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Case Studies
Key Achievements
- 78% reduction in distance travelled
- 20% improvement in productivity
- 33% improvement in delivery performance
- 25% improvement in stock turns
- Time saved on work content of valve assembly of 697 hours/year
“As a result of the five-day lean management workshop, MAS has provided us with practical, hands-on support as well as strategic direction. We have been able to tackle our major business improvement challenges head-on and train key production staff to implement the improvements going forward, all whilst increasing our confidence in providing added value to the nuclear sector”.
Dave Whitfield - Operations Director
Thompson Valves Ltd
Background
The company specialises in the design and production of high quality precision engineered valves for various sectors including the Nuclear sector. One of the leading brands within the business is the Maxseal Valve which is seen to be the market leader.
Scope
The introduction of Lean principles into its operations is a key objective in order to reduce lead-time on work going through the business and increase sales of its Maxseal valve, a leading product.
The business is looking to re-organise the valve assembly area to ensure that the product is built within the shortest lead-times, lowest stock levels, and highest quality in the most productive manner. The involvement of the whole assembly team in the creation of the new layout ensured that they engaged in the process and had ownership of the outcomes.
The new layout will eliminate bottlenecks within the production facility to capitalise on the sales potential of this product.
Method
A team of 4 from the Maxseal production unit were taken through a 5-day Lean Workshop, the format of which was as illustrated below;
Day 1 – Theory of Lean Manufacturing
Day 2 – Value Stream Mapping and Process Analysis of the current state process
Day 3 – Use the data collection from Day 2 to define the future state process and new layout for the manufacturing cell
Day 4 – Define the action plan to take the business from the current state to the future state process and layout
Day 5 – Implementation trials to verify the new future state
The topics covered included 7 wastes, 5S and Workplace Organisation, Kanban, Visual Management, Process Analysis and Value Stream Mapping.
The team produced a Value Stream Map by physically following an order through the business and mapping out the product and information flows. Data was collected on the
lead-times, distanced travelled, Value Add ratios, stock levels and labour hours required to build a valve.
The process was analysed in detail using activity sampling, process mapping, detailed workplace layouts and informal discussions with the manufacturing operators.
It is estimated that the Future State process will reduce production lead-times by 56% whilst improving the Value Add ratio by 129% and reducing stock levels by 48%.
Trials were run to verify that the new layout and suggested process would work towards achieving these figures whilst at the same time involving more members of staff.
The team presented the concepts of the new layout, cost/benefit analysis and action plan to implement the new area to the management team.
Options and Recommendations
From the process analysis it became evident that a significant portion of time was being lost in walking between processes collecting WIP or tooling required to complete the operation. The distances between the work stations then encouraged operators to batch build to minimise the distance travelled.
Batch production is not conducive to good quality as it delays the identification of quality issues and solving the root cause. There was anecdotal evidence that in-process rework could have been as high as 10% between the coiling and potting stages.
The new layout positioned operations next to each other greatly reducing the distances travelled and also moving over to single piece flow. This helps reduce stock values as well as reducing the lead-time through the area helping to improve delivery performance and so increase sales.
The new layout greatly improved the space utilisation to the point where a separate area producing filters could be moved back into the main manufacturing area, so freeing up a building that could be potentially sub-let.
Visual metrics are to be introduced in order to monitor productivity and quality and provide immediate feedback to all operators. These will be used in conjunction with Problem Resolution Charts and Meetings in order to encourage operator-led continuous improvement.
The principles of 5S and Workplace Organisation will be enhanced over time to make the area a showpiece facility to demonstrate to customers this flagship product.
Further Actions
A review meeting is planned for the end of August in order to take the Cell to the next stages of Lean development.
No. Employees: 98 employees
Location: Dorset - Dorset
Date: August 2009
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