Your company has decided that automated manufacturing is the most economical way for your organization to reduce production costs and increase your production throughput. So what are some basic steps that you can take to get the process of designing automation into your manufacturing? You should rely on your most immediate resources to start this process. The employees in your company have the most detailed information about the way that your current manufacturing operation is designed to work. Your employees, both hourly and management, are the best starting point for the most reliable information about how you should build automated manufacturing into your business.
Management should review the current manufacturing operations that are available for automated manufacturing. The initial production line that should be selected for upgrade to automation should be as simple as possible. It may be difficult for your organization to try to automate a very complex manufacturing operation at the beginning of automation. It would be best during the learning process to perform analysis and design for the simplest manufacturing operation available. Choosing may not be an option. If you can choose, the simpler line will help in understanding the automated manufacturing requirements and help later to tackle more difficult operations later.
Once the production line that is a candidate for automated manufacturing is selected, the next task to be done is to form a design team that will be able to evaluate the individual functions of the line and automate this operation. The team should have at least one member that is from the production staff, preferably the line production supervision. These members will have “hands-on” management experience with the manufacturing operation and will be able to give guidance from the management and operational prospective to create the automated manufacturing. Also included in this team should be at least one hourly shift worker from each of the shifts that have experience working on this production line. Each shift should be represented because there may be some variation in the actual production work done on the line on any given shift, even though the production line is the same. A representative of the production planning group should be a part of this team. Production planning lays out the production work flow that goes through this production line, so their expertise will be useful. There needs to be a member of this team that works with computer aided design to document functions and processes in a graphical way as the team does its work. Also a member of the safety department that is responsible for the safety regulations for this production department should be on the team.
With the design team for automated manufacturing in place, each work element on the production line should be reviewed by each member of the team. The detail of this step is very important in that each member of the team should write detail notes about the elements that are currently performed at each work station on the production line. Industrial engineering could possibly give some insight into actual work elements that are required at each work station on the production line. The notes that are made by each team member will invariably have some variation based on the viewpoint of the team member that is writing them. However, some consensus must be reached by the team as to the actual elements that make up the work done at each station in the automated manufacturing scenario. The team can disregard any time standards that may have been put in place by industrial engineering for work stations on the current line. Only the required elements of each work station operation must be determined. After the work tasks are defined and agreed upon by the members of the team, the graphic designer should layout the value stream map of the entire production line to begin the first phase of automated manufacturing.
Using the value stream map each work element at each work station on the production line should be timed for each shift. The values are then averaged to determine a current average process time for each work station. If there are any change over tasks done between actual unit production at any given work station and the start of the unit production at the next work station, those tasks should be timed and averaged as well for each shift. The values for these times should be added to the value stream map. The number of employees involved with the unit production at each work station should be recorded for each shift. This should be a constant from shift to shift, if the production job is the same on each shift.
A value stream map was created with the information that was gathered by a fictitious design team for automated manufacturing. This represents the work stations on a production line that produces stobors, fictitious parts that are part of a sub-assembly that will become part of several fictitious finished products. A stobor is a metal tube that has a polished surface, which will become part of a sub-assembly. The production line makes each stobor from tubing stock that is received from an outside supplier. The design team has gathered data from the two work stations, cutting and polishing, on our fictitious production line.
The first work station is cutting, where each part is cut from long lengths of tubing. The supplier delivers the raw material in lengths that are long enough to make 20 parts. The cycle time for cutting of these parts is 30 seconds. There is no change over time for at this work station. The cutting requires 6 employees, 3 material loaders and 3 material unloaders on each of 3 shifts. This work station utilizes 2 cutting machines to do the work. All parts are placed into a buffer area for the polish work station once cutting is complete. This area takes up 200 square feet of space in the factory area. This buffer usually contains about 7,000 parts that represents about 3 days of input for the next work station. Sometimes there is too much output from the cutting workstation and there is not enough room in the polish buffer area, so the overflow amount is placed in inventory in the warehouse.
The cycle time for the polishing work station is 2 minutes. Change over time for this work station between cycles is 5 minutes. The work station is run during 2 shifts and uses 4 employees, 2 tube polishers and 2 material unloaders. There are 2 polishing machines at the work station. A buffer are for the sub-assembly production line has been set up to hold 800 parts. This occupies 100 square feet of factory space and will hold 2 days of production input for the sub-assembly production line. The remainder of parts coming from the polishing work station are sent directly to inventory for use in production later. More on the continuation of this process later.
Size does Matter:
Companies that benefit most from using a PEO have anywhere from 10-100 employees. There are a few reasons why.
