5S Training – Part Seven

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Connie Tolman

Since the last posting, more training has been held with cross functional representatives.  As part of the training, smaller groups of 3 or 4 go out to an area and pretend that they are going to implement 5S. They come back together and show what they learned and the leader shares some forward thinking of what is coming next, etc.

Management attended the last meeting and said it was very good.  Slides of “before and after” moving the furniture around in one are were sent to executive team which they were very  impressed with.

Now, let’s go to the nonverbal.  Somebody important to me said, you can listen to the words but when you really find out what is going on, you have to turn off the sound and look at the body language.  Look at the eyes and see what they are saying.

In this case, look at the actions and feel the mood.  It is still stale.  It is lacking any enthusiasm or reality.  There is a tight grip on the movements in production that doesn’t reflect anything.  In other words, when a person “goes to the gemba”, it is impossible to get any information about the product – what it is, where it is moving or what is passing or failing.

What is training and why do we have it?  It is supposed to prepare us for “doing”.  But if doing is so far away from training, then what is it for?  It reminds me of so many companies where I have worked.  A new Operations Director comes in and the first thing he does is to move around the furniture.  This is repeated so often that I can’t ignore it.

At Sony, there was a big push to get cardboard off the floor.  At L3 most recently the new General Manager moved everybody around so that functional groups were together and when the new president came in, he got rid of offices and cubicles and put everyone in mosh pens saying that it was lean.  All of this when business was bad, no money was being made and nobody knew the root cause.  They didn’t want to admit they knew nothing, so they moved the furniture around, claimed victory and then usually they are moved on to another job, company or something else because it “didn’t get done”.

I  have always been addicted to getting things done, to making things happen, to taking on the hard jobs.  And it is no different here.  I am even more open to showing my ignorance and asking questions. I no longer need the cover of formality to hide my ignorance like when I was starting out as a new engineer with a non-technical degree as my friend described it the other day.

So, how to keep the morale up at least in my little team?

I’m going to tackle the two things that need to happen in order to move forward –

1.  Identify what products are built in the factory and put them into families.  Once this is done, there is a chance to be able to combine them into cells, to be able to come up with templates for process flows to input into the Manufacturing Execution System if that is approved.

2.  Create a Root Cause Analysis program so that the tools are available to get to some of the root causes of the main problems.  The first step is to allow the engineer with the passion for this to come up with a training program and try it out on the engineers.  Second step will be to use it in a controlled environment on one product and get one success.

Back to gut feels and intuition. 

But first a funny little story.   At a Halloween party for the BMW motorcycle club that we belong to, one of the women riders and I were talking over the loud music.  In these atmospheres with a little alcohol and hiding behind costumes and loud music, truth can be told. She says “Connie and I have connected” and we hug.  We were talking about the ability of the brain to redirect information when my husbands’ one eye had been damaged.  I said the brain is amazing. Then she said, “the heart controls the brain”.  I paused and was a little flumuxed.  Did she mean physically or symbolically?  Then she said “Intuitions, feelings control the brain and what the brain will do.  They have done research and it is all coming out that everything we always knew is true and is now being proven”.  I said “my frined said that the medical knowledge is expanding  twofold every year and the scientists and doctors can’t keep up.”. It was a moment of connecting, a moment of joing together where we didn’t feel so alone.  Then she quoted a song by somebody she loved that said “Everybody is connecting, like we always knew it was.”  Those aren’t the exact words but it was a sparkly moment in a surprise location.

How does this relate to business and 5S, you say?  Because instinctly, intuitively, I know that the problems are labels and bad drawings.  The rejects reflect this on the bar charts but nobody knows where to start.  It’s too overwhelming.  But because I’m out of the spotlight, I can do what is needed.  If I was required to perform and to show progress, I’d be doing exactly what the leader is doing, I guess. 

Because management doesn’t know yet that the heart rules the head.

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Review of Arctic Autumn by Pete Dunne

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Connie Tolman

This is the third book in the series by Pete Dunne that is taking each season as a topic.

I have been attracted to Pete’s writing because of his love of birds but it’s more than that.  By revealing himself more and more as he writes more books, he has revealed many of his inner conflicts which turn out to be my won.  It is tragic, comical and uplifting. 

He says “I am open minded enough to believe in fate and luck in the same breath”.  This speaks volumes to me.  This is where I have found the most challenging part of my life work – to be able to believe in science but also believe in the supernatural.  It has felt so natural to be able to do that but the rest of the working world doesn’t see it that way.

