Manufacturing Reliability

Manufacturing Reliability (MR) is a programme aimed at improving the longer-term reliability of operations within high-volume manufacturing based organisations. MR is a high-leverage initiative as it impacts upon many different aspects of a business, through production, quality, hygiene, engineering, customer service, planning and organisational leadership. MR has particular relevance to high-volume production environments.

Good reliability has a positive effect upon:

Operating cost Waste / Yield Logistics cost Maintenance cost
Inventories Customer service Product quality Return on capital
Staff retention Attendance level Health & safety Environment

The influence chain:

Systems ⇒ People Behaviour ⇒ Plant ⇒ Outputs ⇒ Stakeholders, Customers

The correct systems must therefore be in place, maintained and developed.

We have identified a number of systems of work that are critical to the reliability of manufacturing. Our focus is to analyse the business condition and design a bespoke programme to either install or review the effectiveness of these systems.

When assessing the systems of work, the reaction from many people is “It’s all sounds familiar and it’s a common-sense approach”. The reality recognised by many is that:-
  • In the heat of daily production 'Common Sense' is not that common.
  • While the business is confident that it has the skills and drive to install or improve systems of work, it never actually happens.
Our general approach to MR is therefore as follows:-
  • Systems of work are reviewed, and shortages identified and prioritised.
  • We advise on organisational aspects of the business in order that maximum effect may be obtained from the systems of work.
  • We organise the project, identifying the initial focus areas and creating start-up energy.
  • We coach and mentor people within the organisation, from directors and general managers through to operations team leaders, engineers and operators. The Client team always own the project however.
Comment from a senior plant manager towards the end of a programme:

"I actually like to come to work now"


Common areas for improvement

Each programme encounters subtle differences in terms of the situation and needs of the organisation. There are however many common themes:
  1. Leadership system – not defined adequately, and roles throughout the organisation not fully understood. Support from other critical systems and specific coaching is required to ensure the correct approach is taken to deliver optimum results:
  2. Ownership – organisational barriers impede ownership. Without ownership improvement actions either are not discussed, or are discussed but not followed through in a timely manner. Results drift downwards until critically low, followed by short-term initiatives that again decline. The influence chain remains as:
  3. Critical systems – not in place at all, or recognised as being in place but not followed. This often also relates to Leadership in that there is a lack of consistency within the business, and every 3 to 6 months a new initiative is launched allowing previous initiatives to slip into the shadows. We ensure that there is distinct ownership for each of the critical systems. The system owners monitor and develop their system.
"Every organisation is perfectly designed to get the results it achieves"

The need for data

Data collection is put under review, and we often design simple new methods of collecting and analysing key performance data. Unless we measure, we cannot compare and therefore judge our successes and failures. Data is always available, but what data is collected, and how is this used and results communicated?

The analysis of data is done by the people who can affect it most – the manufacturing teams. With good data we eliminate “unaccounted losses” and know exactly what’s happening with the plant.

A systemic approach

We train people in Systems understanding. This is a basic concept that everyone in the organisation is capable of understanding and applying. Without defined systems that are owned and executed across the entire organisation, then the burden falling upon management is unbearable.

With the correct, properly resourced and managed systems, people behaviour is strongly influenced and management can concentrate upon further improvement opportunities.

Practical people offering practical solutions

The common theme about the people at Lorien engaged in Manufacturing Reliability is that they have all gone through the experiences that our clients are going through. The MR Programme is not a theoretical exercise, we offer sound practical advice.

The need for durability

We all know of situations where 'experts' have been parachuted in to a company, turned it around, and 6 months later the benefits have vanished and the cycle of despair is perpetuated.

Any change programme must be durable in the longer term. We measure our success not by the results obtained when we leave, but 12 months on when the results continue to show improvement.

Case Histories

Food factory – single customer threatening withdrawing contract due to customer service problems, 7 month programme:

2 lines included within initial programme, OEE improvement of 25% to 85%, and waste reduced from 20% to 5%. 3rd line improvement since handled exclusively by client staff, OEE improvement of 37% to 92%.

The commitment of the client staff to take ownership for systems, and to develop their people was the key to this success.

Food factory – oldest plant within the group, 6 month programme:

OEE improvement from 76% to 92%. More recent weekly figures of 95%.
Waste improvement from 7.2% to 3%. More recent weekly figures 2.5%.
Rate loss and unaccounted losses fell from 11.5% to 0.7%

The coaching provided to line team leaders has helped the factory to go from strength to strength.