Efficiency closes a Plant - Part One
It’s been a couple years since I left GM, and it’s been much longer than that since I witnessed something that I still use as an example today when I see plants focusing on improving efficiency, utilization, or even (don’t say it) OEE.
We were just getting started in the Throughput Improvement game, and the “green” team that we had put together from various parts of the corporation was lacking some basic IE 101 skills. When I heard that one of the experienced IE’s in our department was giving a class in delay studies at a local plant, I jumped at the chance to get a few of my folks in the training.
Despite being an EE, I had a wealth of experience in IE studies, since I was sponsored by Industrial Engineering at the Cadillac Clark Street plant (now a weed-filled lot). Riding freight elevators to document usage, performing cycle time studies, chasing AGV's for downtime info, etc., were all part of my co-op experience, so I had a solid foundation. But I wanted my folks to see how it was done in the plant, and thus the emphasis on getting out of the class room and on to the plant floor.
It was fairly well known that the plant we were visiting was in trouble – poor throughput, long lead times, etc. There was a lot of “outside help” in the plant trying to improve the situation, but we were only here for the class, so I doubted we’d be able to see or do much. As we walked through the plant it was obvious that there was a huge efficiency push going – banners and signs were located throughout the plant extolling workers to be more efficient and productive. In the middle of the plant we passed a bulletin board with pictures of a team of operators smiling out of photos whose backdrops were a pizza parlor, a baseball game, etc. Along with the photos were cheap ribbons indicating they were #1 in the plant in efficiency. Lists of successfully installed action plans rounded out the board. I was starting to get a sick feeling in my stomach.
After a review of the basics, my folks were broken down into teams and asked to collect data on the worst machines. One was a fairly simple machine that cut metal stock into lengths for leaf springs. The other was a press used to stamp out parts needed for the suspension. Why these machines? Because the data showed that these two operations were the least efficient in the plant.
Did these machines have problems? Certainly – parts jammed inside the machine, dies had to be replaced, tools sharpened, etc. Were the operators working hard? Yes and no – when they worked, it was like watching industrial athletes. But all too often they had to stop and wait. Why? Well, the delay study showed they both had the same root cause delay. Any idea? Read on.
My TOC background and my reading of The Goal told me that we should be doing a delay study on the bottleneck. Was one of these two machines the bottleneck in the plant? The simplest method was to do what Jonah showed Alex to do in his plant – look for the inventory!
While the others slaved over their stopwatches and clipboards, I hunted for inventory. It didn’t take long, because I was pretty sure I knew where to look. There, near the middle of the plant, right next to the bulletin board, photos, and ribbons, was bay upon bay of inventory, stacked floor to ceiling in baskets, right before the most efficient area in the plant – the bottleneck!
(Continued in the next Blog Entry!)
