As part of our problem solving training course we sometimes get asked to evaluate machinery and processes. This is to establish the root cause of the failure which sometimes involves some interesting investigational work.
Take a look at this problem which we recently came across and see if you can establish some details about what happened here.
What Happened Here?
The shaft below has been broken into 2 pieces, one half is shown at the failure edge. Use your engineering skills to analyse what contributed to the visual marking and hence deduce the root cause of the break. (Hint: there are five failure modes visible, start by identifying them and then work out the correct sequence).
We have just released the May Issue of the KCTS Resource: This month we’ll be delving in to the benefits of implementing Focused Improvement into your factory.
We’ll be taking a look at our M.I.C.K system, from its conception as an idea back in 2006, and how it has benefitted both KCTS and our clients by adding an extra problem solving tool to help discover the causes of why chronic and sporadic problems occur.
As well as all this we’ll have our regular features for you including; Some Lean/TPM puzzles to test your thinking power; a Case Study on a Standard Kaizen course we did in Chang Zhou, China; a Press Release about our new video podcasts we launched last month; and we will be Meeting KCTS consultant, Paul Steven, to take a look at what he has been up too since last time we met.
Our free downloads the month include our Using Standards in TPM and Defect Detection & Prevention knowledge sheets. And sticking with the Focused Improvement theme, we have a Focused Improvement activity board Template and a Clarification of Phenomena worksheet. Plus you will be able to download a PDF of this month’s KCTS Resource, all for Free!
On Friday, Instructor Course 13 came to an end in Shanghai, but for the Delegates who attended the course it is by no means the end of their journey. They will now go back to their factories and begin work on their plans which will be reviewed in 100 Days time. So what are 100 days plans and why do we use them?
What you are doing right now in your business will show up as results in 100 days due to what is known as “lag time”. 100 Day planning is a tactical planning system that operates over a 100 day horizon. The Plan itself allows longer term strategic plans to be broken down into immediate and detailed specific actions that make the programme do-able.
Although the key tool in the 100 Day planning process is the 100 Day Plan itself, it is NOT the Plan, which is most important. It is the way in which you use planning and reviewing to capture learning and manage “issues” that provide the real benefits.
When to use it?
100 Day Planning is used when a focused transformation or deliverable of KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) are required within a business.
What does it achieve?
Delivering through the 100 Day planning approach is not something operated solely at a personal level, it requires you to understand how planning should operate in cooperation with your key stakeholders. It should come together through a sequence of review and planning mechanisms that ensure not only your own learning and success but also that of your operation.
Over the 100 days you should be expecting to see personal growth and development as well as overall development on your site.
We are currently running Instructor Course 13 with our client out in China. So we thought this would be a great opportunity to give you an insight into how a White Cap would spend a day on the course. We have a diary entry from KCTS consultant Paul Steven from Instructor Course 12, which happened last year. This diary entry gives you a look at how the Instructor Course works from a Trainers point of view.
A Day in the Life as a White Cap on the Instructor Course
05:30 : The day starts early, up and showered ready to arrive for breakfast. All the newsletters and notices have been printed for a flipchart in our hotel.
05:50 : The notices are updated for today’s activities and the newsletters are left on each team’s breakfast table. The newsletter shows the successes and has some fun about the activities of the previous day.
06:00 : A healthy but full breakfast to keep my energy running during the course activities. The Instructor Course is ran at full speed all the time. Some of the delegates are coming to breakfast early to start discussing their team’s activities. Others are working on their strategy to be 1st on the bus.
06:15 : The White Caps discuss the details of today’s activities over breakfast. Our White Team has 2 KCTS consultants and from 1 – 4 internal instructors. These internal instructors have passed the course previously and use the course again as way to improve their Change Agent abilities. They often feedback how surprised they are how much they learn from the course when taking a leading role.
06:30 : The White Caps split up. The KCTS consultants go to the factory to prepare the activities there. The internal instructors supervise the teams as they compete for 1st place on the bus.
The position on the bus is used as a strategic competition. During the entire course a Team Game is running with points for displaying attributes of a Change Agent.
07:00 : Arrive at the factory and prepare for today’s activities. Check the preparations with the local team are in place and update our White Cap board with our daily KPI’s as discussed over breakfast.
07:30 : Teams arrive at factory and prepare for their presentations.
