Struggling to improve?
March 23, 2009 by adrianpask
Something that struck me the other day was how many sites have had Lean Initiative-itis over the years.By this i mean that they’ve tried to implement various of lean/quality/OEE activities, some internally, some with consultants but for some reason they’ve struggled to improve.
I’m sure we all recognise the symptoms - branded literature up on the walls from past consultant-supported activity, semi-filled in paperwork, practices in place that exist due to habit rather than the value that they add, a weariness from the folks on the factory floor when it comes to ‘another funny acronym’.
I know things are bad when we talk to an operator about “quick changeovers” and they tell me they know all about that “SMED stuff”…..as they start a 6 hour changeover. Or if every front line manager i talk to has 9-5 meetings every day, or when i walk a line and see more than 1 noticeboard…and it’s out of date.
Here’s something that i have come to believe - the Lean toolkit contains some great tools for reducing waste and improving OEE and there still comes a point in my opinion where “if you can’t change the people, change the people”.
Far too often i see implementations that are attempted from a very genuine desire to improve yet with poor people-management support. Quite often in sites that are in this place there are fantastic performance management tools available and they’re not being used.
When we look at the sites that we know get the most sustainable performance one thing they all have in common is that there is a robust performance mangagement system in place and being implemented in full on a daily basis.
If you’re introducing any sort of change process (lean, an OEE drive, a quality drive) here are my thoughts on how to be successful:
1. Make it personal - people have to care. Make sure they have an emotional reason for doing this…make sure YOU have an emotional reason for doing this.
2. You can’t build a strong house on a weak foundation - get the basics right first; ensure that you have a people performance management system in place AND WORKING!
3. If you have the wrong person in the wrong role then you’re not helping them or yourself…they’re probably miserable. Use your tools to help them find a role where they can be happy and productive. This happened to me early in my corporate career and i look back with huge gratitude to the director who did this with me in such an open and supportive manner.
4. “Aces in Places”: Make your best people responsible for creating change and get them to coach your rising stars
5. Ensure that your implementation team have precise objectives for this implementation and that they are linked to personal performance objectives
6. Carry out regular documented reviews to coach on performance and provide guidance/focus
7. Follow up on all actions that come from the reviews
8. Hold people to account for implementing the change: Reward for success and use your performance management tools if the project is floundering
As ever - delighted to welcome your feedback as these are simply my ideas post a 2 hour workout on Monday evening! So fill out the box below and let me know what you think.
Planning Optimisation
February 27, 2009 by samirshah
Why Optimise Planning?
Traditional view of industry - Push the products out into the market
- - Keep producing even when there is no demand
- - Keep the factory running all the time
- - Keep lots of stock
Lean approach - Demand from the market pulls products
- - Only produce what you can sell
- - Don’t produce to hold in stock
- - Keep minimum/no stock levels
“To keep a balance between reducing overall warehousing costs and be able to satisfy varying demand (e.g. seasonal) as well as maximise availability at the production facility companies utilise both the push and pull approach”
For this reason it is necessary to pay particular importance to optimising production planning.
There have been conflicting views between the corporate strategy for planning and the site strategy for what should be planned. The reason for this is related to how the departments are measured and targeted. At the corporate level it is all about reducing cost and increasing the flexibility to deliver where as at site level it is all about maximising performance measures such as OEE. This leads to very little synergy and a lot of animosity between the corporate planning department and the site production department.
The ultimate aim should be to deliver the products at the right time, at the right price and at the required quality to the customer.
At the corporate level there needs to be an understanding about the plant/line capability. This is the actual delivery capacity of the line. The key element to understand is that if the number of products to be made is large the actual availability to produce will be low reducing the actual capacity due to the number of changeovers required. To have the maximum capacity available, there needs to be a strategy to have as many long runs of product as possible and minimise need of the changeovers as much as possible.
At the site level, there needs to be an understanding that there are requirements to produce small runs of certain products due to their demand profile and to keep the warehousing costs low. Once the amount of products to be made is received from central planning, the site scheduling department needs to look at scheduling the production runs that will maximise the line availability by looking at combining production runs that are required at different times and by looking at minimising changeover times by scheduling product runs that require minimum operations (therefore time) to changeover. The site can look at ways to optimise their changeovers by implementing quick changeover programmes such as SMED and by looking at technology and innovation to eliminate changeovers all together between different product runs.
