Lean Manufacturers Recognized by Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing

LOGAN, Utah, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- World-class excellence in manufacturing is the hallmark of the 10 Recipients and the 4 Finalists of the 2006 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Business Recipients. American manufacturing continues to experience turbulent times in maintaining and growing manufacturing jobs. The only business approach that has demonstrated superior achievement is Lean Enterprise Management (the Toyota Production System), the foundation of the Shingo Prize. All 14 companies to be recognized in 2006 have clearly achieved exemplary lean manufacturing excellence.

Dubbed the "Nobel prize of Manufacturing" by Business Week in 2000, the Shingo Prize is recognized at the premier manufacturing award in North America. "The 2006 Recipients have demonstrated the aim to control their destiny though lean manufacturing and business processes," said Ross Robson, Shingo Prize Executive Director. "The 2006 Conference and Award Ceremony will highlight how lean delivers global competitiveness and will control a company's destiny to be cost competitive."

The Shingo Prize continues to grow with the adoption of the Public Sector Shingo Prize with a 120 percent increase in 2006 applicants. In addition, over 25 states in the U.S. and Mexico are conducting "State-Level" Shingo Prize programs. The mission aim of the Shingo Prize is to find and eliminate all non-value added activity that negatively impacts profitability and/or tax utilization.

This year's Shingo Prize Recipients are:

Aspect Medical Systems, Newton, Mass. -- Aspect Medical Systems' mission is to improve people's lives by helping health care professionals deliver the best possible patient care through innovative brain monitoring technologies. The company's core product, BIS(TM) technology, measures the effect of anesthetics and sedatives on the brain. The Aspect team is fully committed to operational excellence and the application of lean techniques throughout the organization. Product cost of goods has been reduced by more than 50% on products that generate greater than 70% of revenue, rework rates have improved by 81%, scrap has been reduced by 37%, and customer service measures have improved by 80%. These outstanding results reflect the company's employee's commitment to excellence and have played a key role in Aspect's success during a period of strong growth.

Autoliv Promontory Facility, Promontory, Utah -- This plant produces more igniter material and gas generant for automotive applications annually than any other pyrotechnic facility in the world. This material is used in the manufacture of driver, passenger, side-impact, and side-curtain airbags for the North American, European, and Asian markets. Utilizing the Autoliv Production System, the facility has reduced process lead time by 69%, reduced customer ppm to zero, increased production efficiency to 99%, reduced inventory by 68%, reduced overhead by 38%, and improved LMPU by 45%. The facility is certified to TS 16949 and ISO 14001. Employees at the facility have implemented a record number of continuous improvement suggestions.

Delphi Electronics & Safety, Milwaukee, Wis. - This plant is a high- quality supplier of automotive electronics including Engine Control Units (ECU) and Truck Body Controllers (TBC). With an engaged workforce focusing on lean principles, Milwaukee plant employees have helped improve customer satisfaction by reducing customer returns by 65%, improving First Time Quality by 17%, improving inventory turns by 18%, and reducing scrap by 48%. In 2003, the plant received the Excellence Achievement Award from the National Safety Council for its health and safety practices. Customers like Toyota also recognized the facility in 2004 with the Global Contribution Award. Using the Delphi Manufacturing System and other lean practices, employees continue on their lean journey towards manufacturing excellence.

Delphi Productos Delco de Chihuahua (Plant 58), Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico -- Plant 58 is a Delphi Energy and Chassis facility, a division of Delphi Corp. Since initiating operations in 1990, the Delphi Manufacturing System has guided the team of more than 500 employees to reach its goals on a lean journey. The team sought to become a world-class lean manufacturing plant by staying focused on a set of core activities, including cost reduction, quality improvement, constant growth, improved process speed, and valuing and improving people. The team's achievements include 100% on time delivery since 2001, 80% reduction in customer complaints, 70% improvement in First Time Quality, 86% improvement on premium freight cost and a safety record of 5 years without a lost work day. The Productos Delco team will continue to make improvements aimed at exceeding customer expectations in the future.

Delphi Steering Systems, Alambrados y Circuitos Electricos IX (ACE IX) Plant 65, Queretaro, Mexico -- As part of Delphi Steering, a division of Delphi Corp., Plant 65 is a 176,981 square-feet facility with 233 employees. Opening in 1996, it specializes in manufacturing automotive components such as Rack & Pinion Gears which help provide directional control, road feedback, and stability for the driver. In the last 2 years, employees have achieved 100% on-time delivery and a safety record of zero lost work days. In addition, there has been a 43% improvement in First Time Quality, 62% reduction in customer complaints and a 100% improvement on delivering premium freight. Additionally, scrap has been reduced by 49%. Employee empowerment and strong leadership has led Plant 65 to achieve these important milestones and for employees to continue their lean journey towards excellence.

Delphi Steering Systems, Alambrados y Circuitos Electricos IX (ACE IX) Plant 66, Queretaro, Mexico -- Plant 66 is part of Delphi Steering, a division of Delphi Corp. It is an 83,000 square-feet facility that focuses on manufacturing steering columns, halfshafts, and intermediate shafts for various automotive customers. Assembling more than 1.4 million finished goods a year, 242 employees work hard to exceed customer expectations. With a focus on quality and safety and community service, Plant 66 employees achieved 100% on-time delivery, a 56% improvement on inventory turns, a 50% reduction in down time in machining areas, and had zero quality spills from 2001-2005. Employees submit ideas for cost savings and improvements and see their improvements implemented on the plant floor. The team's passion for excellence has led them to continuous improvement through their lean journey.

dj Orthopedics, Inc., Vista, Calif. -- dj Orthopedics is a global medical device company specializing in rehabilitation and regeneration products for the non-operative orthopedic and spine markets. dj Ortho's Vista manufacturing facility produces its flagship DonJoy(R) Defiance(R) knee braces and FDA approved bone growth regeneration devices. dj Orthopedics' company-wide "lean journey" began in early 2000 and since then, the company's safety incident rate has improved by 53%, customer complaints have fallen by 94%, and order-to-shipment lead time has been reduced by 66%. Additionally, new product development lead time has been reduced by over 50% while doubling the number of new products launched each year. In the office, insurance billing and collecting process lead times have fallen by an average of over 40%. dj Ortho's motto is "Never Stop Getting Better!"

Methode Mexico, Apodaca, Mexico -- This facility manufactures the weight sensor bladder product, which is a component of a Passenger Occupant Detection System designed to reduce airbag induced injuries. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208 mandates that all passenger cars and light trucks produced after September 1, 2006, will have advanced frontal air bags for occupant protection. The plant has four years in operation and has embraced lean manufacturing tools for two years. During this time the plant has achieved substantial improvements in quality, cost, and delivery, such as: 100% on-time delivery, 99% reduction in customer PPM's, 31% up-time improvement, 76% scrap reduction, 61% turnover reduction, and 81% inventory cost reduction. Also, parts produced per person have increased by 130%, Current OEE level is at 83%, and are now 103% more flexible due to quick changeover and small lot production.

Steelcase Inc., City of Industry, Calif. -- Steelcase is the largest supplier of contract office furniture in the world. Product lines include panels, storage units, desks, and seating. In 2000, its City of Industry, Calif., plant had a unique opportunity to implement lean principles when they moved from a 1-million-square-foot manufacturing plant to a new 450,000-square-foot facility. Some of the dramatic results include: reducing cycle time between raw materials and finished goods from 6-8 days to less than 3.5 hours, improving raw material turns by more than 250%, and reducing floor space for finished goods shipping by over 85%.

TI Automotive, Mexico City, Mexico -- With a heritage of almost a century in the auto industry, TI Automotive continues as an industry leader in the production of innovative fluid carrying systems for fuel, braking, and powertrain applications to automakers worldwide. Through talented leadership, empowered associates along with Common Sense Manufacturing principles (a passionate belief that there is always a better and simpler way), TI Automotive -- Mexico City Plant has significantly improved its performance: PPM below 16 in the last 5 years, a 38.75% inventory turns improvement in the last year, and significant improvements in manufacturing profit and financial performance.

Finalists

Finalists, scoring close to Recipient status, include Freudengerg-NOK, Components Plant, Bristol, New Hampshire; John Deere, Power Products, Greeneville, Tennessee; Rockwell Collins, Coralville Operations, Coralville, Iowa; and Scotsman Ice Systems, Fairfax Operation, Fairfax, South Carolina. "Each of these plants are also outstanding in their Lean manufacturing processes," according to Robson.

The Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing, for manufacturers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, is administered by the College of Business, Utah State University. Awards for the Recipients and Finalists will be presented at the 18th Annual Shingo Prize Conference and Awards Ceremony to be held April 6, 2006, at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Kentucky. Speakers will include Paul O'Neill, former Secretary, U.S. Treasury and former Chair and CEO, Alcoa; Herb Spivak, Executive VP, New Balance Athletic Shoes; Dan Ariens, President and CEO, Ariens Company; Norman Bodek, President, PCS, Inc.; and Pascal Dennis, Principal, Lean Productivity Systems, among others. For more information, visit http://www.shingoprize.org/.

