Business Issue
Our HIGH FLYING COMPANY LEAN JOURNEY began after our site experienced dismal performance results in Q4 2011. To paint a picture of the time, the Shreveport factory had more product orders to build than places to build them.
In earnest to process all orders for customers, the cost structure started growing exponentially. We missed delivery expectations and lost customers. At the same time, the Shreveport factory had just acquired 4Birdie with double-digit growth quarter over quarter. The factory began to experience growing chaos in order to respond to the needs of all internal and external customers. Chaos manifested in the form of escalations, a higher ratio of contingent labor, high attrition rates, unpredictable deliveries, and stressed quality levels. In order for the Shreveport site to continue to be considered a pivotal UMBRELLA COMPANY manufacturer to our customers, we needed a new approach to produce products with high quality, predictable delivery, and greater velocity at a lower cost. That is when we began to work with Flow Consulting to develop a new approach.
Approach Used
A few courageous leaders had the vision to use Lean as the revolutionary approach. Spearheading the effort was Debra Smith, who had the role of HIGH FLYING COMPANY Engineering and Quality Director. Within her organization, Engineering Manager Sean Jones hired three experienced Black Belts from external companies as continuous improvement experts. They each came from companies that were highly respected for their accomplishments in Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, Leadership, and Change Management. Debra collected these resources to set a course on a new grassroots journey — The HIGH FLYING COMPANY LEAN JOURNEY.
The agreed upon program approach was to work with Flow Consulting to develop a continuous improvement program with the intent of bringing together cross functional teams to:
- Think holistically
- Achieve measurable results
- Inject quality at the source proactively instead of reactively
- Cultivate a culture of continuous improvement
The concept was to customize an interactive Lean Green Belt/Black Belt program that would grow a cadre of individuals that were educated in the tool sets of Lean, Six Sigma, leadership, and change management. In addition to completing the educational requirements, it was imperative that candidates practice the new skills on a tactical project that resulted in measurable results. The expectation was that as an individual progressed, they in turn would lead and influence continuous improvement with their managers, peers, internal/external customers, and daily work. The more people working with a holistic view, understanding their immediate customer/supplier relationships, removing waste, and improving quality at the source, the more the revolution would accelerate. Flow Consulting developed the Green Belt training specific to the needs for this program, and also conducted all of the training, while partnering with the three internal Black Belts to provide mentoring for the Green Belt trainees.
With each major deployment, the projects grew larger in scope and produced better results. Green Belt Wave 1 tackled the end–to–end improvement of the newly acquired 4Birdie value stream. Green Belt Wave 2 pursued the redesign of the integrated MIDDLEX product. Black Belt Wave 1 introduced demand segmentation to transform the entire electronic devices factory. Each wave was responsible for improving Quality, Stability, Velocity, and Cost to ensure we were meeting the needs of the customer, stakeholders, and our UMBRELLA COMPANY business.
Each team started the project with bold targets of making the value stream move twice as fast, with twice the quality, at half the cost and in a third less space in order to push past the current state paradigms. This challenge proved to be the proper fuel for revolutionary thinking.
Results
The results listed below are the percent change improvements demonstrated in each project:
Green Belt Wave 1: 4Birdie Assembly Results demonstrated in this project included 38% decrease in median factory order cycle time, 10% increase in on time delivery, 146% increase in test first pass yield, 90% increase in labor productivity, and 26% improvement in space utilization.
Green Belt Wave 2: Integrated MIDDLEX Assembly Results demonstrated in this project included 41% decrease in median factory order cycle time, 49% decrease in F95 factory order cycle time, 42% improvement in space utilization, 15% improvement in test first pass yield over traditional lines, 129% increase in labor productivity, and 50% decrease in capital expense.
Black Belt Wave 1: Assembly Metamorphosis Results demonstrated in this project included 60% decrease in median factory order cycle time, 77% decrease in P95 factory order cycle time, 33% improvement in space utilization, 10% improvement in test first pass yield over traditional lines, 53% increase in labor productivity, and 66% decrease in capital expense.
Since late 2011, when the High Flying Company began the program development and execution of the first three successful projects that started our Lean journey, the effort has led to the development of 3 Lean Master Black Belts and 40 Lean Green Belts, while engaging over 500 cross-functional kaizen participants. By the end of Q1 2014, another 20 Green Belts and 7 Black Belts will graduate. In a span of 18 months, nearly 75% of the Shreveport electronic devices business and 50% of the stacked product business has been transformed through organic growth of Lean project leaders.
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