The document summarizes accomplishments at the Pentair - Poway plant from February to December 2008. It describes how the implementation of a custom planning tool called "Cal Plan" improved order tracking. It also details how the identification of fabrication as the major constraint through data analysis led to eliminating 58 pages of late work orders. Finally, it discusses improvements like restructuring departments, introducing lot control, and setting production goals and expectations that increased output.
2. Planning Tools Fourth Shift software was unable to support our Lean Initiatitve. The screen-shot shown above is from a custom program of my own design called “Cal Plan” which allowed planners to manage individual customer orders though various manufacturing processes. After implementation of this tool, orders were tracked, before implementation they were “hunted down”
4. Outside Processing After offering to help with Outside Processing, responsibility for control of this process transferred from Purchasing to the Materials Department. We instituted a number of changes to the process which decreased past due orders and turnaround time.
5. Customer Service Levels February through July was a struggle to gain visibility and control. We finally gained traction in July/August after fixing enough of the problems to begin seeing the impact.
6. My Favorite Story: It was during my third month at Poway that I was able to gather enough data to identify the Fabrication Department as the major constraint. Investigation showed that there were a large number of late work orders in this department. The conversation went something like this: Tim: Just how many late work orders are there? Response: Let me show you. Tim: There’s 58 pages of late work orders here! What are we doing about this? Response: But,Tim. There’s 58 pages. What can we do! Before: Late Late Late Late
7. Late Work Orders It took several iterations of reconciliation, a redesign of the work center into U-shaped cells and a reorganization of fabrication production staff, but we eventually eliminated the 58 pages of late orders. The dispatch list shown above was my creation which pulled data from Fourth Shift and organized into a readable format. After:
8. Looking in the Wrong Places The table shown above indicates workload at various stages in terms of sales dollars. The major barrier in gaining traction was a mis-diagnosis of the true constraint. When I arrived, the focus was on Assembly and Kitting. None of the data shown above existed. It wasn’t until I created this overview that the real picture was visible and our focus redirected to Fabrication. $486,000 Vs. $94,000 Perceived Problem Real Problem
9. Production Planning Setting goals and expectations had a tremendous impact. Note the effect of the visibility by comparing the first few days of implementation with later production rates.
