Packaging Process Improvement Consultants

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  • Changeover: The time from when the last good piece comes off of a machine or process until the first good piece of the next product is made.
  • Continuous Flow: A concept where items are processed and moved directly from one processing step to the next, one piece at a time. Also referred to as "one piece flow" and "single piece flow".
  • Continuous Improvement: The never-ending pursuit of waste elimination by creating a better workplace, better products, and greater value.
  • Control Chart: A statistical problem solving tool that indicates control of a process within established limits.
  • Control Element: Any specific process variable that must be controlled. The measurement of a control element indicates whether the process is operating under stable conditions.
  • Cost of Poor Quality: Costs associated with supplying an inferior quality product. Examples are scrap, rework, redesign or loss of customers.
  • Current State Map: Helps visualize the current production process and identify sources of waste.
  • Cycle Time: The time required to complete one cycle of an operation. If cycle time for every operation in a complete process can be reduced to equal takt time, products can be made in single-piece flow.
  • Error Proofing: A process used to prevent errors from occurring or to immediately point out a defect as it occurs. See "poka-yoke."
  • External Set Up: All set-up tasks that can be done while the machine is still running.
  • FMEA: Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) A structured approach to determining the seriousness of potential failures and for identifying the sources of each potential failure.
  • FIFO: First In First Out (FIFO) Processing orders in a pure sequential flow.
  • Flexible Manufacturing: An integrated manufacturing capability to produce small numbers of a great variety of items at low unit cost; an FMS is also characterized by low changeover time and rapid response time.
  • Flow: The main objective of the lean production and one of the important concepts that passed directly from Henry Ford to Toyota. Production should flow continuously all the way from raw material to the customer, almost acting as one long conveyor.
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