Update on Excellence
M
Kaizen Blitz 4 Makes Its Mark
Teams revamp processes, trim waste, and do other good stuff
Lea A.P. Tonkin
Been just itching to increase your repertoire of
continuous improvement skills, preferably
while trying out your good ideas on someone
else's company so you could learn from their
successes and failures? And what if you could
network with a flock of fellow manufacturing
practitioners at the same time, trading notes
on your latest improvement schemes day by
day? This almost-heavenly scenario (well,
maybe that's stretching it a little) recently
unfolded for participants in the "Kaizen BlitzSM
4: Learning By Doing" Northbrook, IL seminar.
For each of several days, blitzers piled
into buses and trekked to various manufacturing plants in the Chicago area, where they
joined forces with selected host employees in
kaizen (improvement) teams. They brainstormed, they documented processes, and they
hatched plans for reducing inventory, smoothing production flow, and otherwise clearing a
path for manufacturing excellence at the host
sites, HydraForce, White Cap, Inc., and Fel-Pro.
Employees at those locations good-naturedly
moved equipment and material and changed
their processes, or at least thought about it.
Attendees and host employees made presentations to each other and host management
about progress made and hoped-for improvements. At the final wrap-up meeting for participants, cheers all around were hearty. Here's
a recap of selected improvement projects.
White Cap's A.C.E. Team
Two Kaizen Blitz teams tackled challenges at White Cap's Chicago operation. The
A.C.E. (A Combined Effort) Team of blitz attendees and several White Cap employees targeted
decreased setup and changeover time on a
scroll press line involving a complete style
food and
Figure 1. White Cap's A.CE kaizen team members "in session."
change. l With customers' product (such as
Tropicana juices, Snapple, and Gatorade) marketed in countries throughout the world, production of White Cap's food and beverage container caps must be flexible and fast.
Using a spaghetti chart and work sheets
to document processes, the A.C.E. Team
reviewed scroll (machine) setup reduction and
identified two major problems: long setup
times and tooling and dies not always in good
working order (some of the team members are
shown in Figure 1, and Figure 2 is a scroll
machine operator at work).2 Their focus was
on start-to-finish setup, including die repair,
Figure 2. Operator Lucy Gibula at a White Cap scroller.
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April/May 1996
Update on Excellence
through delivery of stock to the warehouse.
Mandates included: Reduce setup times, reduce
quality problems after setup, and access the
condition of dies and other setup tools at the
completion of each run.
...the team noted that numerous
trips to andfrom the scroll area
andmoUng/dwssmragearoa
consumed an excess amount of
mechanics' time.
For starters, the team noted that numerous trips to and from the scroll area and tooling/dies storage area (see Figure 3) consumed
an excess amount of mechanics' time. Part of
the problem was that a single mechanic was
pulling dies, etc. that had not been checked or
placed in a standard location after the previous changeover. The kaizen team recommended making needed repairs and adjustments after each setup, placing needed dies
and other tools for setup at a scroller at the
time of the previous job stoppage (changeover), and adjusting schedules so that two
mechanics handled each setup.
Setups a Breeze Compared to Earlier
Times
Rick Whitehead, a mechanic and enthusiastic A.C.E. team member, said during the
group's final presentation that blitzers discovered many setup-related tasks that could be
done when shifts were down. "All setup delays
caused by dull tools now have been eliminated," he added. A designated setup man
(mechanic) has been assigned for each of
four crews.
"As a result of these changes, we can produce better quality and more quantity," Whitehead said. Average scroll setup, previously at
two and a half hours, was targeted for 75 minutes; actual observed setup initially ran 85
minutes, and it dropped to 42.5 minutes. Actual walking distance traveled during a scroll
setup started out at 3699 feet. It later decreased
to 1500 feet after the team's kaizen efforts (see
Figure 4). Aproblem with excess metal being
42
Target Volume 12, Number 2
Figure 3. Mechanic and blitz team member Tom DaMask in atooling/dies area at White Cap.
Distance Walked
4000 . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ,
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
o
.........liliiii_...._
Before
Target
After
Figure 4. Walking distances decreased during scroll setup, thanks in part to the A. C.£. Team elforts at White
Cap
cut was handled by adding trim blade adjustment to the mechanics' procedures.
