LeanOps™ Production Reporting Program

What is LeanOps™?

LeanOps™ is a new performance reporting program designed to reduce operating costs, increase profits, and manage risk in manufacturing operations.  Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) calculations, equipment utilization reports, throughput reports, work center downtime analysis, part number performance reports, scrap analysis and operator evaluation reports—these are just some of the data  LeanOps™ can display in easy-to-read reports that will help reduce operating costs.  LeanOps™ can be run as a stand-alone application or can be integrated with a manufacturer’s higher level Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) program.

LeanOps™ is a relational database application that connects you to your process’s performance statistics and presents easy-to-read charts, graphs and tables determined from shop floor raw data. LeanOps™ is currently an Access® program that produces over 35 preformatted reports focusing mainly on the various aspects of equipment utilization, downtime, operator efficiency and scrap reduction. It helps managers and engineers maximize their ROI on capital investments by using an activity-based costing approach to quantify and prioritize operational costs-reduction opportunities. LeanOps™ was designed specifically to reduce operational costs in small- to medium-size companies.

The majority of shop floor performance criteria or Key Output Variables (KPOVs) are incorporated into standardized reports for ease of analysis. LeanOps™ ability to group products, operating time, downtime, resources, equipment and scrap causes allows the ability to standardize multiple reports and create improvement algorithms for reducing operational costs.

LeanOps™ incorporates plant available time and work center scheduled time to help managers track their budgets. Work centers can be grouped together into two different user-defined categories. The most common grouping is by process function performed, such as mills, slitters or saws. Another approach is to group work centers with high hourly operating cost together, creating reports that focus on those work centers only. Operator production rates can be compared to standards to calculate labor efficiencies. In addition, operators can also be grouped into crews for efficiency evaluations. LeanOps™ also provides an input field to track equipment processing information, such as strokes per minute or the number of passes through a mill for performance or quality analysis.

LeanOps™ is not a traditional ERP system; it does not contain a scheduling program, track inventory or production orders through a shop. It focuses on shop floor performance variables like downtime costs, asset utilization calculations and scrap costs. It is designed as a stand-alone application or can be connected to a manufacturer’s current ERP program. Some of LeanOps™ reports may overlap current ERP program reports such as operator efficiencies and part costing.

LeanOps™ can be implemented at five different levels depending on a manufacturer’s needs. A user can track equipment downtime only, if that is what they want to focus on exclusively. This level will minimize implementation and program maintenance time at the cost of generating fewer reports. Otherwise, users can track throughput, scrap, product performance, and operator efficiencies to access all of the available reports. When implemented at its highest level, Level 5, it will require the maintenance of part number and routing tables with production standards. Maintaining the LeanOps™ tables that overlap with a manufacturer’s ERP system can be accomplished electronically to minimize maintenance labor costs.

Why use LeanOps™?

• Manufacturers can use LeanOps™ to reduce operational costs, increase profit and reduce risk.
• Easy to implement
• Short Return-On-Investment (ROI)
• Ability to implement at five different levels based on operational strategy and availability of funds.
• Easy to access and understand reports
• Reports are designed and built by an industrial engineer specifically for operation managers, plant managers and supervisors to utilize
• Standardized reports to benchmark and track cost reduction projects impact at the plant level, work center level and part number level.
• Ability to seamlessly integrate with manufacturer’s current ERP systems
• Can be used as an accountability tool for plant managers, supervisors and operators. Some manufacturers use dynamic reporting programs like Crystal Reports® to create custom reports from their ERP database tables.
• Benchmarking your operational performances with quantitative values and identify production improvement goals
• Using as a performance accountability tool for employees, supervisors and plant managers
• Identifying potential process improvements by reporting on the categories, sub-categories and codes defined
• Concentrating resources on the top Pareto Analysis downtime opportunities or scrap causes
• Establishing accurate part costing based on actual throughput rates
• Increasing throughput, profit margins and decrease lead times