Unleash the power of your team.

I was asked to help facilitate a small work shop at a friend’s facility recently. I have worked with this team before and have had many good experiences with them so I was excited to work with the team.

The General Manager opened the workshop with a small speech about all the new business that was coming into the press shop, and the need to improve output in order to fit the new business in. He then set the target condition for the team to meet, zero down time for bin change. After the GM left the meeting, I asked the team if they believed the problem. They said absolutely it is costing us hours a day. The team then started expressing their opinions on the causes of the down time. We came to consensus on the press to start working on. As a group we walked to the press to watch the bin change process.

The bin change took 5 minutes, and the press was not running during this activity. It only takes 16 minutes to fill the bin at the speed the press was running. No wonder the GM wanted this problem addressed. I asked the team after watching the process what caused the 5 minutes.

4 Activities happened during the down time

1. The part was inspected across the fixture

2. The Bin was labeled

3. The full bin was pulled away from the line

4. The empty bin was pushed into place

The Team also noted that the bin was very difficult to move.

Next question was “Of these activities which ones can be done while the press is running now without changing anything?”

The team instantly responded with the labeling and inspection.

So the Plan, Do, Check, Act, (PDCA) Cycle is starting.

Plan: Stop press, Swap bins, start press, inspect part, label bin: expected outcome = under 1 minute down for bin change

Do: the next bin change was in 15 minutes

Check: the team was so excited about the experiment that they jumped in and moved the bins for the team member with 4 people moving the 4 bins, and the press was down for 28 seconds.

Act/Adjust: the reflection of the experiment was that we did the work for the team member and that is not a sustainable solution. Need a new Plan

Plan: Team member moves the bins themselves as they would in normal production

Do: Next Bin change in 15 Minutes

Check: The press was down for 61.2 seconds

Act/Adjust: The Team members will now follow the process of inspecting and labeling the bin after the press has started again. Still have 1 minute of down time to account for.

With the 80% reduction in down time a 20% improvement in output, the team was very excited. The ideas just started flowing to eliminate the remaining 1 minute of down time and the ergo difficulty of moving the heavy bins.

4 ideas were sketched out. The team then ranked them on ease of implementation, and expected cost (Just a ranking, not costing them out), then Pros and Cons for each proposed idea was listed out. This took 20 minutes. The team decided on one proposal they believed could be implemented today. Now for the scavenger hunt to find the bits and pieces that could be used. 40 minutes later the team had a diverter mounted at the end of the press that directed the parts into different bins, so that the press never stops and the diverter just directed the parts into the next bin and the material handling group could get the full bin and replace with an empty while the press is running. No pushing of cart, no down time. The press operator was so happy.

The PDCA continued with the millwrights getting involved to make the diverter lighter and easier to install.

The next day I was at a different client and received pictures from the team. They changed the end of line layout for a different part on the same press that eliminated the down time for bin change as well. The team is just on fire! I returned at the end of the week to see the team. I had not seen that many smiling faces in some time. People were coming up to me and thanking me for helping with the workshop. All I did was get out of the way to the team’s creativity.

Talking to another manager at the same facility that afternoon, He recounted a similar story in the setup of a new assembly line. The team leader approached this manager and asked how he wanted the parts laid out. His response, “you have the authority and power to setup all the part presentation the way you want it. The Cell is yours. “ The team took off running with ideas and improvements. This just illustrates how when we get out of the way of our teams they will perform. So unleash the power of your team. Get out of the way.

Paul Hill

The Lean Geek