Page 243 - How To Implement Lean Manufacturing

CHAPTER 15

The Story of the Bravo Line:

A Tale of Reduced Lead Times

and Lots of Early Gains

If process improvement and the elimination of waste is your objective the Bravo Line
improvements, show in dramatic fashion how important lead-time reductions are. They
also show just how important jidoka is to these process improvements. Lead-time reduc-
tions serve many worthwhile functions, the most important being:
• Quick feedback for problem solving
• Quick turnover of product, requiring less inventory with its attendant losses of
excessive space, excessive equipment to manage it, and excessive manpower to
handle it—to name just a few
• Improved cash flow
• Generating future business
Finally, we explain how the seven techniques to reduce lead time and improve flow
were applied at the Bravo Line and how these changes resulted in a reduction of first-
piece lead time by 97 percent, a reduction of lot lead time by 81 percent, and a greater
than 60 percent reduction in manpower consumption.

Background Information
My company was called into “use Lean technology to improve the performance” of
the Bravo Line. The problem was stated as: “The line cannot meet the demand of
10,000 units per week. It is well laid out, has a cycle time that should easily meet
demand in a five-day work week, but we consistently need to work overtime. In fact,
we are working Saturday and Sunday even though the production plan says we
should not have to. It has gotten so bad that we have even had to put the utility line
into service on occasion, effectively working an eighth day, just to meet regular
demand. Quality is extremely good, a process with Six Sigma yield, but we just cannot
meet demand.”

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