Boosting OEE at Sapa Pole Products
By Jan Gosens, March 2009, TAKT Lean management
Background
Sapa Pole Products is a manufacturer of light- and flagpoles, based in Drunen, the Netherlands. Their business is growing, thanks to a very good connection with their customers and outstanding performance in New Product Development. Growth of the business is a great challenge for the manufacturing department. Production now needs to cope with more product variation: Integrating other types of products into the existing flow and eliminating new bottlenecks -which should be expected to occur-.
Over the last years, many improvements were implemented at the production lines. Ben Mul, Manufacturing Manager and Leopold Moormann, Marketing and Sales Director both said: We can really see that we need improvement in a specific area in our plant: Where we finish our products. We don’t want to solve this with huge investments, we want to do this with the skills our people. Applying a “Rules in Use Kaizen”.
Rules in use
The rules in use are based on a survey which was done during the late nineties by Steven J. Spear and Kent Bowen from Harvard Business University. At the time, this survey revealed the hidden rules Toyota was applying to run the Toyota Production System. At Sapa and TAKT these “rules in use” are respected as a valuable approach to design a future state during Kaizen Events.
- Rule #1 Activity
Design and perform each activity so that it is structured and self-diagnostic. - Rule #2 Connection
Design and interact each customer-supplier connection so that it is direct, binary, paces and self diagnostic. - Rule #3 Flow
Design and operate the pathway for every good, service and operation so that it is simple, pre-specified, and self-diagnostic. - Rule #4 Improvement
All improvements at the source using a scientific method with the guidance of a teacher designed in a self-diagnostic way.
Step 1: Organizing the event
A cross functional team was selected and scheduled for a 2 day approach. Top management was involved. An internal lean specialist was invited and Jan Gosens from TAKT was there to guide and support the Kaizen.
With the whole team, including experienced people from the shop-floor the lean principles and the rules in use were re-studied.
The business case was constructed and posted, explaining the scope, objectives, problems and needds.
Step 2: Mapping the Current State Activity, Connection and Flow.
Time for deeply understanding what the current state was like. The team went to the gemba to map the process real time, using VSM to clarify all processes connections and flow. Operators working in specific were interviewed. The team discussed problems with those on the shopfloor and they collected ideas for improvement.
Current state: How is the material flowing? What kind of information is sent to production? What are the leadtimes and cycletimes?
Discussing issues at the Gemba
Step 3: Designing Future State
Back in the Kaizen room, all ideas were put in a priority matrix. Then the team classified ideas by costs and impact. And set out to brainstorm nd a Future State Map. Basic Lean principles and Rules in Use were connected to the ideas from the shopfloor ideas and integrated in a new Target Condition.
Step 4: Fast implementation of approved ideas
Ideas which were approved by the whole team, could be implemented immediately. Now the carefull selecion and empowerment of the teams payed off. During the event the team decided to simplify the flow by taking out an entire process which was disturbing the flow. It could be replaced by an alternative existing process, after some adjustments. This issue had been a subject in several management meeting before, but had not been solved. Now management saw the real impact of the issue on the shop-floor. So it became an easy one to take: to get rid of it.
Action was taken immediately on the second day of the event.
Step 5: Structure for follow up and complete all actions (anchoring)
The two day event was closed with an action list, adding up all actions to be taken in the coming period of 3 months. The actions were classified for 30/60/90 days implementation periods. All actions were dedicated to a single point of accountability (SPA). Each month the whole team spent a half day to monitor the follow up. During these follow up meetings results were evaluated. The PDCA status was captured. New standards were made and existing standards were updated.
Final results
After the last review (90 days ) all actions had been implemented. The team celebrated the result with sushi on the shop floor. The event was closed with a formal close out meeting presented to the corporate management.
Leopold Moormann It is always a great learning experience to be part of a Kaizen event. It is not possible to predict the outcome but lean and the rules in use again showed their power. We can be proud what we realized in a short period of time without capital investments.
Ben Mul The power of the “rules in use“ and lean is clear for me and each event we do it becomes stronger. The formation of your team is a key issue and the value of external experts must not be underestimated.
Results in numbers
The bottleneck in the coating packing area was resolved. The capacity in this area was improved with 30%. The OEE of the coating machine had been as low as 50%. After the Kaizen it improved with 30%, to 80%.
Activity: Two non value added activities eliminated. Saving 300-400 hours per year.
Connection: New identification system was implemented on each product to have a built in test.
Flow: Flow of the material was simplified. Two flowpaths were eliminated.
Improvement: 6 People were trained in structural problemsolving. 5S score in area was improved with 35%.
Keep improving:
After the event, a second Kaizen was launched in the same area. Improvements are never ending.