Therefore to summarise:
- Understand what product types are runners, repeaters and strangers - Please read an article on “The Reflective Supply Chain in Manufacturing” By John Hicks and Patrick Lee
- Decide on minimum buffer (stock) quantity for each product type
- Determine production batch size of each when minimum stock quantity is reached - this may vary on future demand and seasonality
- Put together a production plan to make products that have reached their minimum stock quantity - decide between product mix and volume required by taking into account plant/line capability with a view to maximise plant/line availability
Create instant change, now.
January 23, 2009 by adrianpask
One of the questions that comes up on some forums is: “Why is the implementation of Lean/OEE activity so slow?”….or “What can we do to speed up our Lean implemenation?”.
I believe that I know a way that you can create huge, unstoppable change almost instantly.
Firstly, I would say that any improvement initiative will be very slow to implement if there’s no driving need to change. In fact i believe that if there is a big enough need to act differently, i.e. enough desire to improve or enough need to stop hurting, then change will be not just fast, it will be instantaneous. I also believe this is to be a universal human truth for all behaviour, not just manufacturing improvement.
The principles of NLP state that there are 2 key motivational factors to enable change:
- A need to move away from a current source of discomfort or pain. We call this “away” motivation.
- PLUS a desire to move towards a source of pleasure or enjoyment. We call this “towards” motivation.
**read more about motivation types at the excellent Pegasus NLP Blog**
In order to achieve change all individuals, and therefore organisations, need to have an appropriate balance of these 2 factors. Therefore, the ability of an organisation to change is directly proportional to the need for that change to be implemented, and this need is generated by combining the need to avoid particular results whilst simultaneously achieving better performance.
When the right level of “towards” and “away” motivations exist in an organisation we say that the team have ‘a burning platform’ to change. With a burning platform in place change happens. Fast. Unstoppably.
I wrote a blog about “the burning platform” a very short while ago: http://oeejourney.optimumfx.com/2008/12/17/burning-platforms-for-change/
EXAMPLES:
- I’ve worked in bottling sites that are so profitable (especially in the spirits industry) that implementing minor changes has taken >36 months.
- I’ve also worked in soft drinks sites where OEE has jumped from the low 50’s to the high 70’s in 12months.
- Most radically in a powder packaging factory where OEE jumped from 23% (and about to massively short on customer orders) to 68% in only 8 weeks.
The contributing factor in each environment is the level of pain that’s felt by the management and operator teams. In the powder packaging example they were in such deep trouble it was almost literally “change or die”. In this environment change is fast, radical, and all-consuming - infact the challenge is to slow it down and make sure the changes are sustained.
So here’s a really great question for you to ask yourself:
“How can we create the right level of need to change in our business to achieve our business and personal goals?
Andon Systems and OEE improvement
January 14, 2009 by adrianpask
What are Andon systems or Andon lamps?
Andon lamps are an extremely simple system of visual management for helping teams identify when there is a problem with a process or machine. Originally they were developed as part of the Jidoka quality-control method within the Toyota Production System and have now been incorporated into standard lean manufacturing practice
Originally andon lamps were used to notify teams of a quality problem, and more frequently we see them installed on continuous flow lines to help inform operators of why machines have stopped. For example if i have an operator running two packaging machines and one of the machines stop, a simple Andon light stack can instantly tell the operator if he has a problem (and has to intervene) or if the machine has just run out of product.
Here are some sample Andon Systems courtesy of google images:
Andon lamp block
A traditional andon light stack
Andon panel with fault alarms
Andon Text display
Benefits of traditional Andon systems in your visual factory:
- Reduce reaction times for machine problems - operators see the state of machines quickly
- Reduced downtime for fault fixing - lamps indicate most common “faults” e.g. low reel, jams etc
- Improve management efficiency - Managers can quickly see which machines are stopped on a busy floor
Drawbacks of traditional Andon systems in your lean implementation:
- Signals need to be interpreted - complex systems need a code or key card to help operators remember what the alarms mean.