08:00 : Thought for the day. A KCTS Consultant explains how today’s activities fit within the overall course and reflects on the previous day. This allows the teams the space they need before their presentations and helps them maintain perspective. 08:15 : Learning Review & Team Presentations. During this session each individual on the course explains what they learnt the previous day. The White Caps record in detail their learning and assess whether they have demonstrated a learning through actions or whether they are only describing their ideas. Ideas are not assessed, they must demonstrate learning through their actions. Finally the team will demonstrate how they are progressing against the tasks they have been set previously. Points for the Team Game as awarded or removed based on their actions. Unfortunately, it has been known for teams to move into negative points. On one course a team was desperate to return to zero points.
09:00 : Daily activities start. On most days we have a lecture to explain the overall use of an improvement tool. Today we are working on a Major Kaizen.
09:45 : A Break for the teams. Tea, coffee, water, snacks & fruit are all available and breakfast seems a long time ago. There are over 32 people trying to refresh themselves so the operation has to be organised. Thankfully our factory has prepared well and our delegates are in good shape to continue.
10:00 : Today our lecture continues, some days they are out working at this point. Major Kaizen is a tool which allows a team to solve the majority of problems. Prior to using it the teams could have used simpler tools to exploit their experience. These tools having not reached a result because the system was not fully understood have moved onto Major Kaizen. The team need to understand their problem in detail both physically and based upon data. Armed with that knowledge they start to analyse how the system with the problem should function. The 32 delegates are working in 4 teams of 8 people. Within 3 days they will have tackled and corrected a Chronic problem which the host factory will have tried previously to solve. The benefit of the Kaizen depends on the problem. One of our teams is examining emissions, another is focused on machine set-up and another solving a logistics problem. The results from each Kaizen save the host factory thousands of pounds.
10:30 : The teams reform in Syndicate rooms. As a White Cap you visit each team to check on their progress. Do they understand the tool being applied? How is their team progressing with their daily activities? Is the Team Leader delegating and utilising all 7 of their people? How is each person’s learning? What concerns are they having in the use of the tool, the ability to get it to work in their factory or how they are to apply their Change Agent learning into their normal way of working? All these questions are tackled whilst focussing the team on delivering the Kaizen.
12:30 : A buffet lunch is available and all delegates make sure they have eaten. The pace of the course is fast and relentless, so energy is important. Most teams take food into their rooms and continue to work. We work with them, observing or coaching as needed. 13:00 : Out within the factory the problems are solved practically. The syndicate rooms form a base for operations but most work is done out on the factory floor. As the teams understand the problem and system they set their challenge. The challenge is how much of the problem can they eliminate. Once set they use 5 Why analysis to find the root cause. This must change a system or behaviour to be sure that the problem will not reoccur.
15:00 : Another break, and the possible causes are being debated. How can the teams verify them? How do they access the right people and what details are needed from the factory?
15:15 : The team starts to prepare for their daily presentation of results. The Kaizen work continues but all visualisation is reviewed and the presentation details are agreed by the team. Who will introduce the Kaizen, how will they demonstrate the problem, who can explain the system?
16:30 : All the teams present to each other as well as to the White Cap team. This presentation allows a formal assessment of the work completed but more importantly demonstrates the activity of Board Presentations which needs to be regularly used within factories. These presentations within working factories allow the team to explain their successes, gain recognition and ask for assistance with their leaders.
A KCTS Consultant will feedback to the team. This is a detailed exercise on both the content of the Kaizen and the way the Board Presentation was conducted. It is important that each delegate leaves the Instructor Course with a role model on how to give constructive and motivational feedback.
18:00 : 2 Teams have presented and received feedback. Everyone need to recharge and keep their attention.
18:15 : Team presentations continue and all delegates need to be able to ask questions or comment if asked to do so. This ensures everyone is focused on the presentation not worried over their own work.
19:25 : The presentations are complete and the evening activities are outlined. The actions needed for tomorrow’s team presentation at 08:15 are reminded and the course closes for the day.
19:30 : The presentation area is returned to a lecture layout. All administration is updated and the room shut for the night.
20:00 : Arriving back at the hotel, a buffet is available and the teams are buzzing with discussion and questions. A curfew of 21:00 has been introduced to allow the teams to rest before the next day and all teams need to be reminded of this.
21:00 : End of the daily work and if possible we take a break. The newsletter and tomorrow’s activities should be ready for us to start again tomorrow at 06:00.
