The
beginning - Preparation method before start production
Before product can be transformed, a consistent method is
required to ensure the necessary material is available for production. A kitting process is deploy to ensure all
parts are kitted properly In assembly process before start of production. In this article, we shall focus on 2 types
of material kitting, mechanical parts and chemical material.
The proposed guideline for kitting of mechanical parts :-
- A proper kitting method must be developed to ensure uniformity in kitting activities.
- It would be best if parts comes in packaging material point of use design which alleviate the kitting process
- For some mechanical parts which are sensitive to cosmetic defect such as external case must be pack individually. Similarly ESD sensitive parts must be packed in ESD compliance material.
- Take into consideration of good handling techniques in kitting to minimize any potential part handling defect such as scratch, dent, broken .
- Use easy to clean and durable material storage bin
- Part storage bin must label with legible part #, photo and or bar code.
- It would be a good practice to have different identification storage bin such as different color bin for different part category.
- Specify the correct handling methods suitable for the product such as in battery pack assembly; operator must NOT use the dropped battery cells.
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| Kit Part Bin with label of the part # |
If the production process is quite complicated and
involve many parts in high volume environment, it is good to invest in kitting
system such as pick to light system.
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| Pick to Light kitting system |
The count of parts to kit must follow production volume
and do not kit parts in big quantity. This will cause inventory in production
and inventory hides quality issue. A
good system to use is Kanban system which has its prominent presence in lean
manufacturing to control inventory level in production.
Chemical materials kitting/preparation recommendation:-
Expiry date control - Almost all chemical material will
change or lost some of its effectiveness over time, therefore expiry date must
be checked during kitting and before start of production. Beware some chemical
material has 2 expiry date, without
break seal expiry date and used by date after break seal. All expiry date must be recorded and
controlled.
Break bulk for consumption - For bulk packed chemical
material such as lubricant, the transfer method for smaller production batches
must not contaminate the bulk material. All
transfer tools, eg.hand pump, must be
dedicated to one type of chemical material only. It is advisable to buy single use packed
material or smaller quantity suitable for low production volume.
Thawing process - If there is a requirement to store
chemical material in cold storage, thawing for the material to return to
ambient temperature is necessary. Time
must be calculated and tracked which
include time out from storage, time material ready to use, time break seal, and
expiry time in room temperature if not break seal and time material must finished
consumed. An example would be solder
paste material where time tracking should be very stringent.
Besides material, we must also ensure that other process
input such as machine and method which directly use in the process is also
ready before any transformation work can begin.
The
end of the manufacturing process
In most manufacturing process, packaging is the last gate
in production floor or the manufacturing entity. Although packaging process
seems simple and does not transform product, it could become a process which
create the most mistakes that will find its way to consumer. Mistakes such as
missing, wrong and mix part are often associated to packaging process. Sometimes damage parts are also associated to
poor packaging handling method or poor packaging design. These defects can cause high customer
dissatisfaction as customer would immediately notice those defects even before
they start using the parts!
Attention must be given when developing packaging process to prevent customer frustration of not is able to use the product.
Packaging process must governed by a work
instruction which call for
- Part number of all packaging materials and labels
- How to put parts in packaging material and placing orientation in the packaging box
- Defined a standardized location to paste the label on the box.
- Correct handling of the parts to prevent handling issue.
There must a verification process during
packaging to check the following items
- All items are correctly packed without missing or wrong parts, labels, acessories at customer site.
- All option parts, instruction manual, required accessory are packed per requirement.
- All parts count are correct and no missing parts
- Ensure all parts complete and pass all the process and test steps in manufacturing process
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Besides focusing on parts transformation process methods
in manufacturing line, manufacturer must take into consideration the
preparation process method and final packaging process. If all operators were to follow the same
method from start to end and anything in between we would get a more consistent
good quality product. Another aspect of process
which will be covered in next article would be parts transportation in between
process.
