The whole category in one page.
CAPACITY WITHOUT DEMAND IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE MISTAKE IN MANUFACTURING
Establish that there is a market at a price covering your cost, before committing capital to equipment.
CALCULATE COST PER UNIT AT YOUR ACTUAL VOLUME, NOT THEORETICAL CAPACITY
Fixed cost per unit falls sharply as volume rises and rises sharply as it falls — which is why the same factory is profitable at one volume and loss-making at another.
FIND THE BOTTLENECK AND IMPROVE ONLY THERE
Adding capacity anywhere else changes nothing, and time lost at the bottleneck is lost to the whole factory.
ISOLATE MACHINES BEFORE ANYONE WORKS ON THEM, AND NEVER ACCEPT GUARDS REMOVED FOR SPEED
Machines started while someone is inside them kill people, and unguarded moving parts cause amputations irreversibly.
TIE ANY PRODUCTION BONUS TO GOOD OUTPUT, NOT GROSS OUTPUT
Otherwise you are paying for quality shortcuts and removed guards.
RECORD INPUT BATCHES AGAINST RUNS, AND RUNS AGAINST DESPATCHES
Ask now whether you could identify which customer received which batch. If you cannot, you could not manage a recall.
MEASURE YIELD AND WASTE BY CATEGORY, BECAUSE MATERIAL IS USUALLY THE LARGEST COST AND YIELD IMPROVEMENT GOES STRAIGHT TO PROFIT
SIZE GENERATORS FOR MOTOR STARTING LOADS, NOT RUNNING LOADS, AND SEQUENCE LARGE MOTORS RATHER THAN STARTING THEM TOGETHER
AND ADD A SHIFT BEFORE ADDING EQUIPMENT, SINCE IT SPREADS FIXED COSTS ACROSS MORE UNITS WITH NO CAPITAL AT ALL