La-Z-Boy changing production lines to compete with China

By Buzz Ball / Daily News Editor
Published: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 3:42 PM CST



John Tanner of La-Z-Boy Midwest in Neosho explains the new concept of Lean Cellular Manufacturing this morning to members of the Neosho community and La-Z-Boy officials. The three people on the left are Neosho Plant Manager Renzo Bulgarelli, Don Mather and former Neosho Plant Manager Dave Layman. DAILY NEWS / BUZZ BALL
Competition with manufacturing overseas - namely China - has led to a bold and innovative concept at La-Z-Boy Midwest and it is already starting to reap benefits.

Since it came to Neosho in 1970, La-Z-Boy Midwest, one of the leading recliner manufacturers in the world, has been assembling chairs using the traditional batch-and-queue method, an assembly line process with each component of the chair manufactured in its own department.

But in an attempt to better compete with the overseas market, the Neosho plant, along with six others in its division, is transitioning to the Lean Cellular Manufacturing method. In the new concept, the chair or sofa is manufactured by a team within a cell, thus eliminating separate departments. No jobs will be lost in the transition from batch-and-queue to lean cellular.

“Basically, we will have teams building the chairs from start to finish,” said La-Z-Boy Midwest Human Relations Manager Billy Meyer. “Right now, we have three cells up and running, but by the end of the transition, we will have 37 cells.”

Eventually, the cells will manufacture the chairs starting with sewing all the way to completion: all within a 50x48 foot area. Currently, the sewing, poly, metal, wood and cutting departments are separate. But the eventual goal is to include everything within the cells with the exception of cutting, wood, poly and metal. Those components will continue to be manufactured separately and shipped to the individual cells.

The primary purpose of the new concept is to increase product numbers. The cells have become so efficient that it has cut the manufacturing time of a chair down from two and one-half days to just three hours.

“This is now a three-hour process from start to finish in the cell,” said La-Z-Boy Midwest production manager Bill Snow. “The process ends with a 12-point inspection. The cell members will not get paid for the piece until it is taken to where it will boxed. But eventually, boxing will take place in the cell as well.”

Another benefit of the cell concept is that no component of the chair or sofa will ever touch the floor. All manufacturing takes place on carts or tables. Thus eliminating excess dirt and grime on the material. The entire plant is being renovated making each cell brighter and cleaner.

One of the innovators of the new concept is Dave Layman, former Neosho plant manager. He is now the senior vice president of operations in residential upholstery. He, along with Don Mather, vice president of manufacturing, were in Neosho this morning to see how the transition is progressing.

“I am very, very pleased with what I have seen,” said Layman. “From the enthusiasm I have seen, I think our expectations will be exceeded.”

Renzo Bulgarelli, vice president and plant manager in Neosho, honored Layman and Mather.

“The news is full of articles these days on companies like GM and Ford and their inabilities to compete in today's global economy,” said Bulgarelli. “La-Z-Boy could have been one of those headlines had it not been for the vision and leadership shown by Don Mather and Dave Layman. These two fellows learned how to see and recognized that our company could not go forward without a new plan.

“Their leadership took them to the board of directors to seek approval on a multimillion dollar plan to convert our residential plants to start-of-the-art Lean Cellular production units,” he continued.

Meyer said that all employees will receive training in team work, conflict resolution, lean manufacturing and continuous improvement.

“We are totally changing the plant,” said Meyer. “This is a very exciting time.”

Increase manufacturing speed and flexibility

Since 2002 'diet doctors' at MAS North West have helped UK manufacturers to go 'lean' and 'power up' their productivity by a total of GBP 173million by increasing manufacturing speed and flexibility.

Manufacturing companies seeking to tone up their performance and fight the flab are being offered a proven 'diet' to put them in top shape for 2006. 'Forget the GI and Atkins diets, the Lean programme will add muscle to any enterprise,' advises Dr Julie Madigan, chief executive of The Manufacturing Institute, which delivers the DTI's manufacturing advisory service (MAS) in the North West. Since 2002 'diet doctors' at MAS North West have helped regional manufacturers to go lean and power up their productivity by a total of GBP 173 million.

Among them, is Liverpool's Brainboxes company, an award winning computer technology firm, which is working with the MAS team to increase manufacturing speed and flexibility - creating nimble production systems that ensure the business responds rapidly to market demand for its cutting edge new products that are exported across the globe.

The company combines excellence in innovation (applying 30% of its expenditure to research and development) with lean manufacturing - to compete successfully against the low cost manufacturing economics of South East Asia.

According to chairman Eamonn Walsh: 'The only way forward for UK manufacturing businesses is to implement the correct lean manufacturing - removing the waste in current systems, streamlining processes and concentrating on creating value that customers will pay for.' Such attention to excellence has won Brainboxes many plaudits, including the 2005 European Electronics Industry Manufacturer of the Year Award.

But it is not just manufacturers which can benefit from lean thinking - many service sector organisations, such as the NHS, are pursuing a lean efficiency drive - adopting the techniques first pioneered by Toyota in Japan.

Added Dr Madigan: 'It is no accident that Toyota is forecast to become the world's top car maker.

There is not an ounce of fat within the company, which continually strives to eliminate waste and add customer value.' She said: 'Many local manufacturers have toned up their processes through embracing lean thinking, but fewer have gone all the way like Toyota to extend this good practice throughout the entire business and beyond through their supply chain.

Fewer still apply lean practice to their products, which can typically cut cost by up to 25%.' The MAS team, together with its associate partners, can help the UK's Merseyside manufacturing businesses to beat the bulge to create the nimble products and businesses that can take on the best and win.

Aggreko honored for efficiency

NEW IBERIA - The people who keep giant generators up and running for events like the Olympics or hurricane relief have been recognized for streamlining the work process at their New Iberia shop.

The national repair center of Aggreko, a company that provides rental power and temperature, received an award Monday from the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Louisiana.

In a ceremony attended by various local and state officials, Aggreko received MEPoL's second annual Platinum Award for Continued Excellence.

MEPoL is a statewide consulting program jointly funded by the federal government and the state, through the University of Louisiana, that provides assistance to manufacturers throughout the state.
Aggreko earned the award after going through MEPoL training on "lean manufacturing" - essentially streamlining the work process and shop layouts.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie, presented the award, saying MEPoL's work to help manufacturing companies is "key to continue to grow good and diversified jobs in the area."

Aggreko provides giant generators for a slew of events and emergency situations, from the Super Bowl and the Olympics to businesses in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Its national repair center is located in New Iberia and employs more than 120 people - the most of any one of Aggreko's 46 locations in North America.

Mitch Boudreaux, Aggreko's national repair manager, said the training helped the center to reorganize its shop and decrease its average turnaround time on repairs from 57 days to 39 days.

"A common vision, and communicating that common vision, is key to kicking off some of these changes," Boudreaux said.

The company was set to receive the award Aug. 30, the day after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Instead, the company and its employees were needed to provide power in the storm's aftermath.

Aggreko generators provided 9,000 hours of power to Tulane University after Katrina, helping to get the school ready to reopen this semester, said Corinne Dupuy, acting director of MEPoL. Many of the New Iberia center's employees spent weeks at a time in New Orleans maintaining those generators, Dupuy said.

State Sen. Craig Romero, R-New Iberia, and U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleon-ville, also attended the event.

"It's exciting for everybody here, especially the employees," Romero said.

Adopting 'lean' manufacturing brings in orders

Having adopted the latest 'lean' manufacturing methods, A historic UK railroad track forging and fabrication manufacturer has won new orders worth over GBP 300,000.

A historic North East UK manufacturer with links to the region's proud railway engineering past has embraced the latest business productivity techniques to win new orders worth over GBP 300,000. Henry Williams has been based in Dodsworth Street, Darlington, for 95 years, making track products, signalling and control equipment for the rail industry. To keep pace with changing industry needs, the Henry Williams Forgings and Fabrications Division has worked with the innovative North East Productivity Alliance (NEPA) to ingrain the latest lean manufacturing methods into its business - the same techniques employed by the hugely successful Japanese car industry.

Such has been the success of the month-long NEPA intervention at the Darlington plant, that the division has won two substantial new orders from its main customer National Railway Supplies - for stainless steel cases - as it is can now meet 100% of its delivery targets to this important customer.

Henry Williams' Electrical Projects Division fits the electrical and communications signalling equipment into the stainless steel cases.

The company's Forging and Fabrication Division also supplies products to the mining, oil and gas and highways sectors.

Its products also include signalling units for railways, galvanised steel and aluminium trackside signs, litter bins and emergency roadside telephone boxes.

NEPA seconded an engineer to run a 'health check' at the company, analysing its business processes, efficiency and suggesting productivity changes and savings which the firm has taken on board.

Stephen Jones, Henry Williams forge production engineering manager, said: 'Previously, we were only getting about 50% of our product out of the doors on time because of poor organisation.

Since NEPA introduced practical and simple processes to the company, on time delivery is now 100%.' The new processes were a great help in allowing the company to get the best out of investment in a new forging plant and CNC equipment.

Jones added: 'The ability to get more product out through the door has enabled us to win two valuable and significant new contracts for National Railway Supplies to produce hundreds of new line side cases.' Simon Dawes, fabrication production engineer, said: 'This new business is very important to us.

Our customers' business needs are changing and we have to change as well to ensure we remain competitive.' The Dodsworth Street factory employs about 100 people.

