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 From a Socio-Technical perspective, these sources are either
technical improvements from equipment and processes or social improvements involving the skills and interactions of people. Both are important and mutually reinforce.
Technical Improvement
Technical problems with equipment, maintenance and tooling have a way of standing out in a cellular environment. Partly, this is because they tend to
shut down or slow down the entire cell.
In the HD cell illustrated below, the high labor hour days usually came from equipment breakdowns or tooling problems that required repair time. In each
case, attention was given to ensure proper repair or modifications that would solve the problem permanently. As these changes accumulated, productivity
improved. Moreover, the cell became more predictable with less day-to-day variation in output.
The internal lot size or transfer batch was reduced. And, the work team rearranged equipment to bring it closer together, this reduced space, reduced
walking effort and improved communication.
Social Side Improvements
Social side improvements come from motivation, task skills, team skills, and problem-solving skills. Several of the best methods for balancing work
within the cell depend upon mutual cooperation as well. A workcell team may have a wide degree of autonomy. Some teams operate almost entirely by themselves
with only occasional coaching and supervision. Others may have a supervisor or working team leader.
Motivation—in a team setting, motivation is enhance for most people. Individuals do not want to disappoint the team. This relates to
Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs.
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Team Skills—these "team process" skills are not innate and, for most of us, must be learned through training and practice. This requires time and
may vary among different groupings of people. One or two days of team training followed by continued coaching is usually the best way to impart these
skills. A team leader or coach may promote these skills without formal training of the team but this is highly dependent on the individual.
Work Balance—a series of tasks is never balanced perfectly. Even highly engineered, automotive-style assembly lines lose 20% or more to
imbalance. There are several ways to achieve better balance in workcells. But, they require motivated
employees and time to develop skill. As the team matures, they get better and better at balancing.
Task Skills—part of the productivity improvement from workcells comes from improving and expanding task skills. If a particular worker is
less skilled, that lower skill quickly becomes a bottleneck that limits team performance. In most cases, the team will correct the problem by teaching their
less-skilled member. It is also important for each worker to expand their task skills with cross-training. this makes it easier to balance the work and get
maximum performance from the team.
Problem Solving—training for workcell teams often involves the traditional problem-solving or process improvement skills from Work
Simplification, TQM and Six Sigma. This can accelerate improvement and teamwork as it helps the team achieve success.
Quality—order of magnitude improvements in quality are not unusual. This is especially the case for cells that involve a lot of manual
work and where quality depends on focus, attention and motivation. Teamwork, engagement, proximity and rapid feedback seem to be the important factors. See
our page "The Psychology of SPC" for more.
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