Steelers Set the Stage For a Kaizen
Comeback
The second White Cap employee-attendee
kaizen team, calling themselves the Steelers,
sought to improve material flow through a
a result ofthese changes)
we can produce better quaUty
and more quantity. "
'}4s
Rick Whitehead, White Cap
sheet metal cutting operation using pull and
other techniques. Bulked-up inventories had
cost the company big bucks, and poor inventory controls decreased efficient production flow.
Process mapping and documentation, as
well as a videotape of the "coil to litho"
(lithography; the first two steps in the manufacturing process) processes, helped the kaizen
team to identify multiple areas for improvement. The "biggie" here was to make another
attempt at JIT or pull production through
coordination with scroll Kanban team members and others in the company. Lack of "ownership," poor compliance with Kanban procedures, and the failure to link all affected areas
Update on Excellence
in the commitment to Kanban had doomed
the previous Kanban (pull system) start,
according to White Cap's Jim Kerber, senior
planner, a kaizen team member and presenter.
Kerber is shown in Figure 5, and additional
team members are in Figure 6.
Once a major personal commitment to
jump-start Kanban was agreed upon by the
White Cap members of the kaizen team, specific tasks fell into place. Getting Kanban cards
and a rack for the cards made, repainting floor
lines to accommodate the pull setup (and
allowing for reduced inventories), plans for
employee training in Kanban basics, meetings
with scroll team members to reestablish scroll
Kanban, and movement of "inactive" steel to
use on current or future orders began. Maintenance people and others helped to move
mountains of raw cut plate (steel) to newly-
Once a majorpersonal
commitment to jump-start
Kanban was agreed upon
by the White Cap members
ofthe kaizen team)
specific tasksfell into place.
designated quarters. In short order, the new
arrangement was designed to allow fast flow of
orders and to shunt inactive steel to a lessintrusive location, where supplies would be
drawn down as quickly as possible.
Immediate benefits from the new
arrangement included decreased inventory
space (882 sq. ft. compared to the previous
1467 sq. ft.). Inventory was slashed from
14,065 packages to 7775 packages (112 sheets
per package). Leadtimes dropped to eight days
from 12 days. Productivity could rise substantially with the addition of a third shift, the
team suggested; there are two shifts now.
Will the third shift be added and the
transition to a Kanban system make the grade?
Time will tell. "It's up to us to make changes
happen," said Leroy Crooks, plant manager,
noting White Cap's commitment to improve.
Figure 5. White Cap's Jim Kerber describes
Steelers team improvements and proposals.
Figure 6. Frank Daroba, head coil mechanic at
White Cap, and Alan Berg of Briggs & Stratton,
fellow Steelers kaizen team members, reviewing
strategies for trimming inventory.
Additional Kaizen Projects
TWo kaizen teams were unleashed at
valve manufacturer HydraForce in Lincolnshire,
IL. The "Chicago Bears" team simplified flow
and reduced walking time in a valve manufacturing area, and an Inbound Team devised
ways to improve a receiving and inspection
area (layout changes and streamlined processes will save time; bar coding and the purchase
of work stations for operators' gages were recommended).
age on-hand inventory reductions were made,
plus other changes) and a silicone mixing
work cell. The Silicone Mixing Team improved
signage, labeled raw materials, standardized
mixing procedures, moved some raw materials
to reduce back-and-forth legwork for retrieving
materials, recommended operator and lab
technician training to familiarize them with
revamped procedures, and suggested other
improvement steps.
Two kaizen teams were
unleashedat valve manufacturer
HydraForce in Lincolnshire) II.
Meanwhile, two teams at Fel-Pro did
their kaizen stuff to improve performance in a
production assembly work cell (WIP and aver-
Meanwhile) two teams at Fel-Pro
did their kaizen stuffto improve
performance in aproduction
assembly work cell ... and a
silicone mixing work cell.
1. A.C.E. Team members from White Cap included Tom
DaMask, Steve SWider, Rick Whitehead, and AI Thornton.
2. Scroll machines cut steel at White Cap.
Lea A.P. Tonkin, Target managing editor, is a
member of tbe McHenry County (IL) Job Training
Partnersbip Act OTPA) Private Industry Council;
pbotos in this article by Lea A,P' Tonkin.
© 1996AME®
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April/May 1996