Problem:
The vice president of logistics of a major distributor of industrial products was not convinced that his major distribution facilities were running at optimum efficiency. He hired a Lean Manufacturing consulting firm to investigate areas for improvement. Employee production information presentation was quickly targeted. The current system required warehouse employees to walk to a CRT monitor to view new orders and production rate status every time an order was completed. It was estimated that this consumed about 17 minutes per employee, per shift.
Solution:
This application solution included several strategically placed Data Masters LED Displays. Employees were able to easily monitor their personal productivity, as well as their averages and trends against other employees. Standard data was shown in amber, while employees below goal were shown in red, and those above goal were shown in green.
Data Source:
All data was communicated to the displays through an Ethernet network. A PC supplied data to the displays via a spreadsheet that monitored employee performance. A bar code tracking system and a warehouse monitoring software package provided the data collection means for the spreadsheet.
ROI:
Each warehouse employee's time was billable at a fully burdened labor rate of approximately $42.00 per hour. Each shift utilized 70 warehouse employees. Daily savings=.283 hours saved per employee or $11.90/hr X 70 employees X 3 shifts=$2,499 per day. The displays paid for themselves in 29 days.