Representing Production Rates

Owned by Mia Nall
Last updated: Feb 07, 2022
3 min read

Purpose

To explain the different methods of representing the Production Rates of Lines in Phenix.

Prerequisites

The Organization is created. The Production Lines are created. The Units of Measure are created.

Production Rate Representation

“Expected” Rates

In the Wheel Designer and in scheduling, Phenix calculates an “expected” rate for the Material, and then uses that rate to calculate the length of production. The “expected” rate is calculated from two pieces of information: the Production Rate Rule that applies, and the efficiency that applies.

Production Rate Rules are items created in Phenix, viewable under the menu path Setup > Production Rates. These can be created manually in Phenix, or imported using Phenix’s Import Functionality. Production Rate Rules can be general, Line-specific, Material-specific, or Material-Line-specific. When calculating the “expected” rate, Phenix chooses the most-specific Production Rate Rule that would apply. For more on Production Rate Rules, see Maintain Production Rate Rules.

The efficiency is a parameter that can be set in several places.

  1. An Organization Default efficiency can be set on the page Setup > Organization by clicking the Edit button (see Maintain Organizations for more information on editing Organizations). This efficiency applies to all situations within the Organization, but is overridden by other efficiencies set elsewhere.

  2. A Line Default efficiency can be set when creating or editing a Line (see Maintain Lines for more information on creating and editing Lines). This efficiency overrides the Organization Default, applying to all situations that occur on that Line, and is overridden by efficiencies set for Production Rate Rules.

  3. A Production Rate Rule efficiency can be set when creating or editing a Production Rate Rule (see Maintain Production Rate Rules for more information on creating and editing Production Rate Rules). This efficiency applies only to situations where the Production Rate Rule does, and overrides all other efficiencies set elsewhere.

Phenix calculates the “expected” rate by multiplying the Production Rate Rule by the efficiency. For example, if the Production Rate Rule is 20 cases/minute, and the efficiency is 80%, the “expected” rate is 16 cases/minute.

Methods of Representation

There are two primary ways to represent actual, real-world production rates in Phenix

Method 1: Set Production Rate Rules to Demonstrated Rate, Efficiency to 100%

The simplest method of representation is to create or import into Phenix Production Rate Rules with values equal to the demonstrated rate, the rate the lines, on average, run at. Then, make sure the Organization Default Efficiency is set to 100% (if this has never been changed, it will already be 100%), and make sure no lines or Production Rate Rules have a more specific efficiency given.

Method 2: Set Production Rate Rules to Ideal Rate, Efficiency to Percent of Ideal

This is the more complex but likely more accurate method. Create or import into Phenix Production Rate Rules with values equal to the ideal rate, the rate the line would run at in ideal circumstances, with no unexpected stoppages, line breakdowns, etc. Then, set the efficiency (on any of all of the levels necessary) to the percent of the ideal rate the lines are expected or have demonstrated to run at.

This allows for easier, more flexible adjustments to the “expected” rate. With this method, if lines begin running more effectively, rather than having to recalculate the demonstrated rate and recreate every Production Rate Rule, all you have to do is increase the efficiency to match.

In addition, since efficiencies in Phenix can be set to over 100%, this method is not limited by the ideal rate given. This means that this method can be used to represent learning curves for staff on the line (efficiency increases over time for new products), changes to more effective procedures, and more.