For manufacturers, throughput in production can mean the difference between meeting quotas and losing customers to the competition. Falling behind on manufacturing throughput means delayed deliveries, which can cause customers to find other, more timely suppliers.

Finding effective ways to increase throughput helps manufacturers meet their quotas and satisfy their customer.

Before delving into tips for improving throughput, it’s important to note that there’s a difference between throughput and output. Basically, output is your total production, including scrap, rejections, and stockpiled products, while throughput only counts the parts that are successfully delivered and accepted by the customer.

With this in mind, how can manufacturers reliably increase their throughput?

Eliminate Throughput Bottlenecks

One of the most effective ways to improve throughput in manufacturing is to carefully analyze your production process for bottlenecks. Once identified, you can work to eliminate the bottleneck so that it no longer delays production.

Some solutions may be to add extra stations to a long process so more parts can be processed at once, or to find ways to make the process more efficient, or possibly even eliminate the process entirely and replace it with a different one. The solution depends on factors such as spare floor space, expense of equipment involved, and the nature/necessity of the process.

Reduce the Parts Rejection Rate

Raw manufacturing capacity is important. However, it’s possible to have a high output, but still fail to meet throughput goals because of parts rejections.

If a manufacturer can produce 1,000 parts per hour, but has a 10% rejection rate, they’ll waste 100 parts every hour, or 800 parts a shift. Were this manufacturer to cut their rejection rate by half, throughput would increase by 400 parts per shift. This would make it far easier to meet quotas, and reduce money wasted on remanufacturing or reprocessing parts.

Look for elements in your production process that can damage your parts or cause them to fail to meet production tolerances. By identifying and remediating these issues, you can improve production throughput and increase customer satisfaction with your products.

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