SUCCESS STORIES

Simona America - Lean Office / Value Stream Mapping

NEPIRC Helps Plastics Extrusion Company Drastically Reduce Setup Times

In order to combat product commoditization and enter new markets, a northeastern Pennsylvania plastics extrusions company greatly diversified its product line by increasing the size, shape, color and density of the plastic bottles they produce for the household product, personal care product and sports drink markets. While the initiative led to higher sales, the company quickly recognized that the additional revenue was being negated by productivity losses attributable to the increased frequency and duration of machine changeovers.

Based upon the positive outcomes of their previous engagements with NEPIRC, the company contacted NEPIRC. NEPIRC spent time with the client to better understand their business concerns and recommended the performance of a targeted Setup Reduction event within one area of the facility that included a total of seven presses. After reviewing a videotape of the setup process associated with one of seven presses, NEPIRC professionals and the client team of three operators, one maintenance technician and one supervisor reported to management that the goal of the Setup Reduction event would be to shorten average changeover times by at least 33%.

Working in 10-hour shifts, the team used NEPIRC Setup Reduction tools, brainstorming sessions, operator interviews and setup simulations to identify ways to reduce changeover times and increase machine uptime. During their closeout meeting, the team reported that average press changeover time on three of the seven presses had been reduced from 318 minutes to 200 minutes and that modifications were underway on the remaining four presses to achieve similar results. The team had calculated annual savings associated with the event to be $109,000 with three of the seven machines completed and $254,800 once work on all seven machines was complete.

NEPIRC Provides Lean Basic and Advance Lean Training to Prepare Employees for On-Site Lean Implementations

A Pennsylvania communication equipment fabrication, repair and refurbishment facility with over 3,000 employees had already contracted with a national consultant for the performance of shopfloor Kaizen events when it realized that overall employee Lean Enterprise awareness training and 6-S training would increase the success of their events. The incumbent provider seemed reluctant to customize their training materials to better fit the client needs and was struggling to incorporate the client request for pre-training testing, post-training testwork and a new course evaluation into their existing training format. The fact that the provider was located outside of Pennsylvania was also causing some challenges. In several cases, the provider was unable to travel to the facility on short notice even though the company had undertaken considerable efforts to roster a 20-person training course. Conversely, the provider held the client to a rigid training cancellation policy, which resulted in the company paying for courses that had to be cancelled due to circumstances outside of the company’s control, such as last-minute rush orders from key customers or similar business demands.

Having attended several Principles of Lean Enterprise seminars at the Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center, Inc., management called NEPIRC and asked for information regarding NEPIRC’s on-site training programs. NEPIRC proved its willingness and ability to customize its training presentations to fit the client’s needs and worked with the client to develop a variety of pre-training and post-training tests, the results of which could easily be incorporated into the client’s existing training database. NEPIRC also modified its course evaluation process for the client. NEPIRC was successful in securing the one-year training contract that will result in training nearly 800 people Lean Enterprise principles.

Approximately three months into the training contract, NEPIRC was awarded a smaller contract for Six Sigma training.