Mark Rutherford, One NorthEast head of Business Productivity, said: 'The NEPA team take real pride in their work and the ultimate reward is to see companies thrive after their intervention.

Henry Williams is a forward thinking company which has worked tirelessly to meet the changing demands of its customers to ensure it remains competitive.

These new orders prove that their willingness to embrace new thinking and productivity methods has paid off.'

TPM Excellence Award for Unilever

Staff correspondent

The Unilever Bangladesh Ltd factory at Kalurghat in the port city has got the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Excellence Award of Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM).

JIPM is a subsidiary of the Japan Management Association and promotes the efficiency techniques in manufacturing.

Sources at the Unilever Bangladesh said the JIPM confers the awards to the companies across the globe, which have made outstanding progress in implementing TPM to enhance plant efficiency.

Unilever's General Factory Manager Hasan Jafar Chowdhury and Employees Union President Shahidul Alam received the award on behalf of the company at the '2006 TPM Awards Presentation Ceremony' at Yokohama in Japan on February 15. The award was officially handed over to the Unilever Chairman and Managing Director Sanjib Mehta at a function on the factory premises on February 19.

Unilever's Supply Chain Manager Kamran Bakr, TPM Coordinator Inam Ahmed, Personnel Services Manager Md Shahabuddin and senior officials were present in the function.

Terming the TPM award a matter of pride for both the factory and the country, Mehta said the Unilever business in Bangladesh has grown by 15 percent annually, which is three times the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of the country.

"Our business has grown to Tk 1,000 crore now from Tk 400 crore in 1998 and this has been possible because of our mindset to achieve excellence in every facet of manufacturing and our unflinching motto to productivity, efficiency, quality, reliability and flexibility," Mehta added.

Kamran Bakr said Unilever always tries to ensure cent percent quality with affordable prices for its products and the company doesn't compromise in this regard.

'Breaking the rice ceiling'

Jenny Rode
The Enquirer

A color photo sits on Gary Convis' desk, showing the Battle Creek native surrounded by Japanese executives from Toyota.

He's the tallest in the group, and the only one smiling wide enough to show his teeth.

Why shouldn't he grin? He's among an elite group of executives leading the global car company's steady march to the top of the industry.

The math-major-turned-executive, 63, has been heralded a pioneer in Toyota Corp.

Getting there took years of hard work and long hours. His workaholic tendencies of rising before 6 a.m. to check e-mail and voice mail, and working some weekends, didn't hurt.

But it took something else ?being a good student in the Toyota school of thought ?for Convis to get where he is.

It's clear his studious ways paid off.

He made Toyota history, and a bit of automotive history, by "breaking the rice ceiling." In 2001, he became the first American president of a Toyota plant, a mammoth facility in Georgetown, Ky., that builds the Avalon and best-selling Camry, among other cars.

"It was a very proud moment for me," he said. "... It sent a resounding message to the thousands of other North American people that make Toyota successful that no longer would there be barriers preventing people like myself from moving up the ladder and taking over larger responsibilities. That was just a part of what happened. It was motivational, I believe, to the entire organization. That really made me proud ?to be kind of the leader."

He broke the rice ceiling again when he was named a managing officer for Toyota, one of only 39 employees worldwide to hold the post. Only three of the company's managing officers aren't Japanese.

Toyota doesn't have an external board of directors; instead, a group of executives at the company's highest levels manage the business.

"He got into the inner circle," University of Michigan professor Jeffrey Liker said of Convis. "It's very significant in the history of Toyota and in the history of lean manufacturing."

Liker has studied the Japanese auto industry for more than 20 years and is the author of "The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer."

"Penetrating the inner circle ?that's when Toyota leaders say, 'This guy is one of us, part of our culture. We trust him. He's part of the family,' " Liker added.

Convis often travels to Japan to meet with top brass about the company's North American operations. He loves all kinds of sushi but admits he doesn't speak Japanese well. At six-foot-four, mustached and with an athletic build, Convis easily stands out in Japan, "like a toothpick in a cake," he said. He can create a mild stir when he goes there.

Sometimes he'll meet Toyota employees who say, "I know you ?you're famous."

But talking about all this is done with restraint. Boasting or bragging would never happen. That's not how well- respected Toyota executives operate. They instead spend most of their time focusing on where they need to improve.

"In our culture, if you stop to observe and pat yourself on the back, somebody else will pass you by," Convis said of Toyota. "So we kind of live with a healthy sense of paranoia."

Toyota continues to gain market share over the Big Three, but according to Convis, the company's goals are not to be the biggest car company in the world or the most profitable.

"I think they want to be the most respected," he said. "It's an interesting part of our culture."

B.C. ROOTS
Convis developed a solid work ethic growing up in the Cereal City, where his family connections run deep. His ancestors were among the first to settle in the area in the 1830s.

He grew up in Verona with a brother and sister. His dad, Orville, was a Grand Trunk railroad man. His mother, Margaret, worked at Sears and for H & R Block. She also cut hair.

He played baseball in Bailey Park and basketball in the fieldhouse downtown. When he was 9, he and his brother had a paper route, getting up at 4:30 in the morning to deliver the Detroit Free Press.

"What was really neat was in the winter when you were walking the route, how quiet it was," he said. "Like you were the only people in the world. It was kind of a neat experience."

The other memorable part of the paper route? The doughnut shop at the end of the trail, where they'd reward themselves with a treat, Convis recalled.

After graduating from Battle Creek Central High School in 1960, he went to Michigan State University, earning a bachelor of science degree in mathematics while playing basketball and baseball.

Several times a year, he gets back to the Cereal City from his home in Lexington, Ky., where he lives with his wife, Deborah. His parents, brother and sister and their families still live in Battle Creek.

"I'm the maverick," Convis said. "I moved out to California."

STEPPING OFF A CLIFF
Being the maverick, it turns out, was a great move.

California became a turning point in Convis' career.

It was 1984 and he was being recruited from Ford for the general manager position at a California plant that was a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota.

The project was New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI, "and it was a big deal," Convis said, because it was Toyota's first big step outside of Japan.

Essentially, it was an experiment.

"There was no guarantee, no golden parachute. There was nothing," he said. "I was just steppin' off a cliff."

He thought about it, prayed about it, then took the job.

After accepting the offer, he was invited to a celebration with Toyota executives Tetsura Toyoda (who later became president of Toyota) and Kosuke Ikebuchi (who is now vice chairman of Toyota).

Overcome with emotion at having been offered the position, Convis had tears in his eyes as he met with his new bosses. He couldn't help himself.

"I reached down and hugged Mr. Ikebuchi ?actually lifted him up off the floor, with no thought to any of it," he said.

After getting Ikebuchi about a foot off the floor, Convis realized how inappropriate it was for him to do that. The Japanese aren't seen touching each other, particularly not in a business setting. They don't even shake hands ?they bow.

"So it's going across my mind subconsciously that maybe I'm doing something that's not socially proper," he said. "So I set him down and apologized and bowed, and we had a drink."

A social faux-pas? Yes.

A career-ender? No.

"I know that it didn't hurt," he said. "But at the time, I was really wondering."

BRIDGING THE GAP
As the years went by, Convis successfully bridged the gap between the American work force and the Japanese management style. He earned a reputation for his technical expertise and personable style with the workers on the line.

He always was approachable, said Richard Pearson, who worked for Convis at a Ford assembly plant in Lorain, Ohio, and who is now president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences in Ann Arbor.

"As all managers of a major production facility are, he was intense. He was firm and extremely fair," Pearson said. "He had a knack for listening ... and getting everyone to march to the same drummer. He just had a good way about him."

Convis, who relaxes by playing golf and riding a Harley Davidson, describes his management style as leading by example and not asking others to do what he wouldn't do himself.

"You respect people," he said. "You listen to them, you work together. You don't blame them. Maybe the process was not set up well, so it was easy to make a mistake."

Convis also has a dedication to the Toyota production system, knowing it well enough to solve problems and "sell" the solutions to the workers, who, by the way, must be appreciated and cared for, he said.

That's all done in the traditionally humble style of Japanese managers.

These days, Convis still oversees the Georgetown plant and its 7,000 employees. But he's also traveling to other Toyota plants and focusing more on long-term strategic planning.

But he won't give up one activity that dates back to his early days in the auto industry: walking the manufacturing floor.

He does it whenever he can.

"It's my favorite time of the day," he said. "It's where I grew up and that's where we add value. I like to say that the rest of us are all overhead. If I don't add value, there's no reason for me to be there."

Peggy Ferris, a conveyance manager in the Georgetown plant who has known Convis since he came to the plant in 2000, said he's a president who connects well with workers.

"To me, Gary is always teaching," she said. "He's a president that's very involved in the daily activities and projects. When he sees you're at a stumbling block, he offers support and follow-up, and then follow-up on that support to see if it's helped you," she said. "...He's out there on the floor and he's interested, and people respond to that."

She also appreciates his accessibility. "He's very, very busy, but you don't feel he's very, very busy because he makes time for you," she said. "That's very unique."

Convis said it's not about being a boss, but about being a facilitator and a coach. When he became a vice president at Toyota, his supervisor told him to manage as if he had no power.

"I thought about that and I thought 'My goodness ?what an amazing approach.' And I thought at the time, would a North American executive in a similar type of business ever say that to a newly promoted person? Never. So I've never forgotten that."