· When a company has less than 100 employees, hiring a full-time, competent HR professional can be too costly to justify. Most PEOs employ HR professionals who are certified by the society for Human Resource management, and many with a Master’s Degree. The cost: $60-$110k per year.
· When a company has more than 100 employees, they begin entering the range where economies of sale(savings achieved by producing or buying large quantities of an item)work in their favor when purchasing health and worker’s comp insurance.
· When a company has less than 10 employees, they will struggle finding a PEO that will accept them into their medical plan.
· If a company has less than 10 employees, and they DO get accepted into a PEO’s medical plan, the cost savings provided via medical insurance doesn’t have a profound effect on offsetting the PEO’s fees.
· When a company has less than 10 employees, Human Resources is not a large burden to deal with.
White Collar Companies:
White collar industries such as IT, professional services, and financial services usually must attract highly skilled employees, to do this they must compete with huge corporations that provide structured career paths, and great benefit packages.
Professional Employer Organizations provide a great solution for this challenge; they will provide a benefit package comparable to that of a Fortune-500 firm, and they provide HR support that allows a small business to organize its employees’ career paths in the same manner.
We also find that with high-growth companies, they are simply moving too fast to sidetrack themselves with the administrative burden of managing HR issues in a manner that keeps them in compliance, and also allows them to attract top talent.
Blue Collar Companies:
In low-skill orientated blue collar businesses, attracting top talent is not the same priority it is in white collar companies. However, semi to high-skill blue collar companies have to compete for talent with unions, especially if part of the work force is already unionized. For this reason again, PEO benefit packages provide a great solution.
Workers Compensation Insurance is usually a high cost item in blue collar industries that have riskier occupations, more important is how costly an accident in the workplace will be for the company’s workers comp experience rating, which determines future premium amounts. Through coemploymenta PEO provides insulation against future premium increases should an accident happen. More importantly, the PEO will provide risk management solutions to safeguard the company from having a worker’s comp claim in the first place. If an accident does happen they will fight all workers comp claims in court to prevent fraudulent claims, which are more prevalent in high risk occupations.
Seasonal Companies:
Seasonal industries with large fluctuations in the workforce benefit greatly from Professional Employer Organizations. This is largely due to the stability PEOs provide as far as state unemployment taxes.
PEOs make periods with voluminous new hires or terminations very easy. They offer new hire support; including services such as job posting discounts, employee enrollment kits, background checks, drug screens, etc. For terminations, the most important facet is that PEOs will help companies do it in a manner which is in compliance with all regulations.
Multi-State Employers:
Small companies that operate with employees in multiple states or of those that can benefits the most from using a Professional Employer Organization. PEO’s allow a company to seamlessly hire employees in various states without additional administrative burden. Here are a few reasons additional reasons why:
· Each state has their own set of employment laws to comply with (example for CA, example for NY)
· You must file for a state unemployment ID in each state
· You must find worker’s comp insurance in each state
· Setting up a benefit package, complete with supplemental benefits, across state borders created tremendous administrative burden
A multi-state structure may limit the amount of PEOs you should consider in the shopping process; as many regionally based PEOs are not competitive with multi-state benefit plans, additionally they may not be accustomed to various state regulations.
LLC’s:
Limited Liability Corporation is a popular structure in law firms, medical practices, or other companies with multiple owners/partners. This structure yields various advantages; however one of the drawbacks is that LLC partners can’t be W-2 employees of the LLC.
If partners are not employees, they’re not entitled to unemployment benefits, nor can they participate in company medical insurance plans. Often LLC partners purchase health insurance individually, which is normally more expensive.
Professional Employer Organizations offer a unique solution. Through coemployment, an LLC member can be a W-2 employee of the PEO without being an employee of the LLC. Often partners take a minimal salary from the PEO, enough so that they qualify to participate in company benefits, but the smaller the better in order to keep tax burdens low.
Thomas Farrell is the founder of http://peospectrum.com/, the nation’s firhr outsourcing ost free resource for shopping and comparing multiple HR Outsourcing and Professional Employer Organization providers simultaneously. PEO Spectrum has relationships with the nation’s top HRO & PEO vendors, and provides unbiased guidance as to which one is best for their clients. PEO Spectrum offers a free analysis to compare your company’s current labor costs to what can be done through various vendors.
We will split Professional Employer Organizations into two major categories, regional providers, and national providers.
For the intents of this article we’ll provide a basic definition for each type of provider, list their advantages and disadvantages, and explain in detail what kind of companies utilize each one.
