I spent years focusing on labor efficiency. How fast can a worker assemble a part? How many units per hour? Then ERP Consulting showed me data that made me feel stupid: our biggest cost wasn’t the person working slow. It was the person waiting for the previous step. We had machines sitting idle for 30 minutes while materials were being searched for.
The Numbers Don’t Lie: Waiting Time Bleeds Cash
We tracked a typical batch of 500 units through the production line. The actual work time was 4 hours. But the total time from start to finish was 12 hours. Two-thirds of that time was pure waiting. Parts waiting in queue, machines waiting for a setup change, operators waiting for instructions. ERP Consulting mapped this out, and it was painful to see.
- Step 1: Raw material was stored 100 meters from the machine.
- Step 2: The operator had to walk to the office for a paper work order.
- Step 3: The machine needed a tool that was in a locked cabinet three floors away.
How We Cut Waiting Time in Half
We rearranged the physical layout and changed the data flow. Using the output from ERP Consulting, we moved the tool cabinet next to the machine and put a terminal for work orders right on the shop floor. This eliminated 45 minutes of walking and searching per batch. The total cost? Less than one new machine. The result was a 22% increase in throughput without adding a single worker. If you want to increase capacity, don’t buy more machines. Fix the waiting first.