For both the laser and form resource there is one person working on the operation. The MES entry is set to Time and Quantity. First the laser operator clocks on/off and enters 100 for quantity. Then the form operator clocks on/off and enters 100 for quantity. The WIP quantity says 100 at this time.
Those 100 parts then go to Powder Coat. There are 4 operators that clock on/off the job. Each operator touches and works on all 100 parts. If they each enter 100 for quantity (in MES) then the total WIP will go up to 400. The pieces/hour time for powder will not get any faster, even if we add more people to the crew.
Then the 100 parts go to assembly. This is a crew size of 3. They split the 100 pieces amongst themselves, each person working on 33 or 34 parts. They can work at 33 parts per hour. If an additional person is added to the crew then they need less time to finish the task. They each clock on/off the job and enter only the quantity that they complete. Their quantities add and go back to 100 pieces.
So how should I set up the resource group/operation for powder and assembly? For powder, I have the problem that the labor quantity is adding up to 400 and this is not correct. This is also skewing the labor hours and burden cost. The real time to go through the line is 4 hours, but each of the 4 people entered 4 hours and the total labor hours is 16 and the burden is multiplied by 16. For assembly, each member of the crew should enter their quantity so it adds to the proper amount. When I add more people to the assembly work the scheduled time will drop.
Please give me recommendations on how to set up the powder resource and the assembly resource. Thank you,
Heide
Thank you for the feedback. Your suggestions help me think about the topic from another angle.
When considering this issue, we must consider quantity, labor hours, machine hours, and scheduled time. For quantity, your suggestion of breaking the powder operation into 4 separate operations will solve that problem. The labor hours for each of the operations will be 4 hours and each person can enter quantity. If each of the new operations (hang, mask, spray, take off) takes 4 hours and they are scheduled start to finish then the scheduling engine will take 16 hours for this machine. We need the machine time or scheduled time to be 4 hours. I need the people to work at the same time. So I would have to set the Scheduling Factor to Start to Start. For the Powder Resource we have labor hrs = burden hrs. I think the burden should be multiplied by the the time it took the parts to move through the line (4 hours) but it is being multiplied by the total labor hours (16 hours). I could try to fix this issue by changing the burden rate.
I also am hesitant of this suggestion because our bill of material and method of manufacturing is already huge and adding 4 more operations to each Method of Manufacturing would be a time consuming task.
In addition, since the powder coat line is a continuous line, sometimes we have people help for 10 minutes (especially at take off) if the one operator gets backed up. We need a way for an extra person to clock on. So I still have to solve the quantity problem in MES for the extra person that clocks on every now and then to help when the line backs up. I am thinking about (in Pilot) setting the Labor Entry to Time - Backflush Qty and see how that affects the quantity issue. For right now we have the Take Off person enters quantity and everyone else must enter 0.
I am going to continue to run more tests in Pilot.
Thank you for the ideas,
Heide
You wouldn’t need to add anything for the person that is assisting for 10 minutes. The system would handle that for you costwise. The crew size is more for scheduling than anything. Actual costs come from Actual labor applied to the job.
You are correct on adding Start to Start for the Powder Resource. That way it would take around 4 hours to complete, not 16. If you are worried about burden, you may want to set up a second resource similar to the Powder Resource but not have any burden. That way, it only accumulates burden for the first Opr associated with the actual Powder Resource.
Whenever I work in a situation where there is a TEAM of people doing the work, I typically suggest that you create a “TEAM” resource group… that team has a labor rate that includes the cost of the entire team… Using your example, the team value would be 4 times that of one of the team members. THEN for MES, you have the person starting the operation clock into the job… the person at the end of the line clocks OUT of the job. The “team” gets credit for the work, and you do not end up double reporting anything. What it does mean is that you cannot look at the person who does the spraying and see how many were sprayed… you can only see how many parts the team completed.
An other option would be to keep the single Powder Coat operation, but only one single operator declares the completed quantity and completes the operation when the parts actually exits the workstation.
As for the others, they simply clock-in/out on the operation as needed but without declaring any quantities and without completing the operation.
@timshuwy Your suggestion is valid only if the crew size doesn’t vary, otherwise the operation cost is wrong. Also, imagine the following : the team has 4 operator. Operator A and B arrive at the shop at 6:00 am while C and D arrive only at 7:30am. Then, operator A and B quit the shop at 3:00pm while C and D quit at 5:00pm. The ressource, configured with the cost equivalent of 4 crew member, is clocked-in in the morning while there are only 2 member actually working. The cost of the operation is off.
If Powder is setup as one operation with a crew of 4 and each person clocks on and off the job, then 3 people have to enter a 0 quantity and the final person enters the complete quantity. This method gives us a correct WIP quantity. But the 0 quantity entries for the other people make their earned hours 0. It is because earned hours is a function of labor quantity. The 0 quantity also affects efficiency and productivity numbers.
I tested using Time-Backflush quantity for the MES labor entry process on Powder. Each of the 4 operators just entered time and the quantity entry was greyed out. My hope was that this might solve my quantity issue. But all the labor enters for quantity on powder just show 0. Now every powder operator has 0 for earned hours. This is not a solution.
