ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the points to be observed and measures for stabilization of production lines. The results are entered in the Productivity Control Chart, and necessary countermeasures are taken, starting with items that occur frequently and cause a long-time line stop. In this way, stable production is achieved, with both productivity and quality improved. Thus, for quality improvement, it is extremely important to stabilize the production processes by reducing the downtime and the frequency of line stops. “Manufacturing-related downtime” means line stopping time attributable to a fault in the manufacturing department. Setup work is an operation to change settings of production machines including stand-alone machines and automated lines when changing models of products (or parts) to be produced. As a result of steady efforts by all team members over three years, the people were able to drastically reduce the number of missing parts.
