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Recent Projects Description: Change Management Associates has been working with a Printing and Fulfillment company on a full Lean Transformation since late 2001. During the past year, the company has successfully reduced Make-Ready (i.e. Set-up) times by over 50%, implemented Continuous Flow concepts in the Pre-press area, made major layout changes throughout the facility (office and production areas), and initiated a Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) program on key production equipment. The most impressive application of Lean concepts was in the Pre-press area. Previously, approximately 5 days was required to successfully complete all Pre-press activities in order to prepare a job for Production. Overall lead time, including printing and bindery was about 7 days. This was excessive in the brutally competitive Printing industry. The company reduced its Management Timeframe and now provides a "pitch" of 2 hours. In other words, the system is reviewed every two hours to verify that it is meeting the desired service levels. A cross-functional team reviews the status of each job and the current load on each stage of the system to identify problems that must be immediately resolved, such as to re-assign resources as necessary due to bottlenecks that may arise. The office layout was changed to support the new team approach, and visual controls are utilized to provide an immediate indication of system status. The result was a 60% reduction in Pre-press lead time from 5 to 2 days, with a marked decrease in quality related issues. Update!!! After one year of implementing the Lean System described above overall Order-to-Ship Lead Time has been reduced from 7 days to 3 - a 57% reduction. This level of service has given the company a competitive advantage resulting in a 50% increase in Sales Revenue from the prior year. Productivity, as measured by Revenues divided by Full Time Equivalent, has improved by up to 33% during the same period. For 2003, the company continues to roll-out Make-Ready Reduction and TPM concepts throughout the Bindery area, as well as to initiate new efforts in the Accounting area.
Description: Change Management Associates has been working with a manufacturer of precision nozzles. A Value Stream Map for the company was completed in 12/00. During that exercise, a Pull/Kanban Material Replenishment System was envisioned to drive the execution of production, as well as its suppliers. The challenge lies in implementing a flexible pull/kanban system since demand for the company's products varied a times during the year, and some products are make-to-order while others are make-to-stock. In addition, it was desired to make the system entirely autonomous, requiring the need for only the minimal amount of supervision. A clear trigger to change over the screw machines and assembly lines had to be designed into the system. The expectation is to reduce overall inventory by 50%, while improving service levels to the customer to greater than 95% The approach was to design and implement several flexible Kanban Leveling boards. The boards drive the screw machine centers, as well as the assembly lines. The boards dictate what should be produced and when. In addition, simple rules have been incorporated in the boards so that the "customer" process actually level loads the demand across the multiple screw machines and assembly lines. Finally, clear rules have been established to trigger a changeover of the equipment and assembly lines. Previously all of this was managed primarily by the Production Manager. In the future, this will be handled by the value added hourly employee. An example of the kanban leveling and supermarket status board that has been implemented to date in the screw machine area is provided below. Similar pull systems have been implemented for Finished Assemblies, including both Make-to-Stock and Make-to-Order products. The board makes use of magnets so that the supermarket inventory levels can be easily changed as demand changes through the year. Click on the thumbnails for a full size view. Update!!!: The company reports that after one year of implementing
the Pull System described above that presently, nearly 100% of all domestic
orders are delivered within 5 days with a 95% "fill
rate". Previously, 95% of all domestic orders were delivered
within 10 days with a "fill rate" of just 80%. It is
expected that the 5 days can be reduced to 3 days with additional
improvements. All of this, while reducing inventory by nearly 30% to
date, with greater reductions expected in Year 2. The company has
realized a Productivity improvement of 25% (Sales $$ per Full Time
Equivalent) to date, mainly attributable to the Pull System implementation,
as well as refinement of previous Cellular/Flow Manufacturing efforts.
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