Also, he admitted he didn’t want his book to be a tome on the environment. We are all tired of hearing how we’ve screwed it all up and how bad is it really?  In our lifetimes we’ve gone through an impassable ignorance to a exponential realization that is hard to absorb in our reptilian brains. 

At the end, he can blend the metaphysical and the real with the polar bear swimming off into the ocean to meet the stars.  It isn’t fantasy.  It isn’t frivolity.  It is the only way to be able to keep going. 

The poem I keep repeating from Reilke.  I keep a worn out copy in my change purse and repeat it when I’m at my worst.

“Let everything happen to you\Beauty and terror\Just keep going\No feeling is final”

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Toyota Kata – Re-Inspired

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Connie Tolman

The revolution still goes on and I’m ready to get back into the flow again.

Hired my engineers and have met my objective so I’m ready to go back to my passion.

My recipe would be to follow the instructions to a tee.  That’s what I did when I started with the soldering process and that’s what I’ll do now.

I look back and see when I was first exposed to Value Stream Maps.  I wanted to used them everywhere, with little success, to be honest.  I used it in start up manufacturing process development and in taking process to the next level for ramp-up.  And then I tried to use it to find out where the problems existed in an existing process to see what processes needed to be outsourced vs. keeping in house. 

In retrospect, I think the thing that made it fail was the people I was pitching to were so foreign to the subject that it was like speaking Chinese to English speaking people.  I see that now but it wasn’t obvious to me at the time.  The person who came in after me put a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) in place and he was a hero after that.  I have just learned what that is by going through the educational process of getting demos of various products.  Now I see the value of that and maybe that is another way of controlling a process without using lean methods.

The big thing that is happening now is a dissatisfaction with lean tools. Any company that has religiously used the tools sees that they have a limited life.  If you are improving whatever is there regardless of whether it is part of your company objective, then it is random improvement with no payback at the end.  It is a bigger investment of analysis to see what is needed to be improved. 

The big thing is that you can’t be so unorganized that there is random work being done.  There has to be some process in place in order to look at what the vision is and what the next target condition is and then put in place the PDCA to get there, etc.

It’s been 9 months since the first class and my extreme excitement about the new tools – the Kata.  I haven’t found a process yet that is in control enough and consistent enough to be able to define a current condition, which is the first requirement.

Just like I did when applying lean principles like 5S before they came up with the nomenclature, I am applying the kata to what I have.  Start where you are, as Pema Chodron says and any other theory of improvement in the world of the psyche.  The same principles apply.

So, I’ve been playing with the same methods used in “where I am”.  Where I am is in an unorganized processless manufacturing environment without silos of products, processes and no connection between products or processes.  How to even start. 

First create the vision.  The vision is having a defined list of product families.  Then putting each product into one of those families.  Each family will have a template for the process flow and how it could be built most efficiently. 

Next challenge:  Wouldn’t it be nice if as each product was released into mfg. one of the actions would be to chose the product family that it fit into and then it would be evaluated regarding what exceptions would be made to that process. There would be a template traveler, make/buy suggestion and a manufacturing layout as close to one piece flow as possible.

Target condition:  Look at the list of products that currently exist and put them into loose categories by what they have in common.

PDCA:  Have a quiz with questions about products to start the thinking process about products.  Offer a price at the end for the person who has answered the most questions correctly, come up with new questions that give information about a product that is being built.

Do that and then decide what to do next.

Tried it and it worked.  This is an example of taking the first step and then the answers will start coming.  Just have to take the first step.  The team came back with many ideas and even an idea on how to do the kata on one of the upcoming products.

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Review of Searching for Mind Over Matter by Larry Rinzel

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Connie Tolman

I indirectly met Larry through my intern – he was her instructor for Industrial Engineering.  She said he wrote a book called Mind Over Matter and that he had her read Jonathan Livingston Seagull among other books and that he had quit his job to go work at some Buddhist place in Colorado. Sounded like it had to be the Shambhala Center and that we could be connected in some way.  The combination of spiritual practices and industrial engineering don’t come together often.  So I was intrigued and got in touch with him.  He generously sent me a copy of his book which I read almost non-stop on my little phone or on the big computer screen.

Here are my reactions.

