A local manufacturer of pipeline maintenance products that was never short of orders oversold, landing them behind schedule and unable to operate efficiently. The large backlog of orders created a shop floor management nightmare, and the company had no modern computer system for managing the thousands of details which the team dealt with daily. Additionally, the facility and equipment were over 60 years old and had a long list of needed repairs and regular breakdowns, negatively impacting reliability and causing more delays. Customer frustration was beyond the scope of management, creating a very stressful environment which led to mistakes and errors that added cost by way of warranty issues.
With the unexpected departure of the General Manager the plant was left without a leader. “I accepted the challenge to turn the business around and was installed as the new GM. My initial assessment revealed an unmotivated, poorly managed workforce without clear direction. I quickly determined which personnel were going to cooperate and which were not.”
Kenneth Seaux, Senior Engineering Consultant
A reorganization of line management and direct management of the production schedule improved process flow. “I began weekly plant-wide meetings to enlist cooperation from everyone. We discussed safety, production, equipment needs and ideas for improvement. I began a process of team building a group that was historically fragmented and at odds with each other. I added something that had not been done previously which was recognition for jobs well done. This created a whole new level of participation in managing the department.”
The company produced an average of 2MM/month in shipped products, slow to invest in modern day ERP systems left the staff to use an Excel spreadsheet for scheduling work. The ISO 9001 certification created another burden for the staff in tracking all materials from their original source through final shipment. “To mitigate the lack of scheduling support I developed a detailed process flow for each project and met regularly with line managers to direct activity, review status and update the schedule.”
The involvement and improved communication enabled the staff to produce more each day with fewer errors, thus creating a higher yield. This freed time for supervisors to direct more effort at the front end of the manufacturing process leading to higher quality work order packets for new orders.
The physical plant was poorly organized and in a state of disrepair. The large volume of work required a great many raw materials, semi-finished and finished goods to be tracked closely. “I discarded unneeded supplies and equipment, had each department clean and organize the workspace, and purchased required organizational and storage related products which freed up space to work. This new ‘clean’ environment improved morale and the quality of individual work products by eliminating excuses for poor quality work. As issues were eliminated, quality improved and projects [were] completed quicker, improving customer relations and the bottom line.”
Ken revised overall scheduling with a simple rule: Work would not begin unless it could be completed. This velocity style scheduling freed up physical space and scheduling space by clearing orders out quicker than ever before. The improved lead time bettered the on-time delivery ratio, which relieved customer complaints as well as the time needed to deal with those calls.
Watch full video interview below.
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