Flow in a manufacturing industry

A flowing river will be pure than stagnant water, since pure water will be coming into it from the source and contaminated water is replaced with pure water in it. Just reminded the importance of flow. With this example lets move to flow in a manufacturing industry.

Let’s start …

What is flow

Flow is a movement of a material from a start point to its destination. Without stoppage is the ideal condition in lean manufacturing.

Flow in a manufacturing Industry

In a manufacturing industry flow refers to the movement of materials from start point to its destination. Inside a manufacturing industry, start point will be raw material store and destination will be shipping area.

Outside a manufacturing industry, start point will be the shipping area of supplier and destination will be customer.

Information also flows inside and outside the manufacturing industry. This information flow leads to the flow of material.

How to induce flow in manufacturing industry

For a material or information to flow, initially there should be a driving force.

Demand is the driving force in a manufacturing industry. This demand is transmitted from the customer to the supplier and to the production floor up to shipment area.

Demand is transmitted as information and its done through the implementation of Kanban system.

Importance of flow

Think about, what if a material do not flow…

Following situations will arise,

• Inventory build up
• It will block cash flow (Invested money is blocked without giving return on investment)
• Consumes floor space
• Non moving material will leads to deterioration
• When material is not moved at right time, it may results in the idleness of resources such as manpower and equipment.
• Lead time will increase
• It will results in many of seven wastes

So, if we implement flow the above points can be eliminated from manufacturing industry.

Continuous flow

Continuous flow in a manufacturing industry focus on optimum movement of material. Material movement path usually designed in ‘U’ shape or straight line for reducing the zig zag movement. Which will drastically reduce the movement path and hence saves energy and time.

Lean flow

Lean flow focus on movement of materials in right quantity at right time. Continuous flow comes under lean flow.

Restrictions to the flow in manufacturing industry

Following are the restrictions…

• Changeovers
• Breakdowns
• Material shortages
• Defective parts
• Unorganized work stations
• Lack of proper communication of demand
• Unbalanced cycle time of operations
• Poorly designed layout

How to overcome restrictions

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