Page 42 - MetalForming March 2013

• Printing the job start date more visibly on work orders;
• Setting up break areas closer to machines, so workers don’t need to travel as far for short breaks;
• Establishing a permanent cell for quick die jobs, giving the team leader control of overtime;
• Tracking the amount of time parts should stay in the department, compared with actual amount of time spent; and
• Meeting with the team leader from the materials work group to discuss ways to speed the delivery of material to the shop floor.
Underlying all process improvement is ensuring that team members under- stand that all production delays impact on-time delivery success. One-piece flow is the goal.
A key element of that initial SDWT was development of a three-tiered
reward system for meeting objectives. Now every team must develop such a system, related to achieving its goals within an allotted time frame. For example, a team might earn a pizza lunch after achieving 95-percent on- time delivery performance for one week out of a month. After reaching that goal three times, the team must step up to the next level and achieve a monthly average of 95 percent to receive a reward. After achieving the second-stage goal three times, the team moves to the third-stage goal—achiev- ing an on-time delivery performance average of 95 percent for eight consec- utive weeks.
Taking Ownership
The original SWDT took six months before realizing improvements. On- time delivery performance increased significantly at the six-month mark, and currently stands at about 96 per- cent. Much of that success falls to two shop-floor team leaders—Dennis Palmieri and Vitor Louro—who jumped on the bandwagon and urged the team on to greater and greater success. Now all of the team members have taken ownership, steadily thinking about how to improve the process. Says Palmieri: “We find ourselves thinking about improvements 24/7, even while not at work.”
The energy and drive that the team has directed toward improving on-time delivery has spilled over to quality con- trol. The quality-control operator on the SWDT now is authorized to conduct first-piece inspection. The team hopes to be able to push the envelope even further by packaging and shipping its product directly from the shop floor.
According to Pelletier, surpassing 95-percent on-time delivery perform- ance is a remarkable achievement, con- sidering the company services nearly 700 customers and ships nearly 6000 different parts per year. One key to that success is a focus on measurement and posting of individual operator effi- ciency, because now workers can see the relationship between lost time and on-time performance.
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