the challenge
Our client has been designing and manufacturing engineered fluid handling, transfer and filtration products for over 60 years. The company prides itself on being able to offer its customers a wide range of products and endeavours to service the chemical, food & beverage, mining, petrochemical, process and water supply/treatment industries. A strong customer service focus and commitment to high quality standards remain the cornerstone of the business’s ‘make to order’ manufacturing policy.
After 27 years, the current owners were seeking to optimise operations to prepare the business for sale. However driving lasting change while maintaining day-to-day operations proved difficult. Customer service issues began to surface, combining with increases in delivery errors and declining profits.
Challenges facing the business included:
- Reduction in customer satisfaction levels;
- Lack of manpower and qualified resources;
- Increased customer expectations of shorter lead times; and
- Ineffective production processes increasing COGS.
our solution
Phalanx’s first step was to conduct our Stakeholder Survey and Lean Waste Audit to create an accurate assessment of the underlying issues throughout the business.
Key findings:
Employee morale was low due to administrative backlogs;
Delays in customer quotation and sales process increasing overall production lead times;
Employee frustrations were also high due to ineffective production environment;
Production time was lost due to missing components and equipment; and
Current process flow causing doubling handling of components during manufacture.
Findings were presented back to management for discussion and prioritisation. The next step was to conduct a
Value Stream Mapping workshop to identify the root cause of production inefficiencies. A high volume product family was selected for mapping and current and future states developed. In order to realise the future state, a series of Lean improvement tactics were recommended.
Strategy solutions included:
- Development and implementation of a Pull System into the raw materials store and fixed locations for all components;
- Revision of the plant layout in critical areas to improve process flow and reduce double handling of components and sub assemblies;
- Introduction of 5S Housekeeping and Visual Management in order to further develop shop floor efficiency and employee engagement; and
- Develop detailed process mapping of the sales quotation procedures to streamline the sales process and ensure on-time completion of all quotations.
results delivered
The use of the Value Stream Mapping workshop enabled management to ‘see’ the entire supply chain and engage all staff members in a well designed and coordinated approach
to improvement.
Production lead times for the selected product family
reduced by approximately
40%, from
25 to 15 days. Importantly, the lead time for preparing sales quotations was also
reduced by approximately
25%, from
7 to 5 days, reducing administration back logs and positively influencing customer service standards. Component stock levels
fell by over 25% with further gains projected as a consequence of ongoing development and continuous improvement.
Major improvements to housekeeping provided a much needed
boost to
staff morale and the introduction of visual management enabled employees to
gain feedback with
regard to improvements made.