Lean Culture Transformation
Global building products manufacturer
What was the problem?
At this manufacturer of door, window and cabinet hardware for the global marketplace, production was characterised as high-volume and high-product mix with a combination of manual and automated operations. The manufacturing process was vertically-integrated and the organisation had a workforce of approximately 1000 people. The leadership team was seeking to effectively and efficiently implement lean systems that would yield immediate improvement and bottom-line results while also being sustainable and driving continuous improvement.
What did you do?
Analysis of the organisation was undertaken at all levels to help establish a clear picture of the current status and areas for improvement. From the findings of this analysis we identified specific work streams that would be the focus of the project. These work streams included Kaizen Improvement Events (KIE), Training and Inventory Reduction.
What happened?
Joint consultant/client teams worked together to coach, facilitate and lead a series of KIEs over a six-month period to yield immediate results in the form of hard dollar savings. A significant number of individuals received hands-on exposure to specific lean tools and techniques, including both classroom training and shop floor, real-time work on actual issues. We employed a “train the trainer” approach to enable several facilitators to conduct KIEs concurrently and transfer capability and expertise quickly into organisation. The third work stream ensured that particular emphasis and attention was paid to the critical area of inventory reduction.
What was the outcome?
More than 160 people participated in formal training activities and daily Shift Start-Up (SSU) meetings were introduced in nearly every work cell, resulting in process ownership at the shop floor level. Efficiency gains doubled to above 6% and internal facilitators conducted over 16 KIEs during the six-month engagement. The implementation of a demand-pull inventory management system effectively reduced inventory investment by over 16%. At the same time significant overtime reductions were realised and the process for rationalising overtime was improved. Overall operating performance exceeded 15%, supervisors’ presence on the shop floor became higher than ever and fully trained, in-house resources were developing, leaving the organisation capable of sustaining and continuing improvements.