Regional Providers
A regional provider is a PEO headquartered in the same state where 80% or more of their clients are domiciled. Most have anywhere from 1,000 – 5,000 worksite employees, and average 50-250 individual clients. Some of the oldest PEOs in the country are regionally based; note that 20 years experience in the PEO industry practically makes one a pioneer. Many regional PEOs we’ve surveyed have a client retention rate of 92% or better, which far surpasses that of most national providers. Two great examples of long-term regional PEOs include Alcott Group, and Landrum Professional.
Positives:
· Flexibility – For those with familiarity in dealing with or competing against the 800 pound gorilla, you understand that although strict obedience to policy can support scalability, it can also lead to some clients getting left behind. Regional Professional Employer Organizations are usually more flexible and can fit the specific needs of a client.
· Proximity – In a service that has so many moving parts, proximity to your service team, the ability for them to be on-site quickly, and access to upper management has tremendous value, arguably the biggest reasons why regional PEOs retain clients better.
· Geographic Specificity – Regional PEOs are most familiar with the HR regulations pertaining to their home state. They will also have very competitive benefit packages within their state’s borders.
· Industry Specificity – Some regional PEOs cater to only one industry, a huge value if you’re in that industry.
· Big Fish, Small Pond – When considering vendors, would you rather make up 5% of their revenue, or.05%? How will that effect how you’re treated as a customer?
Negatives:
· Geographic Specificity – Look familiar? The same factor that strengthens them within their own state is a weakness when servicing clients that have employees in multiple states.
· Limited Size – Although great for customer service, a Professional Employer Organization without critical mass will have less economies of scale, this likely means more expensive insurance products than national PEOs.
· Limited Resources – when you’re servicing 100,000 work-site employees, it makes sense to invest $10 million in an IT system that allows for greater client self-service. For regional PEOs, their IT systems may be weaker, but on the flipside, they are forced to rely on their people to deliver service – which do you prefer?
National Providers
A national provider is a Professional Employer Organization that does business as seamlessly as possible throughout all 50 states. There are only a handful of national providers, most have anywhere from 20,000 to 150,000 work-site employees and 1,000 to 8,000 clients. Most national PEOs have a long history, but many have grown through inorganic growth, which there is much debate about in the PEO industry. Getting a true client retention rate from national PEOs is not easy, but from our research we estimate it to be anywhere from 80%-90%. One example of a national provider is Administaff, which is publicly traded, and Alphastaff, a privately owned PEO.
Positives:
· Critical Mass – Since national PEOs have thousands of clients, they have a lot of buying power, and can usually provide a savings to clients for all insurance products, including medical insurance.
· Multi-State Presence – For employers with their workforce spread across multiple states, a national PEO is likely a great option.
· Strong IT Systems – Although this can vary, most national PEOs boast a robust IT system that allows for a high level of client self-service – for example, the ability for payroll solutions to be integrated with general ledger software. However as IT systems become more affordable, many regional PEOs offer similar technology.
· Bells and Whistles – Again, the critical mass of national PEOs often enables them to offer peripheral services that many find appealing. Examples include services such as employee discount programs and online skills training tools.
Negatives:
· Lack of Flexibility – To remain scalable, national Professional Employer Organizations must rigorously maintain policy and structure, which allows them to provide services at a good price point, but often strict interpretation of policy can be constraining for servicing small companies with specific needs.
· Another Brick in the Wall – This coincides with the first negative of national PEOs, if you don’t fit into their mainstream approach, and your business makes up.05% of their revenue, they’re not going to bend over backwards for you.
· Call Center Service Delivery – Although most will tout otherwise, the service delivery approach for most national PEOs is driven through case numbers and process, rather than personalization and relationships. Again, this is a matter of the consumer’s choice.
Thomas Farrell is the founder of http://peospectrum.com/, the nation’s first free resource for shopping and comparing multiple HR Outsourcing and Professional Employer Organization providers simultaneously. PEO Spectrum has relationships with the nation’s top HRO & PEO vendors, and provides unbiased guidance as to which one is best for their clients. PEO Spectrum offers a free analysis to compare your company’s current labor costs to what can be done through various vendors.
In these difficult and trying times, many are being asked to do more with less. Sometimes it even seems that your entire organization is made up of “less” or your team sees you as “less.” “Less” talent than you thought you were getting or less talent than your competition or less talent than they observed in their previous supervisor.
When things aren’t going quite like we anticipated, we tend to look for someone to blame.
“Who Killed Davey Moore” is a Bob Dillon song. I don’t know if he wrote it but he sang it and it is one of my favorites because it reflects our human nature to blame others when unpleasant surprises happen. There is no place where the “blame game” is more prevalent than in corporate America.
