Lean Business Specialists - Nestadt Consulting

Peki Transport

The Challenge
The Approach
The Results
Lessons Learned

The Challenge
Included:

The semi-trailer assembly line was unable to consistently produce more than an average of 1.5 finished trailers per week.

Sales were significantly ahead of this and, as a result, the a backlog of around 15 weeks had built up. The resultant lead time of 15 weeks plus for new orders was threatening successful signing of new business.

Management wanted to increase the capacity of the semi-trailer assembly line to an average 3 semi-trailers per week without increasing floor-space or overheads significantly.

Lumpy demand meant that the line needed to remain scalable , i.e. producing 1 to 2 trailers per week as efficiently as 3 trailers per week.

The environment was unsophisticated with most planning and communication methods developed internally from scratch. None of the team leaders or managers had any formal training in planning methods or modern manufacturing concepts

The Approach
Includes:

A review of business processes and factory floor efficiency was conducted through interview, an employee survey, shop-floor analysis and sales analysis.

A project team was established comprising shop-floor supervisors from each department, engineering, purchasing, sales and the production/planning manager.

Using knowledge gained from the review and a workshop, the team identified four key constraints to increased throughput down the semi-trailer line: layout and space, planning and synchronisation, material shortages and absenteeism.

A scoreboard was established to track progress in the key area of throughput and in related areas of lead-time, productivity, number of material shortages and absenteeism.

Weekly meetings of the project team were established.

The aims of each meeting were to:

Focus on one key problem area

Introduce a concept which would support improvement of that problem area

The question how can we apply this concept at Peki was asked and specific tasks identified and allocated to the various individuals for implementation over the next week

Follow up on previous tasks

Participants were educated in a range of principles and techniques including:

Just-in-Time, Kanban and Cellular manufacturing

Line Balancing

5S and housekeeping

Visual planning and use of simple planning boards

Next operation as customer and Zero Quality Control

A range of mini-initiatives were implemented including:

Implementation of numerous production cells in the fabrication area

Re-layout of numerous areas to support material flow with reduced handling

Implementation of 5S techniques: a place for everything and everything in its place

Development of simple whiteboards as communication tools for staging and tracking of projects

Introduction of a material shortage follow-up form

Simple measures such as the number of material shortages were monitored weekly while larger measures such as throughput were monitored monthly.

The Results
Results:

Consistent throughput of 2 trailers per week (up 33%) during the term of the project, and achievement of target 3 semi-trailers per week soon after. This was achieved with no increase in overall space or overhead.

Order lead times reduced from 15 weeks to 11 weeks over two months of the project.

Infrastructure and knowledge in place to support maintenance of this throughput into the future

Reduction of material shortages from 30 per month to 2 per month in just two months.

Significantly improved housekeeping and quality control

Lessons Learned
Included:

While lack of space was indicated as a major constraint on throughput at the start of the project, the team realised by the end that improving use of existing space was far more effective.

Simple tools like whiteboards, if broadly understood, can be an inexpensive but highly effective answer to improving internal communication .

Focus on small, simple projects, one week at a time can lead to big changes without the negative impact of a big bang approach.

The learn-do approach brings concepts to life, leads to buy-in and ownership of change and motivates participants to seek out further improvement.