For the Enquirer
Gary Convis, center, is considered a pioneer in Toyota Corp. The Battle Creek native has turned heads in the auto industry by becoming an executive at the Japanese automaker


The Convis file

NAME Gary Convis

BATTLE CREEK TIES: Grew up in Verona; graduated from Battle Creek
Central High School in 1960; son of Orville and Margaret Convis of Battle
Creek.

CAREER: Worked at General Motors and Ford Motor Co. for more than 20
years. Joined New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. in 1984, rising to executive
vice president in 1997. Joined Toyota's Georgetown, Ky., plant in 2000 and
became the first American president of a Toyota plant in 2001. Became a managing
officer of the company in 2003.

PERSONAL: Resides in Lexington, Ky., with his wife, Deborah; has five
children and two grandchildren

Letterkenny wins top manufacturing award

By JIM HOOK
Senior writer

CHAMBERSBURG ?Letterkenny Army Depot employees will be honored Tuesday for winning one of the world's top awards in manufacturing.

The depot in October received the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing in the public sector from the Utah State University.

Business Week has called the Shingo Prize "the Nobel prize of manufacturing."

Ross E. Robson, executive director of the Shingo Prize at Utah State, will make remarks at the ceremony, along with U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg; Lt. Gen. William Mortensen, deputy commanding general of U.S. Army Materiel Command; and Maj. Gen. James Pillsbury, commanding general of U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command.
Letterkenny will be honored for "demonstrated achievement in implementing lean systems in support of the maintenance, repair and overhaul of equipment for the U.S. Warfighter."

The competition singles out organizations that practice "lean manufacturing," a work style emphasizing efficiency.

Letterkenny employs about 2,800 people and is the largest employer in Franklin County. Workers overhaul Patriot missile systems and maintain Humvees, biological detection systems, soldier support systems and power generators.

Established in 1988, the Shingo Prize for excellence recognizes companies that excel in productivity, quality, improved processes and customer satisfaction. Companies strive to eliminate waste and defects while improving products and lowering costs and inventories.

The prize is named for Shigeo Shingo, an engineering genius who created with Taiichi Ohno many of the just-in-time manufacturing methods in the Toyota production system.

Amano keeps ticking

LOVELAND - In airports and office buildings from Hawaii to Kuwait you'll find Amano Cincinnati Inc. parking systems, time and attendance systems and building-access systems.

The Loveland manufacturing facility - a subsidiary of Amano Corp. in Japan - nearly doubled its space recently to 90,000 square feet to accommodate a consolidation with its Anaheim, Calif., plant.

But physical growth isn't all the expansion will accommodate. The expansion will also help Amano Cincinnati's business growth. "Revenue has grown significantly over the past few years ... an average of 20 percent annually," said Kash Gokli, Amano Cincinnati's vice president of manufacturing.

Amano is the largest manufacturer of its kind, according to Henry Allen, president of Carolina Time Equipment Co. in Charlotte, N.C.

Allen stocks and distributes parking systems, time and attendance systems (more commonly known as time clocks) and building-access systems for a variety of manufacturers worldwide.

"I started representing Amano when it was Cincinnati Time Recorder," Allen said.

"They make a great product, and they're very competitive, and they manufacture their products over here to try to create a few jobs rather than send them all overseas."

Amano Corp. Japan bought Cincinnati Time Recorder, which was founded in 1896, in 1991.

The corporation kept Cincinnati in the U.S. facility's name because of Cincinnati Time Recorder's "recognition in the industry," Gokli said.

Amano Cincinnati Inc. is the U.S. manufacturing operation for its parent company, Amano Corp. in Japan, whose corporate offices for U.S. operations are in Roseland, N.J.

Amano Corp. Japan is a $700 million company, and Amano Cincinnati is a $50 million company.

Sixty percent of component parts used in Amano Cincinnati Inc. manufacturing are made in the U.S.

Amano Cincinnati makes about 100,000 time clocks, of 10 varieties, a year and about 8,000 to 10,000 parking systems, also of 10 varieties, a year. Amano sells its products to retailers or to dealers, who in turn sell the products to the end user.

Before the plant consolidation, Amano time clocks were manufactured in Anaheim.

Gokli said the consolidation brings with it the challenge of incorporating the "high-dollar, low-volume" parking system operation with the "low-dollar, high-volume" time-clock operation. The objective, he said, is to not duplicate services and to use manufacturing equipment to its full capacity.

Before the consolidation, Amano Cincinnati had already achieved this goal through a number of lean manufacturing programs, including those directed by Jon Lehn, business development manager for TechSolve. The Bond Hill-based center helps companies improve their profits by improving their processes - "by eliminating waste in the workplace," Lehn said.

Amano's lean manufacturing is so impressive, Lehn said, that he takes other client companies on tour there.

The lean manufacturing business philosophy - which focuses on eliminating waste, not people, in the workplace - has taken off in recent years due to events such as the 9/11 attacks and global competition, Lehn said.

"Fifteen years ago, everybody was happy - everybody was fat and fed ... but a lot of business is going overseas," Lehn said. "We have to lower our costs by eliminating anything the customer is not willing to pay for."

At Amano Cincinnati Inc., waste is a four-letter word.

Cleanliness and organization and a lot of "visual management" are evident in the plant, and if even one ticket isn't read properly during a parking system machine test, the entire unit goes back for evaluation.

Outside the lunchroom is a chart reminding workers and management of "8 Common Wastes" - overproduction being one.

"Making more than what is needed today is waste because it is not needed now, and it could be obsolete in a month," Gokli explained.

Amano's philosophy translates into its products.

The company's latest parking system software tracks inefficiencies and theft, produces reports for improvements and is increasing revenues for its users.

According to Amano Cincinnati's human resources manager Paul Kattleman, who has worked for years in Greater Cincinnati city and county government, environment and work ethic have a lot to do with the success of a company.

"Our people know the value of working together, working hard and coming to work every day," he said. "And it shows in our products."


Santiago Colon of Sharonville assembles time clocks at Amano Cincinnati Inc. in Loveland. The company has nearly doubled its space to accommodate a consolidation with its Anaheim, Calif., plant

About Amano

Founded: Started in 1896, formerly known as Cincinnati Time Recorder, bought in 1991 by Amano Corp. Japan.

Number of employees: 90

Service area: Worldwide

Interesting fact: Amano Cincinnati Inc. was a 2004 winner of the Ohio Partnership for Excellence award.

Teams of trained examiners review applicants' 50-page paper answering questions on leadership, strategic planning and other criteria and also make site visits before determining winners, said Casey Mackert, executive director.

The Kent organization - now in its 8th year - reviews about 35 applicants a year for the awards.

Continuous Improvement -- Taking A Big-Picture Approach To Lean

Continuous Improvement -- Taking A Big-Picture Approach To Lean
Shipbuilder Northrop Grumman Newport News could serve as a model for U.S. automakers of how far-reaching lean should be.

By Jonathan Katz

Feb. 14, 2006 -- U.S. automakers have known for years the value of lean manufacturing. As pointed out in this month's issue of IndustryWeek ("Learning From Toyota -- Again"), lean has been in place at U.S. auto manufacturing plants since the mid-1980s. Unfortunately, the plant floor is where lean usually begins and ends for U.S. auto manufacturers.

Until Detroit's Big Two implement lean as part of their companywide cultures, they'll never realize lean manufacturing's full benefits, if any. And once implemented, lean must flow smoothly from the decision-makers at the top down to the engineers and the shop floor. That means ensuring every division throughout the company is practicing lean together.

Getting to this point will require some humility on the part of U.S. automakers. They'll need to open themselves to practices that have made their biggest competitors successful. Perhaps U.S. automakers should take note of how Northrop Grumman Newport News, the Navy's only supplier of aircraft carriers, implemented lean. I first learned about the company's lean practices at the 2005 Association for Manufacturing Excellence Conference in Boston last November. Matthew Needy, the company's director of Process Excellence Strategy, talked to a standing-room-only crowd in a hotel conference room about how the Newport News, Va.-based division of $30.7 billion Northrop Grumman Corp. made lean part of its enterprise-wide value stream.

Like the auto industry, the company initially practiced lean only at the operations level. Needy told me in a recent follow-up phone conversation that in the late 1990s after attending conferences and seeing it work at other companies, management realized lean could be extended to all 19,000 employees.

They responded by deploying lean to other segments, but each division was practicing its own version of the process. The result was what Needy refers to as "fragmented lean." Without a seamless flow of information, lean operations in one area actually could hurt production in another division because everybody had a unique approach to creating improvements. For example, the company risked losing critical information used in the manufacturing process because it might have been "leaned out" in the engineering process, Needy relates.

To get everyone on the same page, the company named a vice president of process excellence in November of 2004 and gathered its top 25 senior managers to form a companywide lean strategy and deployment plan. "One of the things we recognized is that for process excellence to be successful, it had to be owned by the organization, not an individual division," Needy told me.

Hopefully Needy's words will resonate with U.S. automakers because they've taken too long to realize that a piecemeal approach to lean doesn't work. If not, recent restructuring plans announced by Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. won't be enough to remain competitive. And part of the auto industry's success with lean will hinge on a stronger customer focus.