I am more like his friend Kate when they first met when she said “I don’t understand the need to make things happen.  The only thing that is really important is raising your awareness.  Everything else will fall into place as it is meant to be.  I’ve never had the desire to control external circumstances.  Usually the answers reveal themselves when the time is right.”

This pretty much sums up my feelings. 

However, I do have desires and worries that keep me up at night and so I have watched from afar things like the book Secret and the other ideas floating around that if you write things down, they will happen – stuff like that.

I use a miniature method at work that seems to work magically.  I write on the white board in the morning, the things that I want to get done and then forget it.  As the day progresses, those things start to get done and at the end of the day Voila! they are all done. 

Last Monday, I wrote on a piece of paper the people I wanted to see that day to resolve one issue with each person.  As I went through the day, I was led to the coffee house and there I saw 2 of the people on the list.  Then riding my bike back to my main building, I felt pushed towards another building.  I even said to myself, I don’t have any idea why I’m going this way.  And then there was the next guy on the list walking from his car to the office and I intercepted him in the courtyard where we could talk more freely. 

This is very small stuff but I feel it happening all the time like this.

I have not been led to more intense imagery like in the book, although it is all very believable and interesting. 

My meditation has been to watch the breath and to see how thoughts come and go.  Also I do tonglen (a Tibetan Buddhist practice) where I breath in the undesirable, dark and hot and give out the light and desirable images.  In this way I work with images but in a very light hearted way – not extreme focus like Larry talks about in the book.

The idea of being able to combine industrial engineering with interest an interest in the inner working of human beings (as he calls it) is refreshing and very encouraging, since I have felt alone in this world for a long time.

He called my niche as a manufacturing engineer the ultimate in “human engineering”.

As Larry says, you are pulled to your practice and in his latest adventure outside the book, he has been pulled to Colorado.  I’m very interested to hear from him how that integrates with his past teachings because that is where I have started but Tibetan Buddhism has many very intense imagery that can only be learned from a teacher at higher levels. 

 Other observations:

First, I have had a long time resistance to taking control in the spiritual realm.  I have a negative reaction to people praying for things – like money, a position, winning a prize.  Also, when I was first introduced to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism where they chanted for success in the world, this seemed like a misuse of powers.  In Buddhism they constantly warn to not use your powers for personal gain. Also, I have seen and believe the powers that yogis have attained – living off a teaspoon of milk, being able to levitate, being able to move through time and space and appear other places from Yogananda and other yogis – things like that.  But I am convinced that this is a trap that has to be resisted in order to go beyond to the level where these things don’t exist.  Dogen says “when you name the 10,000 things, that is called delusion.  When the 10,000 things name you, that is called awakening” – paraphrased by me.  So, I was turned off to the control aspect of the Mind over Matter.

 

However, during my meditation, it has led me to healing my pancreas which recently  has stopped working properly.  With the help of Larry’s detailed description, I’ve been able to be more specific in my healing images and definitely see a positive result.  So, I’m opening to the positive side of this also.

Second,  As an adjunct to the above observation of wanting control, Larry admits he wants control over things and he is frustrated that he can’t get it to do what he wants.  It works sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t.  His teacher very nicely describes the phsyical reason behind this.  You have to have to inroads already built in order for the connection to be made.  And most importantly, you have to know what your highest, most essential desire is in order to have it realized.  It can’t be what you think you want what what you really, really want.  Maybe the Rolling Stones said it “you can’t always get what you want, but if  you try sometimes you can get what  you need.”.  This also brings to mind another of my favorite teachers – David Whyte.  He explains that the root of desire is star and to know your true desire is to know the star that is guiding you in your lifes work.  If you don’t have that guidance, then you are bumbling blindly. 

Third, it is nice to see Larry’s path evolving from wanting to control to seeing that you can only get what you already are already hard wired for.  It has helped me to understand the physical explanation of the vibrations so that it can be understood with the mind as well as the knowingness. 

Quote from book, page 103

Thoughts and moods are like a tuning fork. They vibrate at a certain frequency.  Situations in your environment will match that frequency, resonate and respond to you.

