Chaku Chaku may be right if your company uses single-piece flow cells. This article will discuss it’s role in manufacturing, its benefits, and its importance of it as well as best practices.
What is Chaku Chaku?
Traditional manufacturing involves grouping similar machines that perform similar operations in different parts of the facility. These machines produce hundreds of parts per batch and are then transported to another location or into WIP. The manufacturing process is a series of steps that involves the assembly and batching of parts.
Chaku Chaku’s foundation is one piece flow and lean work cells. Let’s take a closer look at each.
One-piece flow refers to a process in which a continuous flow moves products or parts through a manufacturing facility. Each piece is taken one at a time. There is no work in progress. The Toyota Production System includes a one-piece flow. Batch flow is where one-piece flow is reversed. A batch of parts is worked on and then passed to the next station.
For a one-piece flow, the following conditions must be met:
- Every output should be free from defects.
- The process times should be as consistent as possible.
- Equipment should be very reliable.
- Flexible production is essential to meet customer demands.
Chaku Chaku has all the machines required to produce a similar product located in one work cell. The machine can be unloaded manually or automatically. Operators will load the machine manually. This is why Chaku Chaku means load. The operator loads the machine once and then moves on.
Manually loading a machine into a predetermined position is often more difficult and requires a person to do so. It is easier to just eject the part from a machine, on the other hand. In Japanese, Hanedashi is the automatic unloading. It means to jump; to leap; and to spring up. Although it is not possible to do a manual unloading, it is possible. It is usually faster than manual unloading because the automatic unloading takes less time. Operators may also have to unload parts while holding onto the next one in their other hand.
A work cell is a collection of all the parts or similar pieces that are required to make a particular part. The machines that are required to make the part are organized in the order they are needed, usually in a U-shaped cell. This allows for a smooth flow in materials to one leg of U and smooth flow in parts to the other.
What is Chaku Chaku?
Chaku Chaku isn’t applicable to all manufacturing processes so it is important to know when to use it.
Reliability of equipment
Your equipment must be reliable because there are fewer machines in a cell. The entire cell could be shut down if a piece or equipment fails to work properly.
This is not the best way to shop for work
Chaku Chaku is built on the principle of one-piece flow. It uses a consistent, repetitive process that has little variation in processing times. it’s is not a candidate for a job shop that has too many variations.
Defect free
Continuous product flow requires high quality output. Otherwise, the process won’t flow smoothly and it’s value will be greatly reduced.
