NOVEMBER FEATURE
Going Lean
Northwest Wisconsin Manufacturing Outreach Center helps Phillips Plastics integrate lean principles into its manufacturing process.
John Brost, production manager of Phillips Plastics Precision Decorating in Medford, sat at his desk pondering how he could operate more efficiently, reduce employee stress, and improve profitability.
His phone rang. Jim VanGrinsven, a project manager with the Northwest Wisconsin Manufacturing Outreach Center (NWMOC) headquartered at the University of Wisconsin–Stout, was calling with an offer to share his knowledge of “lean” manufacturing techniques with Brost and his management team.
“Your timing is perfect,” Brost told Jim VanGrinsven. “We really want to streamline some of our processes and reduce costs.”
Brad Nasset, project manager for the Northwest Wisconsin Manufacturing Outreach Center, facilitates a workplace discussion about lean manufacturing practices. (Photo courtesy NWMOC)
A short time later, VanGrinsven and Brad Nasset, another NWMOC project manager, presented their services to top-level managers at Phillips Origen Center in Menomonie. After discussing Phillips’ business needs, the two formulated a general plan, and the management team at Phillips Plastics funded a plan to integrate lean principles into their manufacturing process. Brost’s team volunteered its Medford facility to conduct a pilot project and began training 20 employees.
According to VanGrinsven and Nasset, lean manufacturing implies that a company produces more with existing resources by eliminating waste. A lean company works to eliminate overproduction caused by traditional scheduling systems, makes only what customers want when they want it, and is totally committed to producing high-quality products that exceed customer demands.
“Lean (manufacturing) provides the way of thinking to envision a great future, the strategic tools to put substance to it, and the tactical tools to make it happen," says Nasset.”
The Medford facility has state-of-the-art equipment and technology, but the work process consumed too much floor space — space that could be used to expand the business. Employees’ stress levels were high, too, because they were spending too much time tracking down parts.
VanGrinsven and Nasset initially worked with a Phillips Plastics team to develop an improvement plan. The improvement team reported that more employees needed lean training, so they in turn tapped the resources of the office staff. The office employees then conducted ergonomic analyses, established measures, communicated changes, scheduled training, covered for people who were attending team meetings — and even supplied donuts so the improvement team could keep working!
Trusting his team’s work on the improvement plan, production manager Brost simply said, “Okay, make it happen.”
Eight team members received additional training in value stream mapping skills and documented the existing process steps of one particular product family. The team then documented the desired, streamlined process steps and listed the action items that would help them achieve their goals.
A powerful tool used to map both the material flow and information flow for any manufacturing or administrative process, value stream mapping (VSM) enables companies like Phillips Plastics to map the flow of products from the arrival of raw material, through all manufacturing process steps, to the loading dock as finished product. VSM includes all of the actions that are required to bring a specific product from the customer order to customer delivery. One of the product lines selected to undergo lean transformation at the Medford plant was a radio faceplate line for the auto industry. The lean team started with the assembly operation and, as they identified assembly requirements, moved the requirements up the line to the painting area, followed by the plastic molding area.
Phillips Plastics “lean team” members at the company’s precision decorating facility in Medford learned the fine art of “lean manufacturing” from staff at the Northwest Wisconsin Manufacturing Outreach Center. Front Row L to R: Nancy Hoffmann and Kathy Wegerer. Back Row L to R: Leon Gasek, Stacy Klemetson, Lisa Jalowitz, and Aleta Wilcox. (Photo courtesy Phillips Plastics)
“Once the team got going, we planned and communicated in the morning, implemented the changes in the afternoon, and reviewed the results the next morning,” says one team member.
NWMOC project managers VanGrinsven and Nasset conducted lean training sessions, value stream mapping, plant layout, scheduling, and team facilitation and coaching. They provided focused training for a specific technical process. The improvement team at Phillips moved machines, improved quality at the source, and reduced material-handling steps. Material flow controls were put into place, and all employees of the selected product family received lean manufacturing training.
With all product family employees now able to “speak the language of continuous improvement,” plans progressed smoothly and several key individuals from the shop floor assumed leadership positions in the process.
Phillips Plastics reported the following impacts from this collaboration:
- Cost savings of 9 percent (avoided unnecessary investments and saved investments);
- Productivity improvement of 28 percent;
- Reduction in work-in-process inventory for one product family of 75 percent;
- New product line produced 12 percent in additional sales;
- Employee stress significantly reduced with less time spent “chasing down parts.”
“I especially liked the way the team meshed and everyone worked together to really make things happen,” Brost adds, noting that just as Phillips employees work with their clients to provide cost-effective solutions and minimize time to market, the NWMOC project managers helped them to accomplish similar goals.
Visit our archives to read articles from previous issues of the UW Business Wire.