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5S Training – Part Six

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Connie Tolman

In order to keep up with the progress that is being made on the 5S program, I’m adding the correspondence from the executive team meeting and my response to that – laying the groundwork for the two most important elements of an successful plan which are:

  1. Management support and leadership
  2. Integrated program for all the departments involved.

Below is an excerpt from the correspondence from the leaders titled “You as 5S/Lean Resources”, taking out the names to protect the innocent.  Also, after this correspondence, a conversation was held confirming that there would be an integrated plan.  The reason I’m sticking on this so hard is that repeatedly it has been said that the implementation will only involve the one department (production and test) that is under the control of the leader and not the whole building.  It was confirmed again that he doesn’t want to the be the lean champion for the entire initiative but that it will be integrated.  I suggested a steering committe to take the burden off of one person.  I’m still not sure what the concern is but will get to the bottom of it.

 Initial correspondence: 

VP of Operations recently briefed the executive staff on our 5S activities. I gave him an outline of my implementation plan (which I have attached – see below) from which he developed some ppt slides.

 One item of feedback from that briefing was that perhaps we should be sending people to formal 5S training or hire consultants to provide this. I assured him that we have the resources within the organization to make this successful. I explained that we have several people with experience with 5S, a Lean Bronze Sensei and three others who have completed Lean Enterprise training.  

 I expect that each functional area will implement 5S in their own areas. We may find ourselves providing some 5S consulting for some of the groups. Planning, in particular, may need some assistance. I hope I can count on you to help if needed.

 Another item of feedback was a sense that I have not been empowered to implement 5S across the organization. VP of Operations assured the staff that I am. That was good to hear. At least I know where I stand and the degree to whcih the staff is interested and supportive of this effort.

 An additional indicator of support is that the executive team may sit in on the 5S training session in November.

 

My response:

That is very exciting.   It sounds like we have the first requirement – management support.

The only thing I would caution based on my training and all accounts we’ve heard so far, is that we need an integrated plan for all of production related functions (not just assembly and test) and it looks like you got the go ahead to do that.

 I would recommend an integrated steering committee (or something less formal sounding) with the people you have identified, so we can have a building wide rollout.  If we don’t do that, it won’t be successful in my opinion.

 They will not resist, I think they are ready for it and with management support, we can make this happen. 

 Good plan attached.  I’m all for it and will do everything I can to support.

Attachment

September 30, 2011

 

5S/Workplace Implementation Plan, Assembly and Test

 The need for 5S/Workplace Organization

 

Today there is unnecessary material and equipment on the factory floor. This interferes with the ability to arrange work areas in a logical and efficient flow. This less than optimum organization complicates efforts to locate and determine status of WIP.

 The amount of material staged for assembly and the number of units moved to test is done so without regard for the rate of production at the various stations. This unnecessarily consumes space on the factory floor further complicating the ability to organize the work areas. Current kitting practices provide material based on efficient batch sizes for transaction and movement by Planners/Material Coordinators. 5S will prompt us to right-size the amount of material staged for specific operations. Kanban sizes or queue locations will be limited in size to restrict the movement of material to the amount appropriate for the rate of production.

 Assembly and test management do not recognize the need for a visual factory. This is evident by the lack of dedicated and controlled product staging areas. As they are not accountable for WIP tracking they are not engaged in ensuring workplace organization supports this need.

 The average operator does not recognize the need to prevent the accumulation of unneeded equipment and material. This is evident by the accumulation of non-production related and non-essential items in most work areas.

 Objectives

 Set the foundation for all other process improvement efforts. Elimination of unneeded equipment and materials will make subsequent process improvements more efficient. No need to work around the clutter. A latent effect of developing this mindset for workplace organization is the recognition by those involved that more can be done to improve product processing.

 Improve operator efficiency by reducing clutter. Eliminating all unneeded equipment and material will allow for better organization of material and tools. This will reduce delays caused by searching for tools, references and material and eliminate unneeded movement.

 Improve the working conditions for assemblers and technicians. A cleaner and better organized work area will be more comfortable.

 Improve product quality by allowing for standardization of processes, tools and assembly operations and by reducing unnecessary product movement.

 Implementation Plan

 Training

-          Provide 5S Fundamentals training to all assemblers and test technicians by February 2012. This training will also be provided to test Engineers, Planners, MEs, QEs and OPMs who work directly with the resources on the factory floor. Training sessions are being conducted monthly. The first sessions are being conducted for the OPMs, Planners, MEs and QEs. Subsequent sessions will be conducted for the Assemblers and Technicians

-          We may deviate from this top down training approach where the need arises. The re-layout of the MIDS LVT Module and Terminal test areas is as example of a case where this training schedule will deviate. In this case, the stakeholders in the LVT process improvements will be trained in 5S prior to the re-layout of those areas independent of, and out of sequence with, the plan to train support groups first.