In "Learning From Toyota -- Again" it's noted that most lean events by U.S. automakers have been centered on the plant floor and production efficiency rather than customer value. Northrop Grumman Newport News geared its lean value stream toward meeting customer commitments rather than strictly using it as a means to improve production. The company is constantly measuring its progress on customer contracts by using scorecards that help managers determine how close or how far they are to meeting customer agreements. Through this process, the company has saved on materials, stock time and labor. This includes a 58% materials savings in the torch repair cell, a 61% reduction of touch time in the shipyard and a 5.8-day reduction in dock-to-stock time. In his address to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., last March, Northrop Grumman Newport News President C. Michael Petters said the company keeps customers apprised of every step in the manufacturing process so they understand why certain decisions are being made.

To this end, U.S. automakers need to make customer value a central part of their lean efforts and bring those products to market faster because they're already playing catch-up on hybrid technology.

Packaging company in midst of $32 million upgrade

Bell: New building will include $6 million press machine

By Kelly Hidebrandt
khildebra@argusleader.com

February 16, 2006, 2:55 am

Bell Inc. printed 73,000 miles of paper in 2005 - enough to go around the world almost three times.

Formerly Bell Paper Box, the company produces packages for several Fortune 500 companies.

DHL and UPS envelopes, GE light bulb packages and McDonald's french fry boxes are just a few examples of items flying through the company's presses on any given day.

Bell also is the largest producer of express courier envelopes in the world with a production rate of about a million a day, said Ben Graham, vice president of sales and marketing.

The company is in the middle of a four-year, $32 million expansion project with the aim of almost doubling its business within three years.

That's a lofty goal.

Located at 1411 D Ave., the company recently bought another building down the street at 609 W. Algonquin St., just south of the Sioux Falls Regional Airport.

The packaging company isn't the largest of its kind, but it's moving up the ladder with an eye toward food manufacturing giants such as ConAgra Foods Inc. and General Mills. Food manufacturing is a good fit for the business, which in the heart of the Midwest is within 500 miles of many potential clients.

Within the next year, Bell will add about 25 new jobs, and during the next three years, a total of 105 should move into the company's two buildings. To reach that goal, Graham said they hope to add one to two clients a year.

Workers spent the past month preparing the new building for production.

"We took it down to the ground and up to the ceiling," Graham said of the renovation. "Everything in this building is new."

In 2007, the company's headquarters will move to the new building and the existing facility will be used for manufacturing and warehouse space.

Inside is a new $6 million Variable Sleeve Offset Press with room to add three more in coming years.

"This is kind of the cornerstone of our expansion," Graham said. "It's the first one of its kind in North America."

Not only is the press digital, it also has better printing technology that fits well for food packaging, he said.

Not many people know of the company that's hidden among the barracks buildings in the city's first industrial park that originally was part of the U.S. Army Air Corp.'s training base during World War II.

"It's an interesting company because not many people pay attention to what's going on out there," said Dan Scott, president of Sioux Falls Development Foundation. "The reality is we have one of the premier paper box companies in the world."

The company focuses on working closely with a relatively small number of larger companies, such as GE, instead of servicing a large large of small clients.

What's allowed the company to expand are lean manufacturing concepts that improved efficiencies in operation. The new building, built by Jordan Millwork Co., is a long slim building that was made for lean manufacturing.

Lean manufacturing puts production in linear fashion to cut down on time spent moving the product from one area to the next.

"Paper comes in one end and the finished product goes out the other," Graham said.

Since 2004, Bell Inc. has been working with Dakota Manufacturing Extension Partnership Inc. to improve efficiencies. It's part of a national group working to grow manufacturing nationwide.

The process includes identifying what adds value to the company and getting rid of wasteful activity, said Randy Schwartz, director of the program.

"Another thing that's really important in lean manufacturing is to make better utilization of their most valuable asset, which is their people," Schwartz said.

Bell is the type of company the partnership wants to work with because it's not just looking to cut costs, but it wants to become more efficient to grow the business, Schwartz said.

Reach Kelly Hildebrandt at 331-2322.

Redefining the Media Value Chain

By Andy Chen
February 15, 2006

The academic definition of a value chain is a high-level model of how businesses receive raw materials as input, add value to it through various processes, then sell finished products to customers.

The value chain is perhaps most visible in manufacturing, where physical products are produced. But the idea is equally important in service industries, where time, knowledge, equipment, and systems are used to create value for end users. Although we rarely hear the term used in reference to media, a value chain is heavily exercised by management consultants specializing in operations, supply chain, six sigma, and many other business disciplines.

Media, like all businesses, can be broken down and explained with a value-chain model. It involves publishers, content, audiences, and, of course, media planners and brand marketers.

With increasing demand and adoption of behavioral targeting, a more modern, relevant way of defining and delivering value has emerged in media. It's redefining the value chain that's largely in sync with the macro trend of consumer-centric communications.

New Raw Material or New Process?

Whether focused on the masses or on a niche, the media value chain is based on publishers' ability to generate and develop content in the hopes of attracting an audience. Content has always been the raw material that's ultimately "processed" to create value for media planners and buyers.

Processing content typically involves segmenting the attracted audience and providing the ability to target that audience. Historically, this segmentation was primarily limited to editorial adjacency, as the content associated with editorial is further processed and monetized with attached demographic proxies, such as gender, age, and income.

Media planners and buyers flock to these advertising windows adjacent to editorial, largely in hope of reaching the client-desired audience the content has attracted. With behavioral targeting, however, the content is further processed with an alternative way (and arguable more accurate methodology) to produce media value.

Content is and will always be, the primary driver of audience aggregation. In this sense, behavioral targeting provides a new way to process the raw material in the value chain.

Delivering the Value

Effectiveness and efficiency are the founding pillars of media value.

As media professionals, our responsibility is to provide sound strategies to deliver media effectiveness. Effectiveness can be elusive. Since the assessment is based on initial input and assumed parameters, a campaign is only as effective as the expectations and metrics established up front. These vary from case to case.

Although campaign effectiveness is variably defined, finding the delicate balance between cost and service value is inherently given in the scope of media planning. This is often referred to as efficiency. In a world in which consumers are becoming increasingly elusive due to multimedia consumption and the Internet-empowered accessibility to content, behavior has been established as a much more accurate proxy for intent than demographics are.

In this sense, behavioral targeting doesn't only represent a new processing methodology in the value chain but also delivers value and a promising alternative that will benefit both the publishers and advertiser in the constant struggle between inventory and availability, and aggregation and audience distribution.

What This Means for Online Media

Certain types of content attract specific types of customers. Publishers use content to create clusters or segments, then apply some kind of viewership measuring unit, such as circulation distribution, impressions, unique audience universe, or any other identifiable, quantifiable proxies, to add value to the content. This is eventually monetized and sold to marketers who purchase these "processed" goods.

Whether behavior can be traded as a commodity doesn't have immediate impact in the media value chain, but how it can help media planners minimize waste and achieve more efficiency and effectiveness to reach the target audience is certainly worthy of consideration.

To publishers, behavioral targeting means an additional way to quantify, monetize, and augment the available audience inventory. For media planners, it represents a new way to deliver value to clients.

In the former online media world of low-cost run of site or network, and premium editorial adjacency, behavioral targeting has introduced a new way to process content and to produce media value for clients.

There's no guarantee behavioral targeting will increase marketing values, and it's no panacea for weak online campaigns. What it does bring is a new element and perspective to a predefined, antiquated planning model that historically focused on demographics.

For an industry that thrives on innovation and new perspectives such as online media, this means the mere availability of behavioral targeting has already redefined the media value chain.

GE Healthcare Deploys LogicTools' Network Design....

GE Healthcare Deploys LogicTools' Network Design to Evaluate Supply Chain Strategies; LogicNet Plus delivers unrivaled ease of use and performance in supply chain optimization

GE Healthcare Deploys LogicTools' Network Design to Evaluate Supply Chain Strategies; LogicNet Plus delivers unrivaled ease of use and performance in supply chain optimization

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 2006--LogicTools, a leading developer of supply chain planning solutions, announced today that GE Healthcare, a $15 billion unit of General Electric has deployed LogicNet Plus, its market leading network design solution.

"GE Healthcare is looking to reduce logistics costs while improving service to its customers," says Sharan Singanamala, Global Architecture Program Manager at GE Healthcare. "Through the use of supply chain optimization to analyze our distribution networks we believe we can become more efficient while providing the same if not better service levels. We selected LogicTools' solution since it is the best in the market in terms of ease of use and solver performance."

Using LogicTools solutions, companies like GE Healthcare, with significant international manufacturing interests can reduce costs by better understanding their supply chain structure and the drivers and trade offs that impact their costs. The ability to understand the drivers behind supply chain costs allows companies to fix problems in the supply chain that may not be apparent through analysis of local operations. One typical example is the ability to quantify the impact of changing order frequencies or transportation modes.

"With the expansion of global manufacturing and off shoring initiatives, leading manufacturers now have three major initiatives - six sigma for reducing variability, lean manufacturing for reducing inventory and network planning to ensure that end to end supply chain requirements are optimized," said David Simchi-Levi, CEO of LogicTools. "As a leader in the first two methodologies it is not surprising to me that GE Healthcare is using our solutions to advance the third initiative."

