Bjorn Mjaveit
Technical Education Committee Member
EMR Consulting AS
Bergen, Norway
Have you ever thought about using a step counter on your employees in a test setting? This idea can provide valuable data to help you understand how much movement your workers must perform daily due to the current workshop layout. By analyzing this data, you can identify inefficiencies in the layout that may not be immediately obvious.
The physical movement of employees within a workshop is a critical factor in determining overall efficiency. Excessive walking or unnecessary movement between tasks can lead to wasted time, reduced productivity and increased fatigue. By equipping employees with step counters, you can gather precise data on the number of steps they take during their shifts. This data can serve as a diagnostic tool, revealing whether the current layout is contributing to inefficiencies.
A key question to consider is: If employees are taking more than 2,000 steps throughout their shift, is the layout wrong? While there is no universal threshold for the "ideal" number of steps, 2,000 steps may be an indicator that the layout is not optimized for efficiency. This amount of movement could suggest that workstations, tools and materials are not positioned in a way that minimizes travel distances and maximizes workflow efficiency.
The idea behind using a 2,000-step benchmark is to evaluate whether employees are spending too much time moving between tasks instead of focusing on productive work. In a highly efficient workshop, employees should have quick and easy access to everything they need to perform their tasks. If step counts consistently exceed 2,000 steps, it could indicate that the layout is causing excessive movement, which can lead to several issues:
- Increased Fatigue: Excessive walking can lead to worker fatigue, particularly in jobs that require standing for long periods. Fatigue can reduce productivity, increase the likelihood of errors and contribute to a higher risk of workplace injuries.
- Longer Cycle Times: More steps generally mean more time spent moving between workstations, which can increase the overall cycle time of tasks. This can slow down production and reduce the workshop's ability to meet tight deadlines.
- Higher Risk of Accidents: Frequent movement across the workshop floor can increase the risk of accidents, especially in environments where there are electrical hazards, heavy machinery or other potential dangers.
If step counters reveal that employees are taking more than 2,000 steps per shift, it may be time to reconsider the layout. The goal is to create a more efficient environment where tools, materials and equipment are positioned close to where they are needed, minimizing travel distances and streamlining workflows.
One of many possible solutions to this challenge is to consider hiring labor specifically tasked with handling all internal movement within the workshop. By employing dedicated personnel to manage the transportation of materials, tools and components between different areas, you can free up your specialists — those who possess the technical expertise and skills critical to the production process — to concentrate on their core tasks.
In conclusion, as workshops grow larger, the challenge of maintaining efficiency across an expansive area becomes more difficult. By evaluating your layout with data and hiring dedicated labor to handle internal movement, you can optimize the use of your specialists’ time, reduce inefficiencies and adapt more effectively to the demands of a larger workspace. This approach not only aligns with Lean principles but also enhances safety, reduces fatigue and supports continuous improvement, ensuring that your workshop operates at peak efficiency even as it expands.
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