ramblinwreck13

AJ,
Your improvements are great!
I have to assume that the improved through put has occured on fixed work stations where you could not maintain the current output rate and reduce headcount. That is to say the extra unit if not made would not “save” labor.
If this is the case then the next question is do you manufacture to Customer orders or do…[Read more]

I find it interesting that you have been challenged to reduced FIXED costs not total costs. If this is the case, labor is a varible cost unless you are obligated to make payments to workers who are layed off. Taking out people won’t help, unless of course your talking about Management, not labor.
Fixed costs are the purvey of Accoutants, so make…[Read more]

You might be on the right track, but it depends on your Sales/Business model.
Are you building to order or to stock?
If you are building to Stock, then your are on the right track as long as you have established stocking plans to address the expected sales forecasts for a given SKU.
If you are building to order, as long as you have a cycle time…[Read more]

Look towards your Bottleneck operations for how you should load your Heijunka box. Capacity Constraints will gide you towards level loading of the rest of the line. Without knowing more about you operations or production methods, TAKT rates ect it is impossible to be more specific, but whenever I have had to level load in am mixed model…[Read more]

SMED
Single Minute Exchange of Dies
Actally in many applications the goal is to SMED inside of 1 TATK time if possible.
 
If you can change out your dies or tooling in a small set amount of time and yo know how many times per day you will on average be needing to change out dies, then you can subtract this time for the availible minutes to…[Read more]

Annon,
In answers to your questions, I will have to make certain assumptions that might not be factored into your processes.
For example, TATK times are supposed to include a certain amot of time for change over and SMEDing of processes to allow for mixed models if run on the same line.
To start with on Question 1, I would not run 5 then 3 then…[Read more]

TAKT time calculations ask for demand at peak, so from the limited information I have to assume your demand is for 10000 pieces on Monday, 20000 pieces on Tuesday, 30000 pieces on Wednesday, 40000 pieces on Thursday and 50000 pieces on Friday.
Short of getting your customers to average their demand, or giving them an incentive for smoothing…[Read more]

Advanced Planning and Scheduling or Rate Based Planning is a Lean Mixed Model planning tool for highly flexible one piece flow manufacturing.
It assumes that if you have a mix of model numbers and a limited number of producton lines that you will want to run multiple models down similar production lines that are capable of handling the…[Read more]

Anywhere you see process variation or waste that prevents you from delivering the best quality product to your customers at the least possible cost and in the most efficent manner, you’ve got a project in the making.

Dear Kim,
In my past, prior to becoming a Black Belt, we faced this problem at a large manufacturing facility.
I agree with an earlier post, that says for some people nothing you do will make a difference, as Management. We however decided to take a slightly different approach.
We did use incentives, but the incentives were Team,…[Read more]

I can tell you the KPI’s I used in Automotive Manufacturing.
Cost/CWT.
On Time Delivery
Inventory Turns
The Team selected these amongst several other availble metrics as the most important to our business unit. Others considered were:
Expediting costs, expediting occurances, Forecast accuracy, Inventory $’s, PPM’s by vendor and Transit…[Read more]

Sam,
We had Rath and Strong Soft Skills training after our initial 5 weeks of Black Belt Training.
For those among us that were uncomfortable with confrontation or rapid change the course did some good. For others who can handle push back with little being ruffeled in the path, it was not the best use of our time.
The problem with the course is…[Read more]

My answer would have been 1, did I survive?
Ramblinwreck

HON IS DOWN BECAUSE THERE NEW CEO “COTE” CAN’T MANAGE MUCH, PROVEN AT TRW AND GE DURING HIS TENURES THERE.
GE IS STILL STILL SUFFERING IDENTIY CRISIS POST JACK WELCH, IT WILL TAKE 2 YEARS TO LICK ITS WOUNDS AND BEGIN COMING TOGETHER AGAIN.
SUNW IS …. WELL SUNW, DON’T COUNT ON 6 SIGMA TO MAKE A FLOWER OUT OF A PIG!!
AND AS FOR C, WELL…[Read more]

We require a Black Belt to complete 2 projects @ over $150k each ( Verified by Money Belts) and MBB review to insure the Six Sigma Process has been used correctly. They must also complete 4 weeks of Training and or have ASQ certification as a Black Belt already. Additionally they must have taught Green Belt training to at least 1 class and…[Read more]