 Audit Plan

-          Develop a standard work area scorecard and performance targets. (By December 2011)

-          Implement monthly work area audits. (Staring February 2012)

-          Develop metrics for tracking 5S performance across the assembly and test areas. (By February 2012)

-          Post reports of these performance measures and provide feedback to stakeholders. (Staring March 2012)

 Actions to Sustain 5S

-          Develop awards and recognition practices. (By December 2011)

-          Implement (monthly, quarterly) awards and recognition. (Starting March 2012)

-          Create 5S goals in Performance Manager for all Assemblers, Technicians and their managers. (April 2012)

 

 

 

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Zen Environment/Lean Environment

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Connie Tolman

Funny how things come together.  I have been playing with the similarities between Buddhism and Lean in other articles.  How do you make a shift in your perspective and what is necessary to do that?

John Shooks’ quote in the article No Satisfaction by Charles Fishman Fast Company magazine Dec. 2006/Jan 2007 made me think of what it takes to be able to embark on a lean revolution.  The article said “Even working at Toyota, you need that moment of Zen. “Once you realize that it’s the process itself — that you’re not seeking a plateau — you can relax.  Doing the task and doing the task better become one and the same thing,”  Shook says.  “This is what it means to come to work.”

The other memory was an old book that had a great influence on me by Marion Mountain, The Zen Environment.   This was a great discovery book that looked at a womans journey through Zen when it first came to San Francisco by way of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.  She says at one point “a zen monastery is a particularly favorable environment to find ourself, to free ourself from attachment to old images and habits, to disrupt the routines of our old hometown, and to bring ourself closer to the true center of our physical-mental-spiritual environment.” 

OK, in the lean revolution, we’re not going that far, but pay attention to the first sentence — to free ourself from attachment to old images and habits, to disrupt hte routines of our old hometown.  There is resonance with what has to happen to really make the transition to a lean environment.

My question is what environment is needed to nurture that shift?  What is the right atmosphere and situation where the shift will occur.  Not just applying tools but really making the change to a new waying of doing business. 

The first thing that seems to be needed is a financial situation where there is no other alternative.  People don’t make this big of a change unless they are forced into it, it appears.  If money is being made even though the quality is poor (there are many defects, returns and scrap), then the motivation is not there.

In a manufacturing environment that admittedly hasn’t changed in 20 years, the management is at a crossroads -  what kind of business do we have?  What kind of business will we have in 5 years?  It is enough of a small start up environment that people are asking honest questions and soul searching.  It is an evolutionary environment where things evolve and take a long time to take root regarding culture changes because it is still the small company that was started with 3 guys.  It is the HP story, the ASC story, the American story – where 3 engineers could get together, come up with an idea and grow a large company that is supporting many families and creating wonderful, exciting products for the United States in military and commercial applications.

From the perspective of one whose passion is manufacturing and process improvement, the answer is clear.  If you are going to do manufacturing, you must do it as best you can and quality is free as noted by Philip Crosby in his book 25 years ago.  

Note:  Philip Crosby wrote Quality is Free to explain the definition of quality to Executive in terms they could understand. 

The two initiatives that are being reviewed are:

  1. 5S
  2. Manufacturing Execution System (MES)

They are attacking the monster from the head and the feet.  From the head is 5S, cleaning up and stabilizing the manufacturing area.  From the tail is the MES which will take the information that is floating around and make it available.  Together they could meet in the middle and make the manufacturing area work.

But what environment has to be there in order to even start?  What atmosphere must be created that will spawn the right decisions?

It is supportive and casual.   People are encouraged to be themselves.  Bicycles hang from walls, people walk the hallways in their gym shorts and sweat pouring down their faces.  Wetsuits hang from the trees next to cars.  People come and go without someone looking at their watch. In fact there are so few clocks on the wall, that you usually don’t know what time it is, fostering an atmosphere of concentration on the job at hand.  There is a fair amount of pressure in the engineering side to get things done on time and with quality.

But when it starts to transfer to manufacturing, things fall apart.

So, is this an environment where lean can start to sprout?  Is this the environment of the Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker with the 9 principles?  Let’s see what they are and how the stack up.

