are in use and reduce the inspection
time of those same components.
After observing and dissecting the
cutting process, the team determined
too much time was wasted in unclamping, indexing, and reclamping
barstock on the waterjet.
“Our focus was to try and reduce
that setup time. We approached this
through an automated fixture,” said
Keith Lemmer, an LAI engineer. “We
had to use some in-house technology
to develop some fixturing, which is not
available in the waterjet world, to enable us to do that.”
Now once the barstock is clamped
in, cutting commences, and the material automatically feeds the waterjet. A
“push-and-locate” bar positions the
barstock in the exact position it needs
to be, and material holding clamps ensure the material doesn’t move during
cutting. Cut parts and scrap material
are then fed into a catch bin where an
indexer segregates them.
This automated approach helped to
increase waterjet cutting time on this
particular part from 60 percent per hour
to 90 percent per hour, Lemmer said.
Also, because of a project that
helped to reduce the amount of variation in this part family, in addition to
the automated fixturing, quality personnel no longer have to inspect every
part that comes off the waterjet.
“This should cut inspection time to
as little as eight pieces per shift due to
the increased stability of the process
and reduction in variation,” Lemmer
added.
Putting It All Together
Each of the tools associated with lean
manufacturing efforts carries the potential for dramatic change, but when
you take advantage of them when rethinking a specific process, the impact
can be hard to fathom. Joe Wagner,
plant manager, LAI Southwest,
C FIGURE 6 Laurie Schneider and Gordon Palmer demonstrate how a more intelligently organized workspace and process can reduce throughput times without cutting corners on quality.
Phoenix, Ariz., found this out when a
team went to work trying to reorganize cutting and assembly processes associated with an armor project for an
OEM in the defense industry.
Wagner described the process as
“pretty erratic.” Shop floor personnel
had to keep track of about 800 different parts that would be shipped to the
customer each month in sets, groupings
of armor components for 12 vehicles.
“The flow was uneven. We had a
lot of missed assembly components,”
Wagner said.
A team was formed and a kaizen
event took place. Applying 5-S thinking, the team cleared the assembly and
packing areas. In line with visual workplace approaches, pictures of properly
assembled components now act as constant reminders of what needs to be included in the sets to be sent to the
customer. In establishing a pull system
of manufacturing, the team now gets
kanban boxes of cut parts from the
floor when they are needed, not before.
Process mapping helped the team to
rethink how shipping occurred; now incoming parts, rubber protection components, foam, and packing containers
are organized according to the steps
taken to ship products out the door.
Wagner reported that these
changes have reduced the time re-
quired to assemble a 12-vehicle set
from 100 hours to 56 hours. Correspondingly, labor costs have been reduced by more than 50 percent.
These sorts of results get LAI management very excited. Their biggest
challenge then becomes trying to share
these successes with other locations in
the corporate family.
Cramer stressed that company leaders are communicating multiple times
a day, but that may not be enough. As
a result, LAI plans to organize lean
summits a couple of times per year and
have the lean facilitators share ideas
and participate in brainstorming.
“We are excited. This certainly
looks to us like the way forward for us
to be the company that we want to be.
The results have been very well-received by our customers,” Cramer said.
“The level of detail that we are engaged in and the exchange of information has been very empowering for
both us and our customers.”
Those are details that LAI definitely will want to include on the corporate resume. ■
Editor-in-Chief Dan Davis can be reached at
dand@thefabricator.com.
LAI International Inc., 8147 E. Evans
Road, Suite 9, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, 480-
348-5942, www.laico.com
Visit www.thefabricator.com and type these article titles in the search box:
A “ Leaning on press brake tooling: 4 ways to apply lean concepts to bending tools“
A “ Lean implementation failures: Why they happen, and how to avoid them“
A “ Lean on it: Despite roots in high-volume production, lean manufacturing can still
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The FABRICATOR® | An FMA Publication
www.thefabricator.com | August 2009
