Page 18 - MetalForming February 2010

Lean
Amanager can’t pick up a business magazine or book that doesn’t extol the virtues of lean manufacturing. The benefits—reduced costs, less scrap and improved customer service, to name a few—are well documented. But few small manufacturers are imple- menting “lean.” Maybe it seems like a big-company strategy requiring the hir- ing of consultants and additional train- ing, and maybe it seems like it’s just not for your company. After all, every- body talks about the Toyota Produc- tion System but is anybody telling us what assembling cars and stamping metal parts have in common? Or, maybe it’s just the name of the concept itself. After all, you’re probably pretty lean as it is.
Sound Familiar? Then Benchmark this Company
None of the above-mentioned issues were a problem for executives at metal- former Talan Products, Cleveland, OH, where CEO Steve Peplin, president Pete Accorti and VP of manufacturing Pat Parziale explained their recent success implementing lean strategies.
“We had been discussing a move
toward lean methods for several years,” says Peplin. “We’ve always had a partic- ipative work environment, so we thought we had the right culture. There wasn’t much doubt in our minds that we could implement lean methods in our shop, but we also knew we needed help staying on track.”
Accorti adds, “We had actually made some small efforts to implement lean- manufacturing methods in the past. That experience told us that lean meth- ods weren’t rocket science, but that they do take a lot of discipline to sustain. And, we recognized that we needed somebody from the outside to educate us and help us keep our noses to the grindstone.”
For outside expertise, the firm con- tracted with Chagrin River Consulting, also in Cleveland, bringing in Rick Bohan to help with implementation. “The first thing Rick did,” says Accorti, “was spend a few days in the shop get- ting to know our people and opera- tions. After that, we scheduled a series of planning sessions for the senior leader- ship, to set some targets and develop an action plan for rolling lean methods out across the shop.”
Planning Key to Getting Everyone on the Same Page
No lean-implementation project can be successful without careful planning, which Talan’s management undertook only after allowing Bohan to interview managers and employees about Talan’s operations. Says Parziale, reporting on early management planning sessions: “Our discussions showed that we had some differing views around the shop regarding prioritizing our efforts, but we were able to agree on what was impor- tant and what we should be working on. I think that helped management present a united team to the rest of the compa- ny and see that we were serious about this project and committed to it.”
Metrics a Must, Starting with 5S
The leadership team developed a set of measures used throughout the proj- ect to gauge performance improvement. Among the metrics: inventory turn- around, measures of equipment, tool- ing, and personnel availability, scrap and direct labor efficiency.
“The work we did developing and refining our metrics optimized the
16 METALFORMING / FEBRUARY 2010
www.metalformingmagazine.com
Fuels Recessionary Rebound
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
Talan Products’ supervisor Frank Lowe grabs a tool off one of the firm’s die carts designed as part of the firm’s recent 5S and quick-die-change initiatives.