Improving production with one-piece flow

The challenge

A medical-device manufacturer needed to improve production speed while maintaining product quality. The project focused on reducing waiting between operations and improving production flow.

Following the work

Ammar conducted a process walk with the production team, observing each stage and speaking with the operators performing the work.

Skilled operators were completing batches of 200 pieces before passing them to the next stage—even when the next operator worked alongside them at the same table. This batch-transfer practice created waiting between operations.

Introducing one-piece flow

Ammar guided the introduction and validation of one-piece flow. Under the revised method, each operator passed a completed piece directly to the next operator, allowing work to progress without waiting for the entire batch.

The team tested the revised process for one week across two shifts, measuring the interval between completed cases and monitoring product quality.

The results

The measured interval between completed cases decreased from five minutes to two minutes and 48 seconds—a 44% reduction. This measure describes the time between completed cases, rather than the total time a case spends in production.

Quality remained at the same level during validation. Following the successful trial, the manufacturer adopted one-piece flow as its regular production method.

The project demonstrated how changing the way work moves between skilled operators can improve production performance.