WILD Technology demonstrates how One-Piece-Flow marries greater productivity with higher employee Motivation.

In modern manufacturing, proactivity and personal initiative are key qualifications. Recently, employees at WILD Technologies impressively demonstrated that they possess both. Using the knowledge acquired during a Green Belt training course, they developed a strategy for manufacturing optimisation by asking themselves the following question: How can you produce more components during the same period with fewer staff and in a smaller space? Their answer: By converting manufacturing to One-Piece-Flow.

Based on a value-stream map and the potentials derived therefrom, the team converted the production of headphone
capsules to this form of manufacturing. With success. „The line for a Korean customer, where operation has been everything but monotonous since 2018, has stood the test. Expressed in numbers, this modification speaks a clear language: since the date is now automatically tagged on the product, the duration of this work step has been reduced by 90 percent. By combining further work steps, it was possible to significantly shorten distances and reduce the required space from 34 to less than 18 sq. m.“, says Tobias Knoop, Managing Director at WILD Technologies. In addition, ergonomics were significantly improved, and there is far more clarity in place.

„All these factors quickly resulted in an optimised quality and lead time for each product. For this reason, we converted a second assembly line for a table stand to one-piece-flow in June“, Knoop explains. Further lines are to follow and the insights gained from this employee initiative will also be applied to the same.