We recently had a number of people sending in questions through our free ‘Ask Us a Question’ service, so this is a good opportunity to remind everyone of exactly what this is;
We provide this unique free online service so that users can have direct access to a resident business consultant, and can email us a question that will be answered within 4 hours. The KCTS business consultants have very diverse backgrounds, providing training and advice that spans across a wide variety of industries, both in manufacturing and service.
Our job is all about helping other companies to become more efficient and remain competitive and we achieve this through the training and coaching of a number of improvement tools such as; Lean, Total Productive Maintenance and Six Sigma.
We ultimately assist organisations in the Master planning and creation of initiatives which are driven by loss & cost reduction and have found that our knowledge and advice is well respected in these circles.
By offering this online service we can now assist in, and take, all types of questions relating to Continuous Improvement, Lean Processes, Six Sigma and Total Productive Maintenance methodologies, not just from our clients but from anywhere. We wanted to offer a free-to-use practical sounding board, and a best practice advisory service, where anyone can contact us with a question and we can reply back with little or no fuss whatsoever.
The Ask Us a Question Service is available from our website, all you need is an email address so that we can reply to your question.
207,000 employees, worldwide sales of 42 Billion Euros, manufacturing facilities in 54 countries and a plan! Well a journey to be more precise; a journey that began in the boom time of construction and now starts to shine on a gloomy economic landscape.
In 2002 British Plasterboard (BPB) now Saint Gobain Gyproc, began implementing the ‘plan’. Consisting of an improvement programme that was to make their process plants part of the best performing sites right across industry; and for Saint Gobain, who are the Worlds largest plasterboard manufacturer, looking back at the original vision to increase equipment effectiveness and to up-skill the workforce, this initiative has resulted in a very wise move indeed. For a global company to operate successfully today their business must be ship shape, robust and at the very least have all ‘basic conditions’ taken care of, whilst a focus remains on costs.
That’s a tick in those boxes then. But how does an international organisation move from their current state to the beginning of a continuous improvement journey? Clive Poole, World Class Manufacturing Development Manager for Saint Gobain Gyproc gave me an insight into what he thinks is the key ingredient to the programme. “People. We invest in the development of our people at all levels of the organisation. Our aim is to give everyone simple but effective methods to solve day-to-day problems that are encountered in the workplace.
“We’re developing a culture of empowerment, where employees are encouraged to understand the plant losses, and prioritise activities so that they can take ownership of their work area and run it like it was their own business. Under this new culture, our overall business performance has increased steadily year on year delivering results for our customers and our business, which is a fantastic testament to everyone involved.”
Total Productive Maintenance
Saint Gobain has chosen the methodology of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), which is in fact the back bone to the highly successful Toyota Production System. The fundamentals to TPM are to ensure that equipment you have invested heavily in is available when you need it. “We choose to use Total Productive Maintenance as a core part of our improvement programme, as at the time, the main issues facing us were machine reliability. Says Jim Sisson, Saint Gobain Gyproc Engineering & World Class Manufacturing Director.
“We also avoided the ‘Lean’ approach as our machines were not yet reliable enough to allow us to reduce our stocks, and TPM led for a more flexible manufacturing system as there are many aspects, which are referred to as supporting pillars. These pillars not only cover the maintenance aspect of our business but encompass Health & Safety, Environment, People Development, and Quality.
We also realised that we needed to employ external assistance to provide the necessary skills, and expertise to transfer knowledge to our people. Consequently we chose Wirral based specialist consultancy and training provider; Kaizen Consultancy & Training Services as our partner (KCTS), they have a number of training packages and models which fit in well with our WCM Programme”.
A partnership
So, the scale of a worldwide plan of business improvement looks like a daunting path if travelled alone, but with the right assistance, bigger obstacles become achievable goals. Can a company save 95 Million Euros? That’s a tough call! Can they save 1 Million Euros 95 times? Yes they can….through the duplication of successful improvement programmes. So how is a successful improvement programme implemented? Charles Johnston, Managing Director for KCTS sums it up with; “Determination, oh’ and a bloody good consultancy partner!
“We are now into our seventh year of working with Saint Gobain and it’s been a very exciting process to say the least. I have to commend the organisation for the commitment to such a programme. We’re well known to be a strict consultancy partner that will not allow slippage, and as a client you are either 100% on board or not, anything else fails”. And has the programme been a success for KCTS? “Without a doubt; we are very proud of what we have achieved with the Saint Gobain team.
