At Kanoa, we constantly innovate to provide solutions that enhance operational efficiency. One of our recent advancements in Kanoa Ops is the introduction of "Lots." This blog delves into how Lots function within Kanoa Ops and how they can be leveraged to improve your manufacturing processes.
Lots are useful for identifying and managing specific units of production within your manufacturing operations. In Kanoa Ops, a Lot is a unit of production with its own unique identifier, material, quantity, and timestamp. Lots can be used to track machine infeed or outfeed, can be assigned states like OK, Hold, or Scrap, and given a Reason like "Bad Color." Lots allow manufacturers to gain valuable insights into how products move throughout their plant, aiding in better management and optimization of production processes.
Lots offer a versatile solution for manual data entry, essential for operations where automated systems might not capture the full scope of production activities. For example, operators can manually weigh materials and enter these weights into the system, ensuring accurate recording of production outputs.
Kanoa recommends using Lots for manual entry of infeed, outfeed, and scrap to make it easier to correct mistakes and edit data after-the-fact. Kanoa's Manual Entry Line screen demonstrates how you can implement Lots to have a Kanoa Ops asset run entirely by Manual Entry; a great solution for legacy equipment or to act as a stop-gap while you are waiting for more automated data.
Lots play a significant role in waste recording, enabling manufacturers to specify and manage waste accurately. Each lot can denote a specific amount of input or output as waste, with associated waste reasons and operator comments. This can be done via manual entry or through automatic configuration in Kanoa Ops to create waste lots with the appropriate waste-coding. By tracking waste this way, manufacturers can gain detailed insights into waste sources and reasons, facilitating more effective waste reduction strategies.
Lots can be transferred between different areas or stages of production. For instance, a large batch of material can be divided into smaller lots for processing as needed, facilitating better inventory management and workflow optimization.
Lots can influence production counts in two primary ways:
Counter Updates: By enabling the counter function when creating a lot, the system can automatically update infeed, outfeed, and waste counters based on the lot's quantity. This feature allows for pseudo-real-time manual entry, where data is updated as it is entered, rather than at the end of a shift or production run.
Reconciliation: This feature allows users to compare automatic counts with manually entered lot data and reconcile discrepancies. Users can choose to replace, add, or subtract counts based on lot data, providing flexibility to accommodate various manufacturing scenarios.
The introduction of lots in Kanoa Ops brings several advantages:
In conclusion, the lot system in Kanoa Ops is a powerful tool for enhancing production tracking and insights. While we aim to automate as much as possible, lots provide a robust solution for manual entries and tracking, ensuring that manufacturers have the flexibility and accuracy they need to optimize their operations. Stay tuned as we continue to expand our traceability features, making Kanoa Ops an even more indispensable part of your manufacturing process.