Production controlling as a basis for lean production

Lean production: definition and meaning

Industrial production in Germany is facing enormous challenges: High complexity, technological progress and specific customer requirements require flexible and high-quality production processes at competitive costs. This is where the concept of lean production comes in.

Lean production stands for the economical and time-efficient use of production factors such as equipment, personnel, materials and organization. The aim is to combine a high level of flexibility with excellent quality standards while minimizing costs. Lean production has established itself as a recognized benchmark and industry standard.

The role of production controlling

Production controlling is essential for implementing lean production. It includes mapping the service delivery process, identifying discrepancies and business preparation, monitoring and monitoring of decisions. Production controlling ensures that management receives all necessary information to meet customer requirements qualitatively, on time and efficiently.

Objectives of production controlling

The ultimate goal of production controlling is to improve productivity, i.e. the ratio of production result (output) to required input. If it is possible to reduce the use of individual or all production factors with the same output, e.g. by reducing underutilized capacities or through more efficient machine utilization, productivity is increased.

A central element of production controlling is the use of real-time data to control and optimize production processes. This is where Peakboard comes in. Peakboard provides production controlling with current data directly from the shop floor, so that the current state of production can be monitored in real time. This real-time data makes it possible to react immediately to deviations and make necessary adjustments.

At the same time, Peakboard receives the target values for the production targets from production controlling. These target values are integrated into the system to ensure that production processes are always geared towards achieving the set goals. By continuously monitoring and comparing actual data with target values, production processes can be made more efficient and optimization potential identified and used at an early stage.

Information management and planning guidelines

In order to achieve these goals, it is not enough to collect various information about the production process, such as set-up times, turnaround times, downtimes or quantities of goods. This data must be brought into a meaningful context and compared with planning requirements. This is the only way to achieve transparency in production that shows optimization potential.

Example of a reference company

A reference company plans and analyzes capacities and maximum machine utilization per machine (cost center) on a daily basis. Among other things, work days per month, working days per week, working hours per day, shift information and maximum machine hours are planned. These values are entered into a system and compared with machine feedback on quantities, processing times, set-up times and scrap quantities.

Calculation schedule and performance report

Based on this information and other key figures from the SAP system, a performance report is prepared for each machine/cost center, which is updated daily. This report shows the various levels of utilization and plan variances so that the company can react quickly to deviations and make continuous improvements.

Conclusion

Production controlling is the basis for the successful implementation of lean production. By systematically recording and evaluating production data, companies can increase efficiency, reduce costs and at the same time comply with high quality standards. This is a key factor that helps German companies remain internationally competitive despite high wage costs and to secure their leading export position.

Production controlling provides the data basis for digital shop floor management – the guide shows the bigger picture. This same data basis also underpins OKR dashboards for employee motivation and the Lean 4.0 approach.