How To Improve High-Mix Low-volume Manufacturing?

What Is High-Mix Low-volume Manufacturing? HMLV Is also called high-mix low-volume manufacturing. It refers to manufacturers which have hundreds to thousands of parts or required services for these. High-mix low-volume manufacturing seems to be a chaotic process when it comes to produce many different parts together in small batches. It requests many process changes and various material and tools. High-mix low-volume manufacturing is a suitable choice when producing many components in a single product. It allows manufacturers to maintain multiple income streams rather than relying on a single part. High-mix low-volume manufacturers are faced with inconsistent demand and constantly changing requirements every which is very challenging. This article is explaining how to improve high-mix low-volume manufacturing.

The first step in improving operation efficiency in high-mix low-volume manufacturers is to optimize how to process orders. Conduct a thorough process flow analysis to identify and eliminate those non-value adding step could be more efficient and cost-effective.

High-mix low-volume manufacturers receive many projects with many different requirements every day. It is important to understand factory’s weaknesses and strengths of the projects. To quantify and skill level of machine operator, try to rank parts by level of difficulty and measure the time it will take to operate the machine at a certain difficulty. Once they reach an appropriate speed and accuracy on a certain complexity, they could move up to next level of difficultly. This helps employees to develop advanced skill and improve performance. Scheduling is a key factor to success in high-mix low-volume manufacturing. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the worker allows manufacturers to schedule according to the complexity of the projects.

As High-Mix Low-volume Manufacturing projects involve setup, before beginning the project, it is important to gather all materials and tools to identify waste in process. And it is important to measure setup time and performance to make sure improvement over time.

Automation is reserved for large volume production factories, but there are many ways to automate High-mix low-volume manufacturing which are cost effective. For example, utilizing robots for machines could be very effective and lower labor cost. It will help to focus more on programming and customizing part design. And robots will help to increase productivity.

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