Workstation balancing tool
A tool to keep every department's times, create balancings without heavy spreadsheets and plan headcount with a qualification matrix. You spot overloaded and underloaded stations from a single shared reference.
The problem
In this company, the methods department relied on one person who was about to leave. Times and balancings were spread across many Excel files, and some teams were reluctant to use them. These times had to be kept for every department, others had to be able to create balancings without a heavy tool, and headcount had to be planned with qualifications in mind.
The tool
Software to manage several scenarios, lines, stations, people and qualifications. Tasks, times, balancings and the qualification matrix share the same database: a change carries through everywhere.
How it works
- Shared, up-to-date data: CSV import of times, stations and tasks (with manual mapping if columns are not recognised). Times update instantly across the software and sync through a shared folder on your server that several people can work on. Tasks are never deleted, only archived.
- Overload and underload: compare each station's load with the target takt time and spot imbalances in both directions.
- Scenarios and duplication: duplicate a balancing to prepare a rate increase or decrease, or a new vehicle with its new tasks.
- Staff, skills and headcount: all staff are in the tool: tasks are assigned through balancings, skills are tracked per task in the qualification matrix, and headcount is planned from there. When someone is absent, the tool finds the operator with the closest skills to replace them, which matters where each station is held by few people.
- Documents linked to tasks: attach a document (PDF, PNG or JPG) to a task as a work instruction or operating procedure, viewable by everyone.
- Roles and rights: production views in read-only mode, the methods department creates balancings, management follows everything, and an administrator mode lets you adapt the whole application without depending on a contractor.
What it changes
- A single reference: one folder for everyone, instead of files swapped by e-mail.
- Know-how preserved: times no longer depend on one person: they are kept and accessible to every department.
- Imbalances seen in time: overloads and underloads are spotted before launch.
- Changes prepared quickly: a rate increase or decrease, or a new vehicle, is prepared by duplicating what exists, without starting from scratch.
- Skills fully used: nobody's skills are forgotten any more, which limits the waste (muda) of unused talent, one of the wastes identified in lean.
- Easier to adopt: a single interface replaces the pile of Excel files, making adoption easier for the most reluctant teams.
A tool that connects to the others
Staff and tasks already exist in the balancing tool: they can serve directly as a base for other tools.
- With skills management : the same people and tasks feed training paths, reviews and strategic workforce planning.
- With tooling management : each task can be linked to the tools and measuring instruments it uses. A tool out for calibration or out of service immediately flags the tasks and stations concerned.
Our demos are shown separately, but nothing prevents linking them. With a shared database, the tools can form a real intranet built around your business: each department uses its own screens, and information entered once is available everywhere.