LogicTools provides solutions that optimize the supply chain by considering the entire network, taking into account production, warehousing, transportation and inventory costs, as well as service level requirements. The LogicTools suite includes LogicNet Plus(R) for network design, Inventory Analyst(TM) for strategic inventory positioning and optimization and LogicChain(R) for multi-site production sourcing.

Single piece flow

Magazine Article, Source : The Manufacturer US
Zone : Manufacturing operations
Published : 08 Feb 2006 18:13

The transition from batch and queue to lean manufacturing involves converting to single piece flow, but it’s not an easy thing to do. Rich Weissman looks at the issues impacting the change

G oing lean is all about transformation. Management and employees must change the way they have been doing things for many years and embrace new and uncertain process changes. Suppliers must also adapt to new business practices and the changing requirements of their customers. The benefits of lean–waste reduction leading to increased levels of operational performance, improved quality and customer service, and better financial performance–are well documented, but there can be considerable stress on the organization making the change.

One of these stresses can be found on the shop floor as manufacturing begins the transition from batch and queue manufacturing to single, or one-piece flow. In traditional manufacturing, specific operations were done in batches by departments that specialized in individual manufacturing tasks like machining, welding, assembly, and test. Through the integration of lean induced cellular manufacturing processes, cross-trained employees produce just the amount of completed products that are required by other internal operations or the end customer. By eliminating complex set-ups, buffer stock, and large batches, lean companies are able to reduce lead times, increase flexibility, reduce inventories, and improve product quality.
One-piece flow has additional benefits, including the simplification of scheduling, a reduction in manufacturing space, and the associated reduction in buffer stock and redeployment of equipment. Transport, storage and queues are reduced, as is the propensity for overproduction. Employees are typically more productive and their skills more easily transferred. An increased amount of employee involvement is critical to the one-piece flow process.

As with the concepts of just-in-time manufacturing and zero inventories, one piece flow may be the goal but not necessarily the reality. However, companies can achieve some level of lean advantage with reduced lot sizes, and many are moving in that direction. Most important is to reduce work in process and evolve from a push system driven by forecast to a pull system driven by customer need. It can be a long road and many companies fall short for a variety of reasons.

In a workplace indoctrinated in the batch processing model, that mindset is the hardest thing to change. “Change management on the shop floor is a big deal,” says Mark Brownhill, product manager for productivity solutions for Charlottesville, VA, based GE Fanuc, the worldwide productivity and automation solutions provider. “Manufacturing companies were taught that cycle time and fixturing were the most important elements in manufacturing and batch processing was just the normal way to manufacture in order to justify those two elements.”

Brownhill feels that larger companies with ingrained infrastructure are at the biggest disadvantage when it comes to realigning manufacturing operations for single piece flow. “Large companies often operate in the mindset that cycle time is everything and set-up is nothing,” says Brownhill. “It is just how they calculate their manufacturing efficiencies.” Brownhill sees that in single piece flow the first pass yield is extremely important, while in batch processing first piece yield problems are just lumped in with the set-up. “Changing that mindset can be a big hurdle.

“The need for customer requested cost savings may push more large manufacturers toward the efficiencies gained from single flow production,” says Brownhill. He sees that once companies begin to document efficiencies and gather efficiency data, the opportunity to generate cost savings will force companies to go to smaller lot sizes, with its increased focus on shorter set-up times and reduced batch processing. “There is a need to get more data driven on the shop floor, rather than operating from gut feel,” says Brownhill. “We also have to work to change the mindset of the engineers who support the shop floor. They often have a batch mentality.”

Among those who have benefited from single flow processing is jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, having recently introduced lean manufacturing into its turbine module center in East Hartford, CT. It made a transition in the manufacture of turbine blades from batch processing to cellular manufacturing, which had a significant impact on reducing work in process inventory of expensive alloys. It also had an unexpected effect on its equipment suppliers.

“When Pratt & Whitney went to cellular manufacturing we saw an increase in the orders for our shot peening equipment,” says Bill Barker, sales engineer for Grand Rapids, MI based Progressive Technologies, Inc., a designer and builder of custom automated process machinery such as grit blasting and shot peening for aerospace, automotive, and general industry applications. “We had a hard time under-standing why they would buy three or four machines when one was always adequate to do the work.” PTI did need to modify its equipment to meet special ergonomic needs and single piece flow of material requirements. “We worked together to redesign the way our machines were used and operated.”

In the case of Pratt & Whitney, the transition to single piece flow was all about cost. The high cost of the super-alloy material is the major cost component in the manufacture of turbine blades. The cost of the capital equipment, in contrast, was not as significant. By working with capital equipment suppliers such as PTI, Pratt & Whitney was able to reduce raw material costs and improve product throughput. Adds Baker: “Lean is finding its way into our factory also. We used to build our equipment in batches, but with customization like we did for Pratt & Whitney we need to work with smaller lot sizes.”

Integrated testing is an important part of cellular manufacturing, and single piece test flow should not be overlooked when reducing lot sizes. “Test has a batch size just like any production process, but usually it is underestimated,” says Marlin Shelley, president of Salt Lake City, UT based Cirris Systems, a manufacturer of test equipment for the cable and harness manufacturing industry. “If defects do not occur, test batch size is irrelevant, but if defects occur often, test batch size reduction is a critical part of being lean.” Shelley adds that if problems are immediately solved as they occur, the test batch size can be as small as a single piece. But, when parts are batched and tested in later processes, the cumulative batch size grows to include all products not tested, all in- process manufacturing, as well as future batches that will be processed until the error is found.
Shelley feels that well trained and motivated employees are necessary when making the transition from batch processing, and encourages significant training as well as an increase of workforce responsibility to identify defects, determine root cause problems, and collaboratively share problems and solutions. But there can be unanticipated issues. “We were working to set up inline testing equipment with one of our aerospace clients that had a union,” said Shelley. “The trouble was that assembly operators in the work cell were of a different employee classification than those who did the testing. Those building the products could not test them in the work cell due to union rules.” Shelley said that the union did ultimately reclassify the employees so they could do in process testing, but this kind of issue is all too common in the transition of moving towards lean.

The cable and harness manufacturing environment can be at odds with single flow manufacturing, however. While some products, such as complex wire harnesses that are built on harness boards, and are by definition single piece flow, some of the other manufactured products include naturally automated manufacturing processes such as molding and wire preparation. “Sometimes automation may get in the way of lean, especially when it comes to necessary equipment like automated cut, strip, and terminate machines,” says Shelley. He adds that in the industry Cirris services, the key may not be in one–piece flow for all products, but in reducing lot sizes in general. Small companies may have a greater advantage in transitioning to small batch sizes and ultimately single piece flow. “We work with our client companies on changing their long term thinking,” says Sean Jordan, a professional manufacturing advisor with the Randolph Center, VT based Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC). “Some companies feel that they save money in producing larger lots, but they need to focus on long term cost savings and that lends itself to more of a single piece flow process.”

Ultimately, in a global manufacturing environment, those companies that do not embrace lean initiatives like single flow manufacturing may place jobs at risk. “Many speak to how employees resist changing the manufacturing environment, but I don’t see it,” says Paul Demers, a VMEC senior professional manufacturing advisor and colleague of Jordan. “We’ve had a 25 percent reduction of manufacturing jobs in Vermont and our employees are ready to do whatever they can to keep their jobs.”

Excerpts From "The Toyota Way"

14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006
By

1. Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals.

2. Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.

3. Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction.

4. Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like the tortoise, not the hare.)

5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.

6. Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.

7. Use visual control so that no problems are hidden.

8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes.

9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy and teach it to others.

10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophies.

11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them to improve.

12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu).

13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly.

14. Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen).

TPS' Guiding Principles

Wednesday, February 01, 2006
By John Teresko

Look at TPS first as a culture and as an enterprise process where the importance of long-term optimization goals transcend individual events along the way, says F. Norman Bafunno, senior vp/manufacturing planning and production, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana Inc. TPS succeeds when managements build an enterprise culture capable of stopping to fix problems to get quality right the first time, Bafunno says. "Empowering production associates is the key to TPS success."

The apocryphal beginnings of TPS usually allude to a 1950s exposure of Toyota's Taichi Ohno to an American supermarket experience. The result: the demand-pull basis that guides TPS via a just-in-time philosophy. Routine carrying of inventory came to be known as a form of muda (waste). The voice of the customer (in terms of demand) becomes the determining factor of TPS.

With kaizen, the concept of continuous improvement, Ohno gave TPS a self-perpetuating power to move beyond the status quo temptations of conventional management.

Although the name TPS suggests that Ohno's system is no more than a set of production floor tools for car making, the concept is broader. The full potential of TPS is as an operational solution ready to remake entire organizations -- both at the process and management levels.

To begin the TPS journey, consider the guiding principles of operational excellence that Jeffrey K. Liker cites in "The Toyota Way." Then proceed to use operational excellence as a strategic weapon for any organization. Liker, a professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan, examines the broad cultural principles at work in TPS.

