PROMISE: Our kitties will never sit on top of content. Please turn off your ad blocker for our site.
puuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrr
Bruce Hamilton
Published: Monday, April 4, 2022 - 12:02 The level of excitement was high in our machine shop as we drew closer to our goal of less than 9-minute changeovers on the BNC lathe. (See Part One of this story for how we got there.) Setup improvements had so far reduced changeover time to 20 minutes, cutting the economic order quantity from weeks to days of stock on hand. Our pull system now more closely resembled a supermarket with several containers on hand for each of the 66 parts in our pilot. After decades of viewing setups as a problem and inventory as a protection from stockouts, this new process was still confounding for many persons. But it was working, which was most apparent to the operators on the BNC and their internal customers in assembly: The BNC improvement team had, as my friend and mentor Steve Spear likes to say, “proven theory through practice.” The concepts from Shigeo Shingo’s books actually worked. All that was required had been was a little coaching from our Toyota System Support Center (TSSC) consultant and a whole lot of brilliant ideas from the operators. Funny thing about good ideas: They tend to spread. Operators were champing at the bit to take some of what we’d learned from the BNC and spread it to other machines. I don’t recall how it started or if I may have selectively forgotten part of the charter Hajime Oba had given to us for our setup project: “All of the parts for your model line assembly will be made on this machine, and changeover between any two parts must be less than 9 minutes. Work only on this machine. That is your target.” We were making so much progress with the BNC that I probably rationalized Oba would be pleased to see us sharing the ideas across other machines. This turned out not to be the case. On Oba’s next visit to the plant, I enthusiastically greeted him with the news, “Changeovers on the BNC are already down to 20 minutes and we’re now working on improvement at the LE22...” (the machine next to it). Before I could finish this sentence, Oba stopped in his tracks and turned for the door. Incredulous, I followed him outside to the parking lot, apologizing, but for what I wasn’t sure. I asked in desperation, “What did we do?” Oba stopped walking, turned to me and, with a shrug of disappointment, replied, “You’ll never be better than 20 minutes.” I think he was most disappointed that I hadn’t figured this out for myself. I apologized again, now with understanding. “We’ll work only on the BNC until we hit our target.” As the two of us reentered the plant, I reflected: “Don’t spread mediocre results. The target was single minutes, not double-digits.” Six months later, we hit 9 minutes on the BNC and began to spread best practices to other CNCs. My lessons: 1) Don’t be too happy too soon; and 2) focus your scarce resources to build capability before branching out. Quality Digest does not charge readers for its content. We believe that industry news is important for you to do your job, and Quality Digest supports businesses of all types. However, someone has to pay for this content. And that’s where advertising comes in. Most people consider ads a nuisance, but they do serve a useful function besides allowing media companies to stay afloat. They keep you aware of new products and services relevant to your industry. All ads in Quality Digest apply directly to products and services that most of our readers need. You won’t see automobile or health supplement ads. So please consider turning off your ad blocker for our site. Thanks, Bruce Hamilton, president of the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP), brings hands-on experience as a manager, teacher, and change agent. Prior to GBMP, Hamilton led efforts to transform United Electric Controls Co.’s production from a traditional batch factory to a single-piece-flow environment that has become an international showcase. Hamilton has spoken internationally on lean manufacturing, employee involvement, continuous improvement, and implementing change. Also, he has contributed to numerous texts ranging from visual control to variety reduction. Hamilton’s blog, Old Lean Dude, is an ongoing reflection on lean philosophy and practices, with an emphasis on keeping good jobs close to home.Too Happy Too Soon
Focus scarce resources to build capability before branching out
• No more expedites and angry demands
• No more breaking down a setup in mid run to run a hot part
• No more juggling jobs between machines
• No more fiddling with tools and programs to get a good part
Our PROMISE: Quality Digest only displays static ads that never overlay or cover up content. They never get in your way. They are there for you to read, or not.
Quality Digest Discuss
About The Author
Bruce Hamilton
© 2023 Quality Digest. Copyright on content held by Quality Digest or by individual authors. Contact Quality Digest for reprint information.
“Quality Digest" is a trademark owned by Quality Circle Institute, Inc.