How can you achieve
LINE BALANCING? Bottle
neck
Bottle
neck
Takt Time
LINE BALANCING
Line Balancing
• Line Balancing is a one of the most power
tool in production. This tool covers
balancing operator and machine time to
match the production rate to the takt time. Bottle Bottle
neck neck
• In production process, if cycle time is less
than takt time, the process is sufficient Takt Time
enough to keep the customer demand and
line is perfectly balanced.
• Otherwise, if cycle time is more than takt
time, the process is not sufficient enough to
keep the customer demand and line is not
balanced. This process stage is called
Bottleneck activities.
How can you achieve line balancing?
Step 1 - Calculate takt time:
1. The goal of line balancing is to match the production rate to takt time and so
you need to aware your takt time is essential.
2. Takt time is the rate at which parts are products must be produced in order
to meet customer demand .
3. Example:
How can you achieve line balancing?
Step 2 - Perform time studies
1. The goal of time studies is to establish
the time required to complete each task
along a production line.
2. You want to find out how long employees
and machines spend on each part of a
process while it is possible to do time
studies with a stopwatch and clipboard,
There are now significantly better
options.
3. Manufacturers can now perform
automatic and continuous time studies,
thus eliminating human bias and sample
size effect.
How can you achieve line balancing?
Step 3 - Identify bottlenecks
and excess capacity
• In this step you was analyzed the time Bottle Bottle
neck
studies in your production line then find neck
which process is longer than takt time
and notice them. Takt Time
• Also notice which parts are taking less
than takt time. There is excess capacity
in those places.
How can you achieve line balancing?
Step 4 - Reallocate resources
1. Rearrange tasks to reduce excess capacity and bottlenecks.
2. For example, move resources–workers and equipment–from parts of the line that have
excess capacity to bottlenecks.
3. This will reduce the waiting waste in the places where there was excess capacity.
4. It will also help improve production flow where there were bottlenecks.
5. Try to organize elementary tasks into groups that minimize operators’ idle time and that
maximize the utilization of machines and equipment.
6. Share the workload among operators in the most logical way, taking into account the
data on operator performance that you have gathered.
How can you achieve line balancing?
Step 5 - Make other improvements
1. The analysis of the quantitative data on your lines will
surely reveal other opportunities for improvement that
could improve the balance of your lines.
2. To implement process improvement, you can
manipulate three parameters: operator time, machine
time, and setup time.
3. For instance, you can give additional training to workers
that take longer to complete tasks or facilitate
transitions to reduce changeover times.
4. You can also upgrade machines or make sure operators
follow proper machine setup and maintenance standard
operating procedures (SOPs).
5. Many Lean practices can also help reduce variation in
your lines. 5S and visual management create a coherent
workspace, thus reducing the time wasted looking for
tools and improving process efficiency.
6. Poka-yoke, or error-proofing, a process that helps catch
defects early, which increases the consistency of output.