Learning From Toyota -- Again

While U.S. manufacturers in many sectors have used practices from the Toyota Production System (TPS) to boost performance substantially since the mid-'80s, they have used it improperly, experts say. Instead of embracing TPS as an overarching philosophy, they have used it piecemeal as a toolbox. These companies' leaders must revive their strategies to mimic Toyota's in order to compete, which means reversing the popular notion that lean and other TPS-derived concepts are tools to be used selectively to achieve departmental milestones.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006
By John Teresko

Two questions:
1) How does Japan's leading automaker keep getting better?
2) What keeps competitors from emulating that performance?

One answer: The Toyota Production System (TPS). While Toyota carefully describes its fabled system as an operating philosophy for guiding the management of an entire enterprise, would-be followers typically think of TPS as a departmental solution that affects only the plant floor, suggests Stanford University professor Jim Matheson (also chairman, SmartOrg Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.). "Instead of also using TPS to optimize the strategic direction and management of an enterprise, many of the would-be emulators seem to have little strategy beyond the plant floor."

This, some would say, is why Toyota's North American auto division continues to gain market share, rake in profits, build new plants, have harmonious supplier relations and retain an enthusiastic workforce with relatively lower labor costs while General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. continue on a downward financial spiral despite their use of TPS-derived practices at many plants.

The question is a critical one for U.S. manufacturing. The auto industry is the latest stalwart U.S. manufacturing sector in the past two decades to begin a tumultuous rebirth. Some industries that have undergone similar trials have come out stronger here, such as steel. Others, such as textiles, have not and have moved mostly overseas. Toyota's success in North America should be keeping U.S. manufacturing executives up at night. Not only has the company weathered a tenacious economic slog, but it appears to be the fastest runner in the race.

This year Toyota's newest facility begins operations at San Antonio, Texas. Assembly plant No. 7 has been announced for Ontario, and rumor has it that more are coming, observes David Cole, chairman, Center for Automotive Research, Ann Arbor, Mich. Cole speculates that Arkansas and Michigan may be possible sites for the future.

Meanwhile, expansions are underway at Toyota's Alabama and West Virginia engine plants, and hybrid vehicles are being added to the production mix at Georgetown, Ky., the company's first U.S. plant. Vehicle production in 2004 totaled 1,443,889 with suppliers receiving about $25 billion.

Watershed Event, Lopsided Response

Analysts unanimously describe Toyota's arrival in North America with TPS as a watershed in manufacturing -- one that will supercede the advances spawned by Henry Ford's evolution of mass production. (Interestingly, both mass production and TPS originated with companies where descendants of the founders maintain control.)

Toyota's manufacturing effectiveness was cited by last year's Harbour Report (Harbour Consulting, Ann Arbor, Mich.). Compared with the Big Three, Toyota was described as the most productive measured in terms of the hours required for vehicle assembly. Toyota's per-vehicle time: 27.9 hours compared with Ford and Chrysler at 37 and 35.9 hours respectively. The percentage decrease (2003 versus 2004) came to 5.5% for Toyota, 4.2% for Ford and Chrysler and 2.5% at General Motors.

These figures possibly reflect that the Toyota epoch in the U.S. began with a somewhat lopsided copying of TPS. Many U.S. followers preferred to think that emulating Toyota's production floor tools was enough, notes Jeffrey K. Liker, professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. Stories of production floor revolutions far outnumbered revolutions reported in senior management thinking about customer value. Production efficiency seemed to be all that they sought. And that worked -- to a point.

Analysts report that GM's quality and manufacturing efficiency has risen since its NUMMI joint venture started. (See "Partnership Pays Off") as evidenced by GM's latest wins in the J.D. Powers product quality ratings. Some questions remain to be answered, however: First, how much have GM and other U.S.-based manufacturers learned (or failed to learn) about the management strategy implications of TPS? Also, will TPS become as renown for enterprise-wide implications at U.S. manufacturers as it has for revolutionary and unprecedented attention to factory floor efficiency and quality?

The answer to the latter is that it won't happen unless manufacturers rethink and expand their disjointed use of TPS.

"Why is it that the TPS tools of lean, agile, TQM, TPM, re-engineering, just-in-time, cellular/continuous workflow and so on -- never seem to really pay off big [aside from Toyota]?" asks Michael Paris, president of Hinsdale, Ill.-based Paris:Consulting. His response: "Unless TPS is everywhere in an organization, it is nowhere. Too often managers pushing for performance improvements have a limited vision and scope. They fail to approach the executive team that has responsibility for the entire enterprise and authority over it."

Paris suggests that an enterprise philosophy is obligatory to gain competitive benefits from TPS or lean manufacturing:


First, planning must be thorough. The quest may start with managing production inventories, but it should extend to the factory walls and far beyond. Indeed the goals and objectives of each functional group within the enterprise must be aligned with all the others if progress is to be made.
Also, managements must understand that the change touches every aspect of the enterprise. There should be no units with their own metrics, agendas and turf. Every business unit is a line unit and must behave and be measured that way -- period.
Toyota likes to say that TPS is at the heart of everything that it does as an enterprise, says Matheson. "Another way to understand Toyota's system is to look at it as being value-based -- -being driven by the need to continuously deliver more value to the customer. In contrast many of the new users of TPS tools tend to ignore that issue. The short-sighted tendency is to focus on little more than a cost-based strategy."

Matheson is not against controlling costs, but he maintains that cost management must effectively co-exist with corporate strategies promoting and growing quality and customer value. "By itself, cost reduction is not a strategy unless you want to commoditize or go out of business."

Matheson says it is important to make a distinction between managing the manufacturing process and managing the company that does manufacturing.

Success With Suppliers

One area where U.S.-based companies and Toyota have diverged is supplier relations. While certainly there are some shining examples of supplier relations among "lean" manufacturers other than Toyota, these have been overshadowed by across-the-board mandates at large OEMs that push pressure for cost-cutting disproportionately onto suppliers' shoulders. This move to make their companies more competitive has actually made them less so. Toyota's dominance proves this.

"The process needs low cost and quality, and Toyota is a role model example of how to use cost and quality to get on the playing field," Matheson says.

Armed with cost and quality control at the process level, Toyota can concentrate on a value-based enterprise product strategy focused on customer value. Losers are those competitors with little more than a cost-cutting strategy. These are the companies that tend to harass suppliers with cost-cutting demands.

"Instead of building and maintaining collaborative supplier strategies, Toyota's U.S. competitors seem to be on a different, riskier path," notes Matheson. "The danger is that innovation suffers when supplier relationships hinge only on cost-cutting demand. Toyota recognizes that fulfilling the enterprise potential of TPS requires a substantial cultural shift toward collaboration and continuous improvement, both internally and externally. The changes have to permeate senior management thinking."

For instance, Toyota's $800 million facility in Texas will assemble the full-sized Tundra. Supplier proximity was a concern that was solved by incorporating an on-site supplier park that will accommodate 21 suppliers.

Despite this closeness, Toyota diverges from its competitors on make-versus-buy decisions. The company is not as interested in outsourcing as some of its American and European competitors, says Ron Harbour of Harbour Consulting. He's referring to such examples as Chrysler's construction of a Toledo, Ohio, plant where three suppliers contribute to the assembly process of the Jeep Wrangler. A more extreme example is a Brazilian auto plant where VW locates suppliers for the purpose of assembling vehicles.

Overall, Harbour says today's vertical integration at Toyota would have been typical of the practice at GM 30 years ago. But at the same time Toyota has demonstrated a commitment to strengthening its suppliers. While suppliers Visteon and Delphi were separated from Ford and GM (See "In Search Of New Outlets"), Toyota continues its commitment of close collaboration with suppliers, including increasing its equity position in suppliers such as Denso.

Toyota's supplier collaboration targets value in both vehicle pre-launch and post-launch situations, says Erlanger, Ky.-based Jamie Bonini, general manager, supplier commodity engineering for Toyota. He says pre-production collaboration -- two to three years before the launch of a vehicle -- centers on identifying and solving potential problems to the mutual benefit of both parties.

"A typical challenge can be the packaging of a new part. The considerations include how the packaging interfaces with the supplier's process, product shipment and finally with how the part moves into production at a Toyota plant. While packaging design is conceptually simple, each contact point can pose multiple challenges of productivity and cost."

Bonini says collaboration is critical "because everyone touching the package has different -- sometimes conflicting -- concerns that must be accommodated." For example, at the end of the supplier's production line can the parts be quickly and easily loaded into the packaging? Then in shipment the cost desirability of high density packaging must be weighed against the risk of vibration damage in transit to a Toyota plant. With supplier collaboration Bonini says the packaging of a purchased part can produce winning results in every venue -- not only on Toyota's assembly lines.

Supplier collaboration also provides substantial value in post-launch scenarios, even if the defect rate of delivered parts is very low, Bonini says. The focus is on making it easier (and less costly) for the supplier to maintain and even improve that low defect rate for delivered parts. "I've worked on instances where we were able to reduce the supplier's internal scrap rate for a valued supplier from 20% to less than 2%." He says such efforts strengthen a supplier and encourage future win-wins. "There's more value to be gained by collaborating with a supplier than by merely harassing them on cost."

Keeping R&D Close To Production

Locating R&D facilities in North America also plays into maintaining and strengthening the supplier relationships. The recent addition of the Calty Design Research Studio at the Ann Arbor, Mich., Technical Center is in step with Toyota's increasing manufacturing presence in North America, explains Ann Arbor-based Bruce Brownlee, senior executive at Toyota's external affairs division. The overall corporate goal: to serve the North American market with product designed, made and sold by North Americans. The philosophy also satisfies the need for close collaboration with the North American manufacturing facilities, Brownlee says.

