When a significant portion of your factory’s productivity depends on machines, you will want to optimize their settings. To achieve this, the centerlining method is applied. In this blog, we explain what centerlining is and how your factory can achieve greater productivity with it.
What is centerlining?
Centerlining is a specialized methodology used to optimally set up a machine or an entire production line and maintain it as consistently as possible. Since centerlining is specifically designed for factories, it is often referred to as centerlining manufacturing. In centerlining, you document all the ideal settings for the machines—think of factors like speed, temperature, and pressure. This ensures consistent quality in the final product and speeds up production. By documenting and monitoring all these ‘centerline settings,’ the factory minimizes variation in production (or a specific production process). Ultimately, this leads to fewer errors and less downtime, automatically increasing both productivity and quality.
How does centerlining contribute to your factory’s productivity?
Centerlining manufacturing helps reduce variations in the production process, leading to increased factory productivity. A more consistent process results in better process conformity and less waste of time and raw materials. Since employees need to intervene and troubleshoot less frequently for solutions, production becomes much more efficient. Additionally, centerlining eliminates surprises. You can rely on predictable production times, enabling you to align your planning and deliveries perfectly with actual production. Overall, centerlining in manufacturing helps lower costs, improve quality, and create a more reliable production process.
How to implement centerlining in your factory?
Before you can implement centerlining in your factory, you need to identify which factors determine the quality of the final product or process. These factors are called parameters and can include speed, temperature, pressure, and feed rate, for example. For all these parameters, you will then determine the optimal settings. Previously recorded data and tests can often provide insights here. These centerlining values should be documented and established as new standard settings. Once the production process runs according to these centerlining parameters, it is crucial to intervene immediately in case of deviations. This requires trained employees who understand the principle of centerlining and can apply the established settings. Therefore, make sure there is sufficient knowledge on the work floor to fully leverage centerlining in manufacturing.
Example of centerlining
To give you a clearer idea of how centerlining could look in your factory, here is a realistic production example.
Imagine: Your factory focuses on producing bottles of soda. You have a filling machine that ensures every bottle is filled with the exact right amount of soda. The parameters important for the operation of this machine include the fill rate, the pressure of the filling process, and the temperature of the soda. Standard settings are used and documented for all these parameters. This results in a consistent fill rate and precise fill level for each bottle. By regularly checking whether the machine operates within the established parameters, you prevent soda waste. You also reduce production downtime caused by error messages. At every startup or reset of the machine, the standard settings are applied immediately, ensuring the process runs optimally from the very first moment. This way, the factory benefits from consistent quality and more efficient production. Win-win!
Supporting centerlining with the EZ-GO platform
A digital tool where you can document the optimal settings and processes and make them accessible to all employees – now that would be handy! Fortunately, this is all possible with the EZ-GO platform. Document centerlining settings, share them with colleagues, and monitor in real-time for any deviations. The standardized workflows and checks are directly accessible to every employee via phone or tablet. This leads to more consistent and efficient production processes. EZ-GO supports the implementation of centerlining in your factory in this way. Want to experience the convenience of EZ-GO yourself? Request a demo now!