04 Oct Everything in its place

How many times can you not find the TV remote control and you spend more than 1 minute looking for it? Under the sofa, behind one of the pillows, next to the TV, under the newspaper and other many places could be the perfect hiding place for the elusive remote control. Or even worse, you have just sat down on the sofa and the remote is on the table, so you have to get up again! And no fair all you techies saying this has never happened to you because you change channels using your Smartphone.

The case of the remote control is one of many examples which we can find on a daily basis in our homes. But are we really aware of the time we waste when we can’t find something we need?

If we extrapolate this waste of time within a production plant we risk:

• Prolonged work times
• Failure to supervise production
• Worker dissatisfaction from not finding what they need

In the end – as we all know – time is money, and everything that is not purely production, which is where we add value, is money lost or not earned. Whatever the case, we must always try to produce as efficiently as possible, and additionally, without losing our smiles and our good humor.

In Rieusset we are working to decrease or even eliminate these little instances of wasted time and this is why we leave everything in its place.

Leaving everything in its place will help us find what we are looking for instantly and find what we need in the place where it is kept, thus avoiding unnecessary trips.

Let’s look at several examples:

– All movement of material is done with electric forklifts. These, as their name indicates, are electric and need to recharge their batteries.

In Rieusset we have installed a charging point for each forklift. It gives us peace of mind knowing that we will find forklift nº20 at charging point nº20, together with the recharging instructions, and with a charged battery.

– In line with the previous example we come to the case of the auxiliary material. Since we make different types of labels or flexible packaging, and also due to customer requirements, we must have access to various references of boxes or tubes for packaging all finished product.

That is why it is important to have all material in its place. Thus, if a job is finished with box A and tube 3, these will be left in their place on the shelf and then the ones for the next job are taken, for example box C and tube 5.

– The rubber sleeves are essential for printing, and for some jobs we need to use them in the same width as the printing medium.

If these are all organized according to width from lesser to greater, the machine operator will know which one to load on the machine at a glance during a job change. Easy and quick! But of course, he must also put the ones he has taken out of the machine back into their proper place.

These are just some of the examples – from among many others – that we have shown you in this post, and we are constantly continuing to generate many more. It is a never-ending process of continuous improvement. In Rieusset we want to continue to eliminate this waste that provides us no added value.

And you? What are you going to do? Shall we look for a fixed place for the remote control?