Three Ways to Reduce Costs and Increase Efficiency in Manufacturing

Waste is an inefficient use of manufacturing inputs. Reducing waste from your production process can improve yield rates and lower disposal costs.

Understand Causes of Manufacturing Ineffciencies:

Examine your process to understand where waste is generated and address the causes. Replacing outdated equipment that causes excessive waste will improve efficiency and use of resources. Once you’ve reduced waste as much as possible, consider options to handle waste that may generate income, rather than incur disposal expenses. Identifying potential uses, including other manufacturers that might use your waste materials as a process input, can help both organizations reduce costs and operate more efficiently.

Keep Your Facility Clean:

Are dust, debris and liquid spills causing quality, safety or other issues on your line? Make sure you’re controlling cleanliness of your operations by implementing cleaning best practices. Following best cleaning practices provides opportunities to improve quality while keeping your manufacturing facility clean and safe. Using mechanized cleaning methods rather than mops and buckets can improve efficiency, reduce labor costs and improve cleaning results.

Simplify Your Product Line:

Offering customers multiple product options could be affecting your efficiency by slowing down your entire operation. Standardizing and simplifying your product offerings can reduce expensive custom work and the additional manufacturing steps they require. It’s not uncommon for a large percentage of a manufacturer’s total inventory to be made up of slow moving SKUs that make up a small percentage of sales. Eliminating these slow-moving SKUs can reduce inventory costs and improve efficiencies, allowing you to focus on more profitable, faster turn products.

--Excerpt from Tennant’s “A Guide to Reducing Manufacturing and Logistics Costs”