Definitions

Producing in so-called blind or unmanned shifts means that the machines work without human supervision. This cost-saving production method became possible only with the development of process monitoring systems. With the help of the process monitors, the machine running time could be decoupled from the attendance time of the personnel. The machines keep running after the end of the regular shifts or over the weekend until either, in the event of a fault, the machine is shut down by the process monitor, the material stock is used up or the storage capacity for finished parts is exhausted.

Whether a blind shift is actually feasible, does of course depend on whether the production process offers enough capacity for unmanned production, for example, in terms of lot sizes, the achievable tool life or the available material supply. The term blind shift is also used when machines continue running during breaks and shift changes, times in which they are usually switched off without installed process monitoring. Some companies leave a time buffer between 2 shifts and bridge it with a short blind shift.

In some industries, production in blind shifts is common practice and ensures that many alleged cheap products can still be produced economically in high-priced industrialized countries.