Page 452 - The Toyota Way Fieldbook

422 THE TOYOTA WAY FIELDBOOK

1. Increase the “kaizen mind” of all associates.
2. Create a common target (vision).

3. Reduce costs by eliminating waste throughout the value stream.
EF focused on associate involvement to reduce waste throughout the
entire product stream, from supplier DMMI to the customer. They
realized that to bring TPS to the next level, they needed to invest in
TPS experts in the plant. They selected Andris Staltmanis to lead the
Manufacturing Engineering Department to a higher level of TPS.
Andris has 18 years of production engineering and manufacturing
engineering experience and was one of the originals at Battle Creek.
In Yamanouchi Yutaka, vice president of Production Control and
Planning from DENSO in Japan, he had a sensei to teach him.
However, it was understood that the key to success was production
ownership. Joe Stich (general manager of Production) was also well
versed in TPS and needed to drive this activity from within.
For deployment, they split the plant into three focused factories:
HVAC (heating, ventilation, air-conditioning), condensers, and radia-
tors. Within each of these they selected a product family to become a
model line—to go and see and improve. At first Manufacturing
Engineering facilitated the model area, and then responsibility was
gradually transferred to Production. The approach included basic
process kaizen, floor management improvement, and value stream
improvement. Some of the tools used were visual control, standard-
ized work, small lot size, frequent delivery and pickup, and a heijunka
(product load leveling) board.
Bryan Denbrock, section leader in the M.E. Department responsible
for implementing the high-level model system in the HVAC plant,
described establishing plantwide heijunka as particularly challenging
due to the variety of products and customers. With the target of
becoming a “world class” company, the HVAC model line created a
system for finished goods production. This model line served as the
tangible reference example for the rest of the plant.

The finished goods are shipped from a warehouse to the customer.
Three hours worth of customer orders are brought to a large customer
staging post. While the product is being staged for the customer, the
kanban are removed. These kanban are then taken to the heijunka
post. Kanban are arranged in order to level the production signal, which
has a pitch of 10 minutes. This means every 10 minutes the material
handler brings an order (kanban) to Production to collect the required
product to be replaced in the warehouse, which represents what the
customer has actually purchased. The warehouse kanban are exchanged