  • Principle 1:  Base Your Management Decisions on a Long-Term Philosophy, Even at the Expense of Short-Term Financial Goals.  NO
  • Principle 2:  Create Continuous Process Flow to BringProblems to the Surface.  NO
  • Principle 3:  Use “Pull” Systems to Avoid Overproduction. 
  • Principle 4:  Level out the Workload (Heijunka). 
  • Principle 5:  Build a Culture of Stopping to Fix problems, to Get Quality Right the First Time. 
  • Principle 6:  Standardized Taks Are the Foundation for Coontinuous Improvement and Employee Empowerment.  NO
  • Principle 7:  Use Visual Control So No Problems Are Hidden.  NO
  • Principle 8:  Use Only Reliable, Thorougly Tested Technology That Serves Your People and Process.  NO
  • Principle 9:  Grow Leaders Who Thoroughly Understand the Work, Live the Philosophy and Teach It to Others.  NO
  • Principle 10:  Develop Exceptional People and Teams Who Follow Your Company’s Philosophy -  This is somewhat true in the Engineering department.
  • Principle 11:  Respect the Extended Network of Partners and Suppliers by Challenging Them and Helping Them Improve.  NO
  • Principle 12:  Go and See for Yourself to Thoroughly Understand the Situation (Genchi Genbutsu).  NO
  • Principle 13:  Make Decisions Slowly by Consensus, Thoroughly Considering All Options; Implement Decisions Rapidly.  First part is partially true, haven’t seen the second part.
  • Principle 14:  Become a Learning Organization Through Relentless Reflection (Hansei) and Continuous Improvement (Kaizen)  NO

In summary, they don’t adhere to any of the principles.   The only ones that seem somewhat related is their slow method of making decisions in order to gain consensus and their adherence to hiring excellent engineering talent.  They look for the right person instead of the person with the right experience.  The right person can learn the technology even if it takes a little longer.

But the others are not in the playbook and probably not even in the horizon.

Do they know they are at a crossroads, or will they cross the road without knowing that there was a decision to be made?  Time will tell.

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5S Training and Power Struggles – Part Five

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Connie Tolman

This is where we ended from the last posting:

“there is supposed to be some planning going on behind the scenes to see if we can gather together some enthusiasm in upper management.”

Trying to get some interest from upper management by suggesting that they go on a tour of a company that is doing it right, which I will set up.  Also trying to get them to come together in a group to have an integrated approach.

There will be a presentation to upper management and possibly some questions, so we’ll see where that goes.

 

Here is what was presented to the team from our group:

Here are the 5S activities to date.

 

1. Twelve people have been trained in 5S. These included 3 MEs, 2 Production Mgrs, 7 QEs.

 

2. The initial training session produced two projects that are moving forward.

    a. Receiving Inspection generated several action items and had taken immediate action to reorganize their tooling. A copy of their 5S activity is attached. RI will be next tackling their archives and will pick that up sfater the end of the quarter.

    b. One team studied improvements needed for managing tooling in the assembly area. A copy of her project recommendations is attached. This project is still moving forward. An old database of tools is being resurrected as a starting point.

 

3. Additional 5S training is scheduled for October. These sessions will provide 5S training to 23 more people.

    a. Another session on 5S fundamentals is scheduled for October 3 & 17. This group will include OPMs, Planners, MEs and QEs.

    b. 5S training is also scheduled for October 26 for the Assemblers and Technicians that support MIDS-LVT. This is being done in conjunction with the re-layout of the LVT module and terminal test areas. The sorting of excess and unused material and equipment in these areas will take place immediately following the training and in advance of the re-layout.

 

4. Additional training sessions will be provided for the remainder of the Assemblers, Technicians and Planners in November.

 

5. The Enerlinks production and repair cell was designed and organized for optimum flow. Product and material location labels were recently installed. 5S implementation is about 90% complete in this area.

 

6. By the end of the calendar year I expect to have established workplace organization standards in the assembly, repair and test areas and have an assessment tool in place to sustain these practices.

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Protected: Women, Wymyn or Wymen?

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Connie Tolman

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Manufacturing Execution Systems – iBaset

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Connie Tolman

What I learned from their presentation. 

After 14+ years working in defense and thinking we were just inefficient and all screwed up,  I learned that there is a typical process in defense manufacturing that iBaset has nailed.  It is based on having high tech leading edge technology, expensive parts with long lead times and building a small quantity that creates a way of doing business.  It also depends on the defense regulations and unique quality requirements that are imposed on suppliers of these products.

