LEAN SIX SIGMA TOOLS
Flow Layout / 5S
Visual Management
Flow Scheduling &
Daily Work-Flow Meeting
IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS - Flow Layout / 5S
1) The production
floor was arranged haphazardly with a senior production person leading each job
as it was produced at various machines around the wood-shop.
2) We changed this,
arranging all equipment in a Flow-Line Layout.
All of the equipment to complete each product line and was put in one of
the 4 flow lines.
3) A CNC
(computer-numerically-controlled) router that fed all of the lines was put at
the front of the Flow-Lines. Material
that fed the CNC router was placed directly next to the machine.
4) We utilized 5S
visual management so all materials, tools and information was visually
organized. This cut down on the time
production people took to find what they needed. The biggest improvement here came from the
organization of raw materials, which in this case were numerous types of sheet
and board stock. If your raw materials
aren't well organized, it is hard to be productive.
IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS - Daily Scheduling
Meeting
1) One of the most
effective tools anyone can use to improve on-time delivery, in a complex
multi-step operational process is the use of Daily or Weekly "Work-Flow" meetings.
2) These meetings
track the progress of customer-orders through the "operational" process. (In future months I will highlight how this
tool was used by a large Public Accounting firm)
3) The General
Manager, Master Scheduler and Department Managers must be present in these
meetings.
4) Our custom
manufacturing client used this to track work orders from order entry,
purchasing, engineering and the different production departments. This daily visual review by all key personnel
of their orders, with a highlight on the expected delivery date, kept things
moving. This is the definition of Flow...
to keep things moving. If an order got
"stuck" in one department, it was highlighted and investigated.
5) We found cases
where an order was "stuck" in purchasing.
In this case, we would call up the supplier and expedite these materials
or go to other suppliers.
(See the attached link to
spreadsheet Daily Work-Flow Meeting tool, http://www.supplyvelocity.com/April_2009_Daily_Scheduling_Format.xls).
IMPACT ON PEOPLE
1) All of our
projects with this company were about creating visibility. The first, described in December, was
visibility of performance. The second,
described in January - March, was visibility in Sales. This last project was about the visibility of
orders moving through the production process.
2) Some people thrive
in a highly visible, high expectation environment and others don't.
3) By this time the
people that could not succeed moved on and we were left with Sales, Administrative
and Production people that were used to being aware and accountable.
RESULTS
On time delivery improved
from 30% to 90%! This is unprecedented
in the construction trades. However, it
was not immediate. This improvement was
gradual and took almost one year to hit 90%.
They are still striving to improve and increase delivery to 98%+.
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