How Much is Eight Days of Lean Training and Employee Continuous Improvement Activity Worth?
More than they ever imagined, according to one manufacturer.
With only eight days of training behind them, Good Harbor Fillet estimates that they have already affected savings of over $1.6 million per year. |
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Good Harbor Fillet, a frozen seafood processing plant in Gloucester, used training grant money from the Massachusetts Workforce Training Fund to provide eight days of training on lean manufacturing methods for many of their employees. The training was provided by GBMP, a Massachusetts non-profit organization that helps companies apply continuous improvement principles and tools in order to improve productivity and increase competitiveness. As part of their training, Good Harbor Fillet employees learned to identify and expose process problems that affect quality, cost and throughput. They then worked together to develop and implement a number of simple countermeasures to some of the most obvious issues they observed.
The results from the first quarter of 2009 are proof that the Good Harbor employees have succeeded in using their training to affect the bottom line. Some examples:
* Significant increase in monthly output while cost per pound of output has decreased by over 50%.
* Average order lead-times have been cut from 10 days to between 5 and 7 days (a 25% improvement.
* Excess in pounds packed has been reducted by almost 75%.
* Changeover times on the productiong line were cut in 1/2 - from twenty minutes to less than ten.
* Good Harbor has been able to accomplish all of this while using significantly fewer temporary employees.
Bill Stride, President of Good Harbor Fillet, admits he had some reservations when the training was proposed. "I lumped GBMP in with my typical opinion of consultants. But what I found is they 'walk the talk' and know their stuff. Our trainer spent a little time teaching us the concepts, then immediately rolled up his sleeves to work side-by-side with our people so they made the changes that have resulted in quantifiable improvements way beyond my expectations. Here's one example of what I mean. On Friday, March 9th, we started the day with 3 of 4 production lines down,faced a major schedule change on one line in mid-morning, and figured we were set up to be in survival mode the entire day. Instead, we finished the day with a record 140,000 lbs of production - testimony to the hard work and lean innovation of our people. Three of our Line Supervisors got together to establish a system to keep the main lines running 8 hours per day by staggering employee breaks. We completed a similar process the following day and calculated that the new run rates would generate incremental throughput equivalent to 10 production hours, or approximately 50,000-80,000 more pounds per week depending on product mix. This forward, creative thinking of our Supervisors and employees has generated an opportunity for greater efficiency with no additional aggravation - just a little more coordination."
With only eight days of training behind them, Good Harbor Fillet estimates that they have already affected savings of over $1.6 million per year. Their cost? The wages paid to employees for the time spent in training and improvement teams, plus a few small expenses for materials and snacks. And the best part? The company is convinced they are just getting out of the blocks, and there are many more improvements that can be made. According to Human Resource Manager, Lisa Lurie,
"the results of this program were exceptional and we believe we will continue to see more improvements and cost-cutting savings on an ongoing basis as the lean team continues to apply improvements to their daily jobs and trains others to find and eliminate waste."
Not only are Good Harbor Fillet employees energized and excited about the changes made and looking forward to continuing on their journey to operational excellence, they are also spreading the word to their suppliers. Recently the company held a supplier day to encourage more than 20 supply partners to take advantage of lean concepts to reap benefits in their own operations.
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About GBMP: GBMP is a Boston-based non-profit corporation whose mission is to educate the public about applying Lean Manufacturing (aka The Toyota Production Systems) to their processes. By achieving this mission, GBMP helps New England companies remain competitive in the global economy in order to keep and create jobs for the people of New England. GBMP has worked with hundreds of companies, providing solutions resulting in millions in cost savings. Each year GBMP trains over 7000 people on Continuous Improvement principles in customized, on-site classroom and shop-floor training sessions and educates over 1000 more people in public workshops, plant tours and the Manufacturing Roundtable. GBMP also produces and sells Lean Training DVDs and other helpful Lean implementation products and administers The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence eleven states in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The annual Shingo Prize Northeast Conference is held in October - this year on the 7th and 8th - at the DCU Center in Worcester MA.
About Good Harbor Fillet: Good Harbor Fillet specializes in providing top quality branded or private label frozen fish products through the manufacturing and distribution of a complete line of made-to-order, processed seafood products, as well as a variety of innovative specialty items. The company has recently moved into their new processing plant giving them the most modern facility in the industry. This 21 year old company is headquartered in Gloucester, Massachusetts. |
