Automated Project-Production Scheduling Process to Optimise Factory Output

E&I Engineering Group

About E&I Engineering

E&I Engineering was founded in 1987. In 2002 the company moved to Burnfoot, Donegal. It manufactures bespoke Electrical Switchgear (E&I Engineering Ltd) and Busbar Trunking Systems (Powerbar Ltd) for the building services sector. There is also a manufacturing facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to service the Middle East region. It also just opened a facility in the USA in 2014 to service the US market.

The Challenge

Due to the significant growth in business, E&I identified that the current system of project management and production scheduling required a major overhaul. It was too manual and cumbersome to ensure live and accurate information was available.

Putting Lean into Practice

• Process Mapping was used to understand the end-to-end process, Mapped current processes and identifed different categories of projects to agree changes towards a future state.
• Developed lead time profile by operation for each category of project.
• Used online visual management to communicate and manage the process; to measure, display and act on data daily to highlight progress and issues.
• Used Heijunka (level loading) techniques to develop scheduling process.
• Used Lean Principle of pull system to develop a backward scheduling process.
• Used daily PIT meetings to review performance to plan.

The Results

• 30%+ increase in throughput
• 20%+ improvement in productivity
• Fully functional scheduling process.