Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
The silver lining came in the aftermath of the MaKey MaKey experience. SparkFun
discovered new ways of increasing its capacity for building more boards and kits and
learned how to quickly scale up its capacity if, and when, a situation ever calls for this in
the future.
Regardless of what state your production process is in, it is inevitable that, at some
point, production runs of your product(s) will need to be scheduled and started. Mostly,
this is a very logical and intuitive step in getting your products built. However, there are a
number of nuanced variables to keep in mind when determining when to build, in which
order to build, and which quantities to build.
When setting up your own manufacturing operations, you will likely end up working
with a
manufacturing resource planning
(MRP) software package that should offer a
scheduling tool. Many years ago SparkFun wrote its own MRP software (
Figure 12.4
)
,
which has provided the opportunity to modify that toolset as demands and priorities have
changed.
(Source: Image CC-BY 2.0 Matt Bolton)
Figure 12.4
SparkFun's production schedule managed within “Sparkle,” our self-built
MRP system.
Regardless of which system is used, it is important for that system to consider each
bottleneck in the manufacturing process. Each step along the way has its own capacity,
and the demands made on that resource may not match the demands made on other re-
sources in the chain. Other details to consider that will help you effectively schedule pro-
duction of your product(s) include the following:
Takt time
:
the time it takes to produce a completed unit from start to finish (often
referred to as “the drumbeat” of the assembly line)
