Here at Pollock, we have something we call “Smart Shifts.” What are “Smart Shifts?”
Simply put, it involves making the right shifts in operations so you make the biggest measurable gains in productivity, yield, speed, and quality. They can vary somewhat by industry.
Regardless, when you make a “Smart Shift,” your company experiences some cool benefits. Take a look at a few examples of Smart Shifts some companies can make:
- Re-Analyzing and Optimizing Your Processes
When you do the same thing day in and day out for years, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. This isn’t just true in production lines. It’s true for nearly everything human beings do.
So, your processes are one of the first places to look to get measurable results. With your processes, the best things to check are equipment, process bottlenecks, and opportunities for automation. Typically, manual labor processes that require large amounts of such labor have the biggest opportunity for savings and efficiency gains.
- Using Automation to Reduce Your Dependency on Temporary Labor
Temporary workers cost less to hire and give you the flexibility you need when you need it. However, the hidden cost of temporary labor has long-term repercussions when you rely on it too much.
You constantly have to train and supervise temporary staff. You can’t always rely on temporary labor to be there when you need it. And you never know the quality of the workers. Automation has a higher up-front cost, but it can put an end to these problems and others presented by temporary labor, giving you a nice long-term ROI.
- Optimizing Packaging Design and The Systems Used to Package Your Products
There’s no doubt that changes in packaging design, and the systems you use for packaging, seem small. But, you have to remember to multiply the changes by the number of products you produce over a given time frame to see your true ROI. Many companies easily rationalize and minimize small changes that add up to massive savings.
- Protecting Your Pallets
Does your company store large amounts of product on pallets? Then you may have some big savings opportunities available. The greatest inefficiencies in pallet protection come in how you wrap your pallets.
In some cases, employees don’t wrap them properly, which later leads to the goods on board being damaged. Also, wrap that is too thick may be used, which drives up your costs unnecessarily.
These are some possibilities for “Smart Shifts” you can make to increase your efficiency. There are many others too. Now, you have an idea of what can be done to boost your savings fast.