In the production process, waste, scrap, and residual material are inevitable factors that affect material and process costs. With these five tips on effective planning and well-thought-out measures, you can minimize the impact of these factors. But first: what do we mean by waste and scrap?
Waste
Waste is the material left over from the production process. Examples include opened but not fully used bottles, damaged packaging materials, or parts that were ordered in excess.
Absences
We refer to a product as a reject if it does not meet the specifications. Sometimes these products are reusable, meaning they still meet the requirements and can be used for another purpose. We refer to residual material when the production process yields a byproduct, such as chemical waste or scrap material.
Wondering how you can reduce waste and leftover materials?
Here are the 5 tips:
1. Create a waste management plan
Determine in advance the expected amount of waste. This will give you a better picture of a product’s calculated cost price. It prevents unnecessarily high costs for material usage. In addition, you’ll be better able to address questions such as: Can I reduce the amount of waste by implementing the right measures? A good way to plan for waste is to track the waste percentage in the bill of materials.
2 Invest in training
People make mistakes, but with the right training, knowledge, and skills, you can prevent or reduce many issues. For example, prevent excessive material waste (such as dropping products), carelessness, or improper use of machinery by providing employees with the proper training. Also, ensure that everyone is aware of costs and quality, and make sure that people feel responsible for their tasks.
3 Packaging and product are compatible
Reducing waste starts as early as the design phase. Specifically: Is the product easy to assemble and package? Do the machines have enough capacity for the batch size? Does the packaging require filler material, or does it fit snugly? Is the packaging resealable? In short, collaboration between designers and production staff is essential!
4 Ready-to-Ship Inventory
By storing inexpensive and frequently used materials on the shop floor as ‘grab stock,’ you encourage employees to take only as much material as they need, rather than the planned amount. If, for example, 20 boxes were estimated but only 12 turn out to be needed, the remaining 8 boxes can be returned to the grab stock. Be sure to keep track of this in the inventory list, because miscounts cost time.
5 Record Material Usage
When you return leftover valuable materials to the warehouse and properly record them, you gain a clear understanding of actual material consumption versus planned waste. You can use this key metric in your optimization initiatives. You can also use this figure to review your waste percentage from time to time.
These five tips will help you reduce waste in your production process. You can neatly record everything in your ERP system to get a clear overview. You’ll quickly see a reduction in waste!
