now. A pre-emptive improvement could then be to smooth the demand on the machine…
    Remember that OEE is availability of the machine, how well the machine runs when it has demand, and how much crap it produces. Not how much demand it has or how it is loaded.
    Have fun…
    T.

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    September 16, 2005 at 12:55 pm #126973

    Ptalaia
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Hi, Tronan
    I can not be more in agree with you! You are completelly right. The OEE could be used in either situations in order to make an improvement. But the issue is to find idle time!
    What i said is for estabilize the production first, then with use OEE to help finding stoppages outside demands, and optimize the idle time!
    Regards,
    Ptalaia
     

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    September 16, 2005 at 1:53 pm #126975

    Ranjan
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Everyone —
    Thanks for the help!
    Just to clarify, my problem is not production process related, not in terms of usage of machinery.
    Production for me means deliverables, like procesing of applications online etc. From that standpoint, i find AB’s suggestion great. I am not sure how much of OEE i can use.
    Ptalaia another problem with studying 2 months of data is that there are drastic changes that take place very often. Committments my client makes, to their in turn clients, change often. They are undergoing big tech changes, hence this shit. As such studying, or trending on historic data is misleading and no indicative of possible future trends.
    Please suggest!!

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    September 16, 2005 at 2:08 pm #126977

    Mike Walmsley
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    Here is the precursor to OEE. Perhaps it will help.
    http://www.reliasoft.org/mil_std/mil_std_721c.pdf

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    September 16, 2005 at 2:33 pm #126980

    CT
    ★ 10 Years ★
    Participant

    AB, Rahul
     AB-I guess I misunderstood or simply didnt read the question that close. At any rate, yes it would be difficult to apply OEE in this instance. Your following explanation is very close to what I would do in his case. As for trying to levelize his work load. I’m not sure that can be accomplished for his situation as it sounds like orders are constantly changing. However there is scheduling software available which may be of help, not sure of the name, but will get back to you later
    CT

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