It’s opening lyrics go like this: “Who killed Davie Moore-Why and what’s the reason for?” It’s about the death, in the ring, of a professional fighter and how everyone from his manager to the fight promoter wants none of the blame. It reminds me of a client who once said; “Steve, I don’t know how it happens but my boss keeps hiring new people and we the same poor results.”
You may never have experienced anything quite so exasperating but many have and I know the reason for it. It is called the “recruiting for less” philosophy. Here are 2 rules that will guarantee results below expectation.
TWO IMMUTABLE RULES THAT GUARANTEE YOU WILL GET LESS THAN EXPECTED
1. Never plan an interview -Use the Good Ole Boy 2 question Interview System:
a. Do you own a ‘Shootin’ piece?”
b. Do you have a “Huntin’place?”
2. Never worry about matching the candidate to the job (Job Fit) – Just fill the vacancy and we will worry about Job Fit later.
A ridiculous as those two rules appear, I swear, it seems to be the core philosophy of many organizations. Let’s take a minute and debunk those to ridiculous rules.
Never plan the interview
I do not know why it is, but there are a very large number of hiring managers that still believe they can determine the potential and value of a candidate by how they feel about them. Some even go to the extent of sharing that they prefer to hire by feel rather than by real. By real I mean, making hiring decisions based on real, meaningful attributes that are discovered, expanded, validated and essential to the performance of the job.
It is my belief that every executive that expresses an ability to make hiring decisions by “gut feeling” should be “made available to the industry.” That may seem rather harsh but if they have progressed to the executive level and still believe in hiring by feel they need to be replaced.
Never Worry about Job Fit
Almost every manger has gone through the stage of their development where they believe that they are “God’s gift to personal development”. You know, that place where you believe that you can give a person ill-suited for the job, the knowledge, skills and talent they need to be a superior performer in it. How many times have you seen that work? If I had a nickel for every time I have heard that pledge or promise, I would be a wealth man.
So what’s the point? The point is that you can substantially improve the quality of the hires your company makes by a few hours of simple training, education and holding hiring managers accountable for their hires. Here are 3 tips that, when implemented, will make you very happy:
TIP #1. Benchmark every key job for both hard and soft skills
TIP #2. Insist that hiring managers use a Structured Behavioral Based Interview System
TIP #3. Don’t try to put into someone something that is not there. It is hard enough to get out what is already in.-Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, First Break All the Rules.
If your organization, continues to hire talented people and the results don’t change much, there is hope. Address the issue, give the people the tools they need to do the job and hold them accountable to do it.
Stephen J. Blakesley is Managing Partner of GMS Talent L P, http://gmstalent.com a one-of-a-kind Human Resources firm in Houston, Texas. He is an author, speaker and entrepreneur. GMS Talent focus is the sourcing, selecting, developing, and retaining of talented people.
His books include, How to Hire The Right Person The First Time Every Time, Strategic Hiring-Tomorrow’s Benefits Today (one of the top 50 business books of 2006) and The Target-The Secret to Superior Performance, http://target.tatepublishing.net
Nowadays, office furniture has become a necessary asset for every business type. It not only adds to the official décor but also helps employees in discharging their duties properly thereby providing them with physical comfort. The Office Furniture is available in different quality, style & price. If you are a business owner & want to ensure smooth running of your business then you can install modern & relaxing furniture in your office. Doing so will help you increase your work status & get a better image in the corporate world. So why not consider investing in furniture & make a lasting impression on your employees & clients. You won’t feel disappointed as your employees will be more than happy to work overtime in that cozy & contemporary furniture. You will be able to show up your attitude & professionalism through a set of affordable office furniture USA.
Office Furniture Types
The office furniture in USA can be found in a variety of attractive designs, styles, colors & shapes. The furniture designers & manufacturers are trying their best to fulfill the bodily requirement of every user. But every employee looks for mental pleasure along with physical comfort. A good quality furniture will bring out both & can be procured from online or offline stores for an affordable price. Be sure that you have done a detailed analysis of your official environment & employee requirements before going for purchasing furniture. With this, you will be able to have a close setting of furniture & leave enough room for walking purpose. The price factor is not at all a big issue as you can visit the product gallery in online stores & compare the features & pricing of the showcased products.
Importance of Furniture at Workplace
An attractive & high quality furniture for office has ultimately become an integral part of your office décor no matter whether you are going to renovate your branch office or head office. Even the interior decorators have given priority to furniture details so as to build up the official atmosphere. It will help boost your employee confidence & make them achieve more. The growth of your business might hamper unless you take care of the furniture. This office furniture of USA has played crucial in the success of many corporate meetings & seminars.
