Page 234 - How To Implement Lean Manufacturing

212 Cha pte r F o u r tee n

Of particular significance was the way in which the training was done. This sent a
clear message to the facility and set the stage for later successes.
The training started with top management in the various departments, including
Production, Engineering, Purchasing, Maintenance, and Human Resources—all of
which attended every class. The initial training was an SPC class: 36 hours of training
that covered SPC and focused on the topics of attribute and variables control charting
techniques. In addition to the classroom work, they
needed to complete a project. At the initial class, the
“Put everyone in the com- plant manager addressed his “students” and
pany to work to accomplish the explained that: “… management has a distinct role
in the success of this and there are no shortcuts. They
transformation. The transfor-
mation is everyone’s job. ” must be directly involved …” More importantly, the
—(Point 14) plant manager attended the entire training, and like
W. E. Deming all the others—managers and nonmanagers alike—
he completed the project and passed the final exam.
The plant manager set an unmistakable example.
Following this management group, other supervi-
“Adopt a new philosophy.
sors, engineers, and technicians were trained in SPC.
We are in a new economic age.
Following the SPC training, other techniques such as
Western management must
MSA, C&R, and DOE were taught. In each case, the
awaken to the challenge. They
management team was the first group trained. In
must learn their responsibili- addition, classes were given in Kepner-Tregoe prob-
ties and take on leadership for lem solving, and later we were retained to assist in
”
change. the implementation and support so often needed in
—(Point 2) these efforts.
W. E. Deming It was not surprising that the entire effort had
great traction and very rapidly the process improve-
ments became obvious.
Around this time, the plant manager approached me with a specific concern. He
was given an appropriations request to construct the second rework facility. It disturbed
him. He had been assured that all work stations (they had a 28 station line) were at 98
percent effectiveness or higher, except for one that was struggling at 88 percent. Rework
for this product was permitted, but he knew something was amiss. We did a quick
analysis of the line and found that its first time yield (FTY) was less than 50 percent.
This means that less than 50 percent of the total product went through the production
process the first time, with no rework. Over 50 percent of the product needed to be
reworked at least once, with some units getting reworked more than once. When this
was explained to the plant manager, he was amazed but immediately approved the
rework station. Being the good manager he was, he called together the managers of
engineering and production, and with us also in attendance, issued the following
instructions:
• Start using the metric of FTY as the plant’s measure of internal quality. He
wanted it to be calculated and posted by next Monday.
• Develop and execute a training course in FTY, that not only taught engineers
and managerial personnel the concept of the Poisson distribution, but also its
detailed calculations. Until this was done, the production manager would
calculate and post the FTY daily.