Application of Auxiliary Equipment in Productivity Improvement

Abstract

Production engineering is facing challenges as a result of a stiff competition in today's market because manufacturers are under pressure to respond to customer demands and quality. These conditions put an insurmountable pressure on the production process and productivity improvement is the only critical leverage for an organization. When conventional productivity improvement techniques yield disappointing results, engineering has to resort to measures that can alleviate the circumstance by introducing production support auxiliary equipment. Achieving responsiveness to productivity improvement tools and techniques is an ever-challenging task in the production industry. Therefore, the scope for productivity improvement always exists. Thus, there are alternative ways and means to achieve further productivity improvement, such as the application of auxiliary equipment in productivity improvement initiatives. Preliminary qualitative research supports the use of auxiliary production support equipment such as fixtures, jigs and spindles to increase responsiveness to productivity improvement stimuli. This qualitative research paper presents a comprehensive example that illustrates the impact of auxiliary production support equipment, when applied in productivity improvement initiatives. A comparative analysis of the results achieved with and without auxiliary equipment application is used as supporting evidence that auxiliary equipment has an impact on productivity improvement when applied in production operations.