Bucket Brigade implementation in a medical garment manufacturing plant

The Bucket Brigade (BB) production method does not rely on the traditional line-balancing methodology in which the workload is evenly distributed (bal anced) among all the stations of the line by assigning specific work elemen ts to each of the stations of the line. That is, work allocation in a bucke t brigade line is flexible (unbalanced). The principle of Bucket Brigade is similar to that of the relay race, in that the least experienced runner (s lowest) initializes the assembly process and the more experienced one (fast est) finalizes it in order to make up for any lag. This distribution of ope rators in the production line creates a teamwork scenario in which the oper ators help each other to complete all the work elements of the product. Sin ce the introduction of new and slower operators into the line is done in th e first stations the effect of the labor turnover is smoother than in the t raditional method. This is particularly important to the U.S. twin-plant in dustry, where turnover levels of 25% per month are typical. Another attract ive characteristic of the Bucket Brigade method is that since it operates u nder a "pull" system, work-in-process is dramatically reduced.