Page 29 - MetalForming February 2013

Diemasters Manufacturing Inc.\Workforce Development
www.metalformingmagazine.com MetalForming/February 2013
TDPS are woven into employee’s annual goals, and as they achieve their goals they can be rewarded with a raise, bonus or promotion.”
Making the Right Decisions, for the Right Reasons
Manufacturing manager Bill Cur- tis (also the company’s facilities man- ager) explains how TDPS and LISSTs training enable managers to not just
make change for change sake, but to make the changes that matter most to achieving the company’s overall strategic goals.
“For me and our staff of produc- tion schedulers and supervisors, the training has definitely changed the way we think and operate on the shop floor,” Curtis says. “First and foremost, we’re making decisions on the floor based on key measures
“We’re broadening the development and talent of our workers,” says manu- facturing manager Bill Curtis. “Many hands make the work light, so we’re developing our people to handle more things, so our scheduler can have more flexibility and can spread the work down through a more developed work- force. This type of training is not avail- able off the shelf. Developing a cur- riculum inhouse, customized for our needs so we own it and can use it at will, is critical. It’s how we’ve made education our company culture.”
within our Balanced Scorecard, and on what we recognize as specific cus- tomer needs.”
Curtis joined Diemasters in 2007 “on the bench, as a toolmaker,” he says. “Now, having made the move into management, I sit on the steer- ing committee alongside Virgil and others. I wouldn’t be there if I hadn’t sunk my teeth into the training sys- tem. It’s a college education in basic manufacturing.”
Highlights of Curtis’ education include lean-manufacturing classes at McHenry College in Crystal Lake,
Meet Randy Alderson, Shipping/Receiving Lead
A critical success factor at Diemasters that contributes to mini- mizing direct labor content as a per- centage of sales is optimizing prod- uct flow. “We look at five critical areas where we want to drive prod- uct velocity,” says DeLay. “These are work-in-process lanes, outside pro- cessing lanes, incoming lanes, pack- aging lanes and work that’s outside at a processor. As long as product moves through those lanes within a 72-hr. window, we’re good.”
Keeping product moving efficiently has been a focus of shipping/receiv- ing lead person Randy Alderson, hired in March 2010 as a shipping clerk and promoted within 6 months to department lead. Alderson partici- pated in lean and TS training right off the bat, but credits 5S training as the difference-maker.
“5S changed our whole depart- ment,” says Alderson. “A place for
everything and everything in its place. When I took over the depart- ment, I immediately sought to improve flow of incoming materials and products into production. We don’t want incoming materials to sit in receiving; we want to get it in and move it out, either to internal depart- ments or out to the customer. So we developed a system of queue times and deadlines for our department that has resulted in a 30- to 40-per- cent reduction in wait times for our internal customers.”
Asked what motivates him, and other Diemasters employees, to strive to continue to learn and improve, and drive innovation at the company, Alderson says this:
“We’re all seeking a better work environment, easier and more enjoy- able days at work, rather than headaches. We all want to work smarter, not just harder.”