I recently had lunch with a former work colleague. As we talked, she told me about her new home and the vegetable garden she had planted. She told me that she had already utilized all of the space that she had set aside in her yard and needed to become more creative in how to use the available space.
Her story reminded me of a recent article I read in ISE magazine. Cassandra Johnson’s case study described the use of Lean methodologies in a family-owned greenhouse supplier in Michigan that faced a decline in its production capacity. After running the company the same way for more than 60 years, the company realized it needed to make a change. To assist the company in its continuous improvement (CI) efforts, management turned to the University of Michigan’s (UM) Tauber Institute for Global Operations team.
Three graduate students from UM took a three-pronged approach to helping the company evaluate its distribution center. Each student evaluated a separate part of the operational process utilizing week-long kaizen events. The first kaizen focused on quality control in the production area. The team found that there were too many inspection points, many in the wrong location. The team reduced the number of inspection station and moved others upstream in the process, resulting in a 79 % reduction of the rework rate.
The second team focused on processes in the shipping area. Errors in labeling, pallet positioning, and a general lack of standard processes led to rework and product delays. The team developed spaghetti maps for product flow and visual aids for pallet placement the team eliminated over-processing. The team estimated annual savings of $242,000.
The third team focused on the inspection process. Most of the inspectors had not received formal training for their position, and thus quality standards were quite varied dependent upon the inspector. By establishing a standard training program and requiring all inspectors to go through the program, the company not only developed strong training standards, but also overhauled the company’s recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding.
Over a 14-week period, the three teams were able to establish initial savings of $368,000 and more than 28,000 hours in time savings. Sometimes having a fresh set of eyes (or, in this case, three sets) can really pay off!
How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive workplace.
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