- Can be hard to see - if they’ve been in place for a long time lights often get damaged and dirty and can be hard to see. They can also often become ‘background noise’.
Taking Andon systems to the next level…XL800 for the ultimate visual factory
The XL800 OEE system brings Andon systems into the 21st century by taking all the strengths of existing systems, adding even more functionality, whilst keeping the core simplicity.
When you install an XL800 OEE System on your machine or line the highly visual alphanumeric display system can be used to highlight KPI’s and running conditions just like any display system.
Basic functionality:
Almost instantly the XL800 OEE system can support your lean manufacturing implementation by very quickly enabling you to show:
- MACHINE DOWN + Duration of downtime
- BREAK TIME REMAINING + Duration of break
- CHANGEOVER + Duration of changeover
More advanced functionality:
If you can get a signal from your machine to indicate why that machine has stopped then your XL800 could automatically display additional faults or alarms such as:
- Stop - Build Back (too much product on outfeed)
- Stop - Lack (no raw materials on infeed)
- Stop - No raw material
- Stop - Guards open
- Quality check due now (based on the number parts produced)
- Stop - SPECIFIC FAULT MESSAGE
- Target achieved - Good job team
- …..and the list goes on! If you can get us a signal, the XL800 OEE System can give you a display!
So what are the benefits of an XL800 as your Andon system?
- All of the benefits as traditional Andon systems
- Inform and motivate your team: by displaying real time data for how long each alarm has been triggered, and by showing targets for the production run
- Increase productivity: Simplify your shop floor - the display is 100% user configurable so you can quickly select the alarms that make the most difference to you
- Save money: Your operators will be able to respond to the right causes of machine downtime and get your machines fixed faster.
- Increase OEE: With machines being fixed faster you will produce more product than ever before
- Essential for TPM: The built in reporting and analytics software in the XL800 system is ideal for driving your TPM implementation as part of your lean journey.
Reflections on 2 days at WTG Conference in Rotterdam
November 18, 2008 by adrianpask
Whilst i’m sat in Rotterdam airport reflecting on 2 days at the World Trade Group 7th Annual World Food Technology and Innovation conference (http://manufacturing.foodinnovate.com/) i thought it may be worth reflecting on some of the lessons/thoughts that have come to me from the past few days.
Over the last couple of days it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to a number of Food and Drink Manufacturers’ about the issues and opportunities that exist within their European operations. Specifically a number of themes came through for me:
1. Obviously without surprise product cost is an extremely high priortity across every sector. The majority of manufacturers are experiencing some downturn in business recenly but nothing anywhere as large as that affecting our colleauges in Automotive sectors.
2. A large number of businesses have started their own internal development programmes and a lot of people are talking about ‘lean’, ‘TPM’ and ‘Toyota’.
3. When exploring these strategies it would appear that most businesses are choosing to cherry-pick particular elements of these programmes for implementation in the site, rather than wholesale adaptation and adoption. The message i got here is that “we’re not Japanese automotive manufacturers so we have to pick what works for us”.
4. There is a broad recognition that data and good quality information is key to delivering these programmes. I had great pleasure in showing our XL800 system to a number of manufacturers as a means of collecting this data.
5. A lot of suppliers are talking about Energy Sustainability, but i didn’t hear this back from many of the manufacturers.
6. In the session hosted by ATS International we had a great discussion about people involvement in change programmes. Specifically the value of creating improvement pilots and ensuring that outcomes of these programmes are communicated. We also explored how expectations need to be managed if the desired outcome is sustainable results….people can get impatient when results aren’t immediate. The key message was still - talk to your teams, get their advice, filter with data, and act act act.
7. Teams need to be motivated to improve - a real burning platform creates real results.
8. The point above really re-inforces something that one of my mentors says is the secret to manufacturing improvement: “Doing simple things to an exceptionally high level”. Whilst many sessions debated the value of various lean tools, the message for me is a clear - just decide what you’re doing and get on with it!
9. Oh and everyone is measuring OEE!
A very interesting and enjoyable 2 days. My thanks to all those i met and shared ideas with me.
