Manufacturing facilities lie at the heart of a company’s success. A saying for bodybuilding goes like “Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym.” In this same way, even a company’s success lies in its manufacturing facilities rather than its marketing and other sectors.
It is widely essential and recognized that the manufacturing sectors are critical to our economy and business ecosystem because the main priority for anything lies with the product itself. The building block of the company is its product or service.
Therefore, it makes sense to be giving manufacturing sectors and the facilities all the credit. The manufacturing facilities are a complicated network of workstations that need to be maximized to create total productivity.
Safety is the number one priority when it comes to productivity and high output in a manufacturing facility. Workplace accidents are one of the primary causes which lower productivity rates in the workplace.
Safe Flex Floor system is a company that strives to provide relief and safety to the millions of people working in manufacturing facilities all over the world. What started off to help workers with their stress of standing for long hours in workplaces, they’ve diverged and deepened their product line to suit various other needs.
Visit their website to know about a revolutionary product called an ‘Anti-slip mat.’ These are skillfully manufactured mats that result in low slippage and accidents in highly lubricated and moisture prone areas. Minimizing accidents is one of the main things that will increase productivity and this Anti-slip mat will definitely do the trick.
This article will cover the various things you need to know about a manufacturing facility and what you need to do to improve it. With that being said, without further ado, let’s get in!
What Is A Manufacturing Facility?
A manufacturing facility such as RdMedicalproducts.com is a government-sanctioned albeit private facility that aims to produce a good or product to be traded economically. It has its territory and premise infrastructure, which operates like any other building that involves economic work.
History Of Manufacturing Facilities
Before 1800 almost every product a person owned in America was handmade by either a person in their home or by a craftsman. Shirts, shoes, pots, pans, farming equipment, wagons, barrels, tools, almost anything you could name took the time and labor of an individual to create from start to finish.
However at the beginning of the late 1700s, new inventions such as the power loom and the steam engine began to be developed. That allowed products to be mass-produced by machines. Now what we mean by mass production, is making large quantities or numbers of items.
The mass production of products would lead the world into the industrial revolution which began in Britain with the production of thread for sewing was made by spinning tightly together cotton fibers which were generally done by the individual operating the spinning wheel in their home to make the thread.
Better Processes For Increase In Productivity
By 1780, British inventors had mechanized the process and now could produce more refined and more robust thread than before. Interestingly, the increase in production of line required more cotton which of course, the invention of the cotton gin aided in that production.
But the increase in demand for cotton caused the cotton market to grow rapidly and unfortunately with it the growth of the institution of slavery as plantations across the American south became one of the primary suppliers of cotton to the world. The British attempted to create a monopoly of thread production by making it illegal for anyone to share the designs and plans for these early factories outside of britain.
But in 1789, Samuel Slater who had been an apprentice in one of these factories immigrated to the United States and in 1793, opened a spinning mill in Pawtucket Rhode island, which was the first water-powered cotton spinning mill in America.
Slater would later be called the father of the industrial revolution. However, many in Britain called him “Slater the traitor”, for bringing the plans to America.
Slater and his partners would go on to build several more factories across the northeast and implement what became known as the family system as entire families worked in their factories including children as young as six or seven years old these families would then live in towns established by the factory.
Post-1800’s Development Of Manufacturing Facilities
In the early 1800s, political tensions contributed to more robust self-reliance on American-produced goods. As the Napoleonic wars raged in Europe in the early 1800s, America attempted to remain neutral, so in 1807 the embargo act was put in place that banned foreign trade.
To compensate for this loss in foreign-produced goods, more factories began to be built in America. Then after the war of 1812 and the embargo act had been lifted, foreign-produced interests, mainly from Britain, began to flow into America. Hence, congress enacted the tariff of 1816, which put an additional charge of up to 25 percent on any imported goods.
Americans wanted to purchase American-made goods from American factories, which again spurred the growth of factories in America. New inventions sped the development of these factories as the power loom was developed, making a thread and weaving it into cloth.
The introduction of steam power allowed factories to operate more machines with more power.
Tips To Increase Productivity In Your Manufacturing Facility
1. Organization
One of the most overlooked aspects of fine and specialized working is the aspect of the organization. It is important to properly organize each workstation and every resource to be readily available. It would only cause chaos and unorderly conduction of manufacturing activities if done wrong.
2. Functional Specialization
Instead of making one person or a group of people do a diverse number of jobs, make sure to put them to work for repetitive and similar jobs. This repetitive nature of the job automatically masters them to do the job well and learn to do it at the highest efficiency level.
3. Effective communication
Communication is one of the most critical aspects of the smooth functioning of businesses. Establishing a well-versed hierarchy of communication is what will result in proper functioning and an increase in productivity. The work environment will not always be predictable, so it is essential to have a good communication line to sort out any issues or mishaps during production during times of doubt. This boosts productivity, but it also increases the quality of the product and the morale of the workers in the facility.