The product that most closely demonstrates that goal is the all-American Toyota Avalon. Introduced in the 1995 model year as a replacement for the Cressida, the Avalon represents the research efforts of Toyota's Ann Arbor, Mich., Technical Center with help from support facilities in California, Arizona and Massachusetts (near MIT in Boston). At Ann Arbor the primary activities includes such things as vehicle parts and material design, regulatory affairs, and emission certification. California's Calty Design Research (Newport Beach) does the styling. Toyota's total North American R&D employment: about 750 total, of which about 600 are in Ann Arbor. Brownlee says the total engineering staff numbers 550 with about 200 support associates.

"A lot of what we do is work with our suppliers in a 'hands-on' mode. They have offices in our center to facilitate the value engineering of parts and components. Working together, we reduce part complexity, improve performance and evolve less expensive parts of ever-higher quality. Collaboration, not confrontation is our mode of operation."

To maximize the value of supplier input, collaboration begins at the earliest stages of the design process, says Randy Stephens, executive program manager for development and operations.

For Toyota, the Avalon represents the value made possible when TPS-enhanced business processes optimize a product for a geographically specific market, Stephens says.

Value-based organizational philosophies such as TPS increase the failure risk for those following conventional cost-based strategies, says Matheson.

Matheson's advice: "Anyone seeking to emulate Toyota's success should start with the first of Toyota's 14 management principles as outlined in Liker's book, The Toyota Way. "Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals."

©2005 IndustryWeek. All Rights Reserved.

E. Alan Hartman column: Kaizen can help form new ideas

Our University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh College of Business alumni from the 1980s remember learning Japanese-based business principles in the classroom such as total quality management and lean manufacturing. The method now embraced by leading organizations, and discussed in our classrooms as well, is the Kaizen method of continuous improvement.

Kaizen, which in Japanese means change (kai) to become (good), has its roots in a Japanese concept for incrementally changing business using small group activities. Local organizations have embraced Kaizen and its five elements: teamwork, personal discipline, improved morale, quality circles and suggestions for improvement.

Several faculty members have participated in Kaizen events and teach students how they can be used. After attending a meeting of university, technical college and business leaders last summer, I accepted an invitation from Dan Ariens to participate in a Kaizen event at the Ariens Co. in Brillion.

Ariens was kind to allow me to participate; I learned a great deal and appreciate their willingness to allow me to share my experience.

The Ariens' events focused on the key Kaizen factors that arise from the founding elements ?elimination of waste and inefficiency.

Our week began with a meeting of leaders from eight teams assigned to improve a process or a product. Each team had three to eight members. The Ariens-appointed Kaizen leaders presented the process or product the team was to improve, and the baseline data collected in the previous week. Each team had to complete five Kaizen implementations, five quality improvements and five safety improvements.

I was assigned to Snow Cell 10 led by Scott, an Ariens leadership intern. Ariens seeks potential leadership talent from hourly employees. Those chosen for the program spend six months with a management mentor.

My first task had me paired with Tim, an experienced Kaizen team member. We did time studies of one of the assembly positions. The assembler did not follow the steps in the order prescribed on our list, so we created a new one and timed each of the steps in the new sequence. It took several hours to gather enough data to give us a good sense of what the assembler was doing.

Our team reconvened and completed paperwork to show the time spent on each assembly position, the steps taken by each assembler and an overall calculation of how long it took to assemble one snow blower. The results showed one position was always under the time expected while two others were higher. In addition, there was a fair amount of waiting between work stations due to the positions taking longer.

In the afternoon, team leaders reported on what they had accomplished. The other team leaders and the Kaizen leaders commented on each report.The comments were quite pointed ?everyone understood what was being recommended.

Kaizen day one was complete, and I left feeling impressed with the discipline and focus of the teams.

E. Alan Hartman is dean of the College of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Best practices start with training

A popular best practice for maintenance management is employee motivation. Sometimes the best motivation is a solid training program.

PlantServices.com

By Contributing Editor David Berger

During the past two months, we’ve solicited our readers for their best practices in maintenance management. One of the areas that invariably surfaces when you talk about best practices is the question of motivating employees to achieve greater levels of productivity. A key people motivator is training. Successful organizations spend time and money assessing the skills and competencies people require to do their work. Then, they help employees to address any gaps through a variety of training programs that depend on individual needs. Described below are examples of areas where training best practices can be applied.

CMMS training: There are at least two types of training available from most CMMS vendors -- training on how to use the software and in maintenance management procedures. In theory, if the CMMS package is intuitively easy to learn and use, then a minimal amount of training is required. As usual, industry has coined buzzwords -- usability or user-centered design -- to describe the field of study related to the degree to which users will find a package to be intuitive.

Package usability is greatly enhanced by navigation aids such as look-ups, pop-ups, pull-downs, folder tabs, hot key links and drill-down capability. Usability also can refer to the package’s consistency and simplicity. Users expect a consistent look and feel throughout the package, minimal clutter and meaningful graphics. For companies that require heavy data entry, it’s especially important that screens are easy to use.

Despite the ease of use of many top-end packages, there still is some minimal learning curve involved. Thus, to accommodate new or occasional users of the software, most CMMS vendors ship software with a complete online help facility. Such context-sensitive help is especially useful in that it tracks where you are in the program and provides relevant help for that field, function, screen or procedure.

Once you’re in the help facility, the better packages provide such features as the ability to add text to the help or help index, extensive use of examples and bookmarking so you can return to a marked help screen. Procedural help is available on many packages for explaining how to complete a work order, handle year-end procedures, order parts and so on. Sometimes, process flow charts in graphical format show the actual workflow. A few higher-end CMMS packages automate this workflow.

Some software has a "coach" or "wizard" feature that displays focused help messages at key locations in the program to guide you through various procedures. These additional help screens can be turned off after the user masters the system. Online tutorials also are popular for giving new users an automated tour through the system, providing examples of how to best use the key features and functions.

The amount of training directly associated with day-to-day use of a good-quality CMMS is minimal, perhaps only a few days per user. However, it’s highly likely that training will still be required for start-up and some administrative procedures. Furthermore, because CMMS vendors and maintenance consultants have worked with so many different users, they can provide valuable training on how best to use the software to meet the specific needs of your environment. This training can be several weeks long, depending on the size, complexity and knowledge base of the maintenance and operations departments.

Maintenance procedures training: As a bare minimum, maintenance workers must be trained in proper maintenance procedures, including those involving the CMMS. Equipment vendors usually supply procedure manuals, on-site and off-site instruction, and training videos. On-the-job training and in-house videos are a popular means of supplementing the vendor-supplied training.

Supervisory training: Something sorely lacking in maintenance is supervisory training. Companies must realize that, for most people, supervisory skills can’t be learned solely on the job. Progressive companies send new supervisors to between 150 and 200-plus hours of mandatory training in the first year. Advanced and refresher courses are required in subsequent years.

Apprenticeship training: It always troubles me to hear maintenance managers talk about the effectiveness of the European apprenticeship system, and how much better trained are the European tradespeople. Why, then, has North America not fully embraced this approach if it’s so clearly superior? It’ll take concerted effort by management, labor, government and educational institutions to bring about improvements to the current system. A career in maintenance must be made more attractive if we are to satisfy the growing demand for skilled trades, especially in electromechanics and electronics.

Upgrade training: Many companies have established a hierarchy of skill and experience levels for each trade. The goal is to encourage technicians to upgrade their skill level on the job. For example, for mechanics there may be three grades (A through C), and three levels (1 through 3) within each grade. Each level increase may result in, say, a 50-cent increase in hourly wage. A C-1 mechanic may be someone from production who joins the maintenance department after showing an interest and a little mechanical aptitude. Some companies have prepared theoretical and practical tests for this purpose.

Formal training: Many companies will pay for an employee to take courses towards a work-related formal designation, certification or license. This makes good business sense if employees are willing to upgrade themselves on their own time, for the benefit of themselves and the company.

Functional cross-training: Multi-skilled technicians are valuable resources. A mechanic who also has welding papers, for example, is far more valuable than a straight welder or mechanic. Where possible, make use of internal resources to allow fellow technicians to train each other. Also, local colleges are usually happy to set up training courses at your site. Colleges can provide a train-the-trainer program or train the employees themselves. Of prime importance in ensuring the success of a cross-training program is providing incentives to the employees who participate.

Departmental cross-training: Although most employees and employers agree on the virtues of functional cross-training, the same can’t be said for departmental cross-training. Some companies have invested thousands of dollars in rotation programs that move technicians from one production department to another. In theory, departmental cross-training gives the company greater flexibility. In practice, however, people tend to forget if they aren’t using the cross skills continually.

Maintenance training for production workers: This area, by far, offers the greatest potential for this century. Some companies have reduced maintenance staffing levels by more than 20% as a result of transferring responsibility for inspections, lubrication, set-ups, changeovers and minor repairs to production workers. Savings stem from production’s better care of equipment, which leads to less downtime and a decreased need for maintenance workers. Transferring responsibility for maintenance to production is the cornerstone of total productive maintenance.

Safety training: Without ex