Enhance Your Operation 5: Reduce or Eliminate Bottlenecks

This continues our series on how to improve your business operations to grow your business
In our last post, we discussed streamlining your production line or processes . We alluded to how bottlenecks cost you money by slowing production and increasing costs. A bottleneck occurs whenever new product arrives at a workstation faster than the workstation can process it.
While streamlining can eliminate some bottlenecks, others may require special attention and solutions. We will examine the cause and effect of bottlenecks in businesses. Then, share some ideas for resolving them.
Cause and Effect of Bottlenecks in a Business
Bottlenecks occur in manufacturing lines, clerical processes, or any sequential work done by different people. Companies create bottlenecks without meaning to do so. Causes of bottlenecks may include:

• Faster workstations or employees feeding into slower ones
• Multiple workstations consolidate into one process or workstation
• Missing workers in the production or process line for meetings, vacations or illness
• Workstations that do not have the materials needed to process what comes
• Workstations impacted by slow, broken, or inappropriate equipment or systems

You may use several tools to identify existing or potential bottlenecks:

• RACI analysis to identify who is responsible, accountable, consulted, or informed in the process
• Flow charts allow you to chart visually the flow of work and identify bottlenecks
• Ask “Why?” as you look at a bottleneck. Then, analyze that answer with another “Why?” until you’ve asked “Why?” 5 times

Reduce or Eliminate Bottlenecks
Mindtools suggests that you have two basic options to eliminate a bottleneck

• “Increase the efficiency of the bottleneck step”
• “Decrease input to the bottleneck step”

PlantRun, an international consulting firm on downtime manufacturing information, adds:

• “Optimize the speed of machine or work”
• “Ensure the bottleneck machine is well maintained”
• “Provide a constant buffer of stock upstream of the bottleneck” (Great idea!)
• “Reduce time wasted in set ups and changeovers”
• “Train more operators for the bottleneck” step & use them to unjam bottlenecks
• “Run bottleneck steps longer than others” (Start earlier/end later)
• “Improve operator efficiency and competence”
• “Improved time management”
• “Improved motivation” for workers

Come back Saturday to analyze if outsourcing or drop shipments will enhance your operation