Pythia Industries

Sample Plant

Implementation plan

1. Time the hand work at one press

One hour with a stopwatch shows whether one person can keep up with two presses.

Action	A supervisor watches one press on a long job for one hour. On 30 cycles, time the hands busy cutting and packing, and the wait. Split the hand work into cutting, checking and packing. Note which press beside it also runs a long job.
Owner	Shift supervisor
Purchases	None: one hour of a supervisor, about $45
Decision	Are the hands busy for less than about a third of each cycle?
Fallback	If they are busy for more than half, look at the gate work on that mold, the second way on the menu.

2. Fit one pair of presses and run it for a week

One pair shows the real pace before anything more is bought.

Action	Pick the two neighboring presses on the longest jobs. Fit a chute and a short belt at each, to one table between them. Set each counter to the number of parts in one box. One person trims and packs for both for a week, with the second person nearby on the first days.
Owner	Maintenance lead, with the shift supervisor
Purchases	Two chutes, two short belts and two counters, about $10,000 with fitting
Decision	Does one person keep up for a full week, with no more rejected parts than before?
Fallback	If the person falls behind on one job, keep the pair for the other job and try a different neighbor.

3. Move the freed hours out of overtime

The saving is cash only when the freed person covers work that overtime covers today.

Action	Name the work the freed person moves to, before more belts are bought. Track overtime hours per week before and after the first pair. Then fit the other presses on long jobs, one pair at a time.
Owner	Production manager
Purchases	About $5,000 for each further press
Decision	Have overtime hours per week fallen by about the hours freed at the first pair?
Fallback	If overtime does not fall, hold the next purchase until the freed hours have a named use.

Illustrative sample. The plant, the walk and the footage are synthetic.