Utility of Furniture:
The utility of office furniture USA are too many. Meeting tables, cabinets, chairs, desks, beds, cupboards & dressers are some of its forms which are largely used in offices. The meeting tables need to be stylish & best in quality so that they can serve their purpose better. Every official meeting taking place on them is special & will be able to grab the attention of audience easily. Similarly the chair place at the reception center of your office takes attention of every visitor. You need to choose the office desks, cabinets & chairs wisely so as to make your office look completely professional.
Andrew Jones is working as an Office Furniture designer in a reputed company. Her Office Furniture USA designs have been appreciated a lot in the USA furniture industry.
Offices are places of business, it is where particular transactions are being processed and at times negotiations between client and management are taking place. Sometimes in huge corporations they would have a conference room for conventions and other meetings. In an office regardless of the size it is imperative to have office chairs, not just for employees but for guests as well. You may not know what is ahead, there may be surprise meetings and parties that are unexpected and having office chairs that can be stacked can be very advantageous.
Design and materials
There may come a time that activities and affairs are being celebrated in the office, and what you need are office fixture that you can use for office use and any other purpose. This is where the need for stacking chairs would arise. They may come with various designs depending on the manufacturer, stacking chairs should provide comfort and it also has to fulfill its multirole purpose. Most stacking office chairs have a cushion to provide comfort; the textures should also be of quality materials. Some of these stacking office chairs use synthetic leather and their cushion materials are made of synthetic cotton, which by the way are cooler it expands and absorbs air constantly.
The designs of stacking office chairs are wide in scope, aside from the usual designs there are new modern designs that are made both of plastic and metal materials. There are also designs that are made of wooden materials. It all actually depends on your material and design preference you get to choose whichever you think is best in providing comfort to your employees and unexpected guests. Take note that what you choose will determine the kind of service it will have as a result.
Cost, quality and comfort
There are inexpensive quality stacking office chairs available both on and offline. When purchasing stacking office chairs don’t forget of your purpose so that you will be able to balance the cost with its quality. You first have to consider comfort, how would you feel when you sit on it. Will it be optimal for office use, can you withstand sitting on it for eight hours or more? Does the cushioning provide comfort and does it cause some sores at your back after being seated for more than eight hours? These things have to be considered because your employees will be using these chairs for most of their time in the office. And their comfort is one of your primary concerns in order for them to work properly and efficiently. Another thing is if you pick your choice there are times when you will have affairs in your office, they usually come as planned. Having this in mind you have more or less an idea of how many people will need to have chairs, and the level of comfort that these chairs provides will determine the kind of participation you would expect form guests. It’s best to provide the comfort that these people would have by having stacking office chairs that more or less have a perfect design friendly to ergonomics.
White is a manifestation of a clean color, it implies purity and idealism. The best things that would provide comfort to a workplace is an office chair. These are basic furniture in an office where people would spend most of their time working and even taking a rest. These things have to be designed not just to provide comfort but a good visual impact as well. There may be no need to impose a color as there is no strict standard which color should define the appearance of your office; it is actually dependent on your personal choice. It is a good thing however to have white office chairs as preference that may be good for your office.
Things that makes this furniture interesting
White office chairs are attributed with a rating of good ergonomic design, they vary according to the intended purpose an office chair should have and how these chairs would operate. Appearance wise these chairs are great, they would blend in with different environmental appearance. This is why white office chairs are the popular choice of various firms. There are designs that offers perfect cushioning, you don’t actually get all things in one chair, there are various designs that you could choose from and there are different manufacturers that offers great products that would fill in what you may require.
The kind of materials used
White office chairs can have different materials and frames, they could have a synthetic cotton for cushioning and a metal frame as the primary structure with white leather as covering or it may be a synthetic white leather, it could have wheels to make it mobile and flexible, it may also have an automatic back adjustment to provide comfort at the back while you are seated for long period of time. There are designs that have arm rests which provides additional comfort, and another good thing about these designs are those that have elevation adjustments. These chairs can also have wooden materials that makes it look elegant and it is also comfortable as well you will feel cool this is ideal for tropical climate.
The advantage of visual projection
White office chairs would often project an appearance that will make your office to look bigger than they are. These chairs may be ideal for small offices, as colored chairs may tend to appear that they occupy bigger space. White office chairs are preferred by most interior designers for offices because they manifest a welcoming atmosphere making guests and prospective clients feel more than welcome as they enter the office. It provides a visual comfort that somehow relieves eyestrain.
Cost and quality
If you think about the cost you have to consider that it will vary according to manufacturer, aside from the materials that were used on them as they may have varying make and quality. You can choose different kinds of designs from various stores that have these chairs. You may either visit online stores or furniture stores where you could possibly have the best deals.
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