Food Equipment Manufacturer
Issue:
This fabricator/assembler of food serving equipment needed to reduce the cost of manufacture of one of their more popular product offerings.
Scope:
The goals for the team were to increase productivity by 20% and reduce both raw and finished goods inventory levels for the target product by 25%.
Approach:
A team of shop floor workers were selected to determine the needed improvements through the use of lean manufacturing tools. A plan was developed in five (5) days using customer takt to develop a one piece flow line. The layout was converted in another five (5) days.
Results:
Three (3) weeks after the layout was converted productivity was up 30% and inventory reductions were minimal. (A flywheel inventory had been created prior to the layout changes). Six (6) weeks after the layout changes productivity was up 60% and inventories were down over 30%. Four (4) workers were redeployed as a result of this event – these workers were used to build a new product for which the company was planning to hire additional workers.