They have built in processes that are built on these assumptions.  It may not be clear to somebody who hasn’t suffered through getting things done in this environment but when you see that the choices offered you through the pull down menus and the process steps, you know they’ve done their homework and understand.

 

We have a unique business model which has the following characteristics:

  • Leading edge technology with some high dollar, long lead unique components,
  • Low volume with many variations
  • High reliability environmental requirements,
  • Strict qualification requirements that don’t allow changes once the product has been released to the customer and
  • Small pre-production quantities before going into full rate production – in other words a fast design to market schedule.
  • Cost of the product is becoming more and more competitive than in the past.

 

Because of the complexity of the products as listed above and the lack of visibility of the products on the production floor, it is necessary to be able to track products for the purpose of inventory control, traceability of documentation to our customers (serial number and product routing) and to have extensive quality data in order to troubleshoot problems, see trends and avoid recurrence. 

 

In addition, we have a diversity of product sectors between commercial and military as well as the volume of types of products within each one of these sectors.  Each product type is managed in a different way and therefore it becomes difficult to come up with process improvements.   With a system we can start to be able to get an overview of the products that are being built and prepare a master build schedule, standardize on product routings and work instructions, introduce lean methods where possible such as cells, reducing cycle times, etc. 

 

Since our model is to outsource as much as possible, we also need to have visibility and communication with the suppliers through a system that is proactive and expedient.

 

If we made a product such as Care Fusion makes infusion pumps – 5-6 models at a rate of 800 per day, then we wouldn’t even need an ERP system much less a MES system.  They use a vendor pull system and don’t have ERP.

 

 

 

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5S Training and Power Struggles – Part Four

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Connie Tolman

So far, we are moving forward but at a snails pace.  At the end of the first group of training sessions, there was an edge of excitement but there were some questions regarding the implementation.

After a few weeks of reflection, I have summarized the latest obstacle as follows:

The habit of seeing the world as “us” vs. “them”.  It exhibits itself in “not wanting to tell others how to run their business”.   It also can be seen in having an overly protective attitude to processes and people, being hesitant to allow outside influences to come into the area for fear that they will invade your territory. 

The root cause of this problem is, however, the lack of leadership from the top. 

A few of us attended the TechAmerica Operations Roundtable:  5S Basics at HME last week and the takeaways from those sessions were:

  1.  If you don’t have the leadership commitment from the top, don’t even start, you won’t succeed – 80% of 5S initiatives fail.
  2. You need to dedicate a substantial amount of time to the process – more at the beginning and then less and less as you go forward but always some time dedicated weekly to this process.
  3. You must provide WFIM – What’s In It For Me – by providing awards either monentary or attention.  As the leader said at Dimension One Spa – Napoleon said “people will die for ribbons”.

There were good speakers and presentations and some references to websites:  www.gemba.com, www.artoflean.com (one of the speakers said he really liked Art Smalley and also referred to his teacher Bob Petland who is referred to in the book Lean Thinking by James Womack), www.lean.org (the Lean Enterprise Institute sponsored by James Womack) and www.productivityinc.com.

There are some other examples that don’t seem to fit into the  “us” vs. “them” that I mentioned above but maybe they do in a subtle way.  The more I think about it, it seems to be related.  The behaviors are:

  1. Not allowing kaizens because they don’t work and can’t be sustained.  If there isn’t a dedicated amount of time devoted to doing the 5S, it won’t work.  This seems to be a reaction to a bad experience in the past.
  2.  Not using red tags in 5S.  For some reason it didn’t work in another company and so there is refusal to use red tags, when this is the standard and most efficient way to segregate material.

Maybe this is a sidebar to “us” vs. “them” based on wanting to have control of how things are done in “my” area.  The need to have control of the implementation of the plan and not to share it with others is the way that it relates.  If it becomes “all of us”, then compromises are made for the good of the company and there is no longer an “us” or a “them”. 

Now it has been almost a month since the first meeting and there is supposed to be some planning going on behind the scenes to see if we can gather together some enthusiasm in upper management.

More to come.

Postscript:  An interesting note is that you can get help from the governmnet for free according to the presentation from Dale Crum from Indyne.  David Burkhardt was the representative from Employers Group Lean Institute.  The most rousing consultant was Jim McKechnie from James R. McKechnie & Assoc.

 

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