Spoilage can be a significant source of lost production efficiency in addition to the direct loss of profit from scrap material.

In order to eliminate scrap, events in the production operation that result in the accumulation of scrap must be eliminated.  The challenge is knowing exactly when during the shift the scrap accumulated, and shift totals are not enough.

Consider the following example:

Acumence analyzes production losses every minute of the day.  A quick glance at the Machine Shift Summary’s hourly scrap totals, allows you to see that most scrap accrued during the 11 AM hour.

Machine Shift Summary – Hourly Production

Now you know “when,” but you still need to know “why.”  A scan of events on the Downtime Machine Log shows you that during the same hour, there was a series of jams until tooling was finally replaced.

The quality manager, investigating further, found out that the assigned machinist was not properly trained, and no procedures had been provided for the tooling change.  As a result, scrap increased until the tooling could be correctly adjusted.

Downtime Machine Log Details

Acumence pointed to the exact problem.  With this information, the quality manager can put new procedures in place so that future tooling changes will not have the same result.

In summation, Acumence allows you to:

• Use the Machine Shift Summary to identify when the scrap occurred
• Use the Machine Downtime Log to identify specific events that occurred at that time
• Improve operating procedures for sustainable scrap reduction