They have many bronze status plants that are on their way to Silver, which is highly respected in the WCM World Class Manufacturing circles. These are phenomenal milestones but it has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination. We have provided practitioner training in all major plant locations around the World resulting in a core resource of change agents and practitioners throughout the Saint Gobain Gyproc organisation”.
So how does KCTS define success for a client? “The main reason an organisation embarks on a programme of this scale is to make change. The biggest change comes by driving out losses and improving overall operational effectiveness (OEE) which we have done, resulting in tremendous efficiency cost savings over the period. To me, that is success”.
The writing was on the wall
Chambéry, France is a major site for Saint Gobain Gyproc, where they produce a number of products in the Gypsum portfolio, including plaster board for the European market. Nigel Green, Manufacturing Consultant at KCTS recalls, “One particular improvement project was for a system component assembly, where the efficiency and quality of output on that one machine relied purely on the amount of adhesive that was applied to the boards. Naturally, because this was such a critical application of the Wall Partition Assembly Process, there was a tendency to lets say “apply liberally” and the site was using an excessive amount of glue to ensure that there was the correct adhesion, but then this had other implications further down the line.
“It was proposed to the site that the best route to take was to implement a problem solving exercise called Major Kaizen. This type of problem solving is extremely structured and incorporates a step approach learning model which enables the client to embed the knowledge gained, and replicate its application in other ‘loss’ areas of the factory. Once the project team had identified the root cause we then communicated our findings throughout the factory, across all shifts”. And has the outcome proved to be sustainable? “Most definitely, and more importantly the savings continue to come just on this one project. Once the knowledge has been transferred to the onsite practitioners then they are more than capable of using the same toolset in other areas of the site”.
This Wall partition production assembly project at Saint Gobain has reported to have saved the site approx 1 Million Euros to date and this is not an isolated success story. “Many improvement projects began life as training workshops, which are then handed over to the newly trained practitioners for completion” Says Jim Sisson. We now have the tools and the mindset to constantly challenge our performance and to continue to move a step further along our continuous improvement path. KCTS have proved to be a very good training provider assisting us in selecting and using the correct methods. Most importantly the training they give is very practical and allows our people to pick up and use the skills on the shop floor in an extremely efficient way”.
Not just a fad
It’s easy to see why an organisation would relish the idea of introducing structured work patterns and methodologies like Total Productive Maintenance, when savings of 1 Million Euros per project are obtainable. It is the rare few organisations that have the confidence in themselves to pursue such a huge change programme on an international scale without this hindsight. “We knew we had made a very bold move and chosen a traditional TPM route for our manufacturing improvements, but it was the right choice, and to date we have made over 95 Million Euros’ in savings says Jim sisson. However it was the commitment to stay on track whilst other fads were pushed to the forefront that proved the unexpected challenge”.
Details on our 5 Day Training Course for Focused Improvement Major Kaizen.
Course Content:
• Theory and practical application of Focussed Improvement techniques for resolving chronic or complex factory problems.
• Roles and responsibilities of a Focussed Improvement project team member.
• Experience of either leading a teams and / or effective team working.
• Understanding of Phenomena statements, Principles and Parameters, Measurement, Documentation, Communication & Root Cause Analysis (5 Why), Risk Assessment and Configuration control.
Course Benefits:
Candidates will gain theoretical training and practical experience of how to lead and complete a focussed improvement project and a good understanding of the Focussed Improvement methodology.
Course Overview:
This is one of the higher level WCM training courses run as an integral part of the WCM TPM programme within an organisation. It is designed to build on other Total Productive Maintenance experiences and provide the skills and knowledge to help solve more complex or chronic site problems. The Course is designed to create focussed improvement practitioners who can lead (or be involved in) Focussed Improvement projects in their own Plant and support the implementation of WCM.
Comments:
Candidates will be continually assessed / coached during the course. A written examination on the final day to check understanding is normally set based on the organisations discretion. Delegates who fail may be given an oral examination to clarify their understanding of the course.
The Course is normally residential on a factory site and run over 5 days (Monday to Friday inclusive) this excludes any travelling time.
To reinforce the knowledge gained on the course and to deliver benefits for their own site, delegates are expected to lead and complete a focused improvement project in their own factory within 100 days of returning from the course. Immediately following the course, the host site Black Caps are expected to complete the course FI projects and implement the solutions.
The Course normally has places for up to 12 delegates although larger courses are possible by negotiation. Delegates are usually ‘not’ from the host site due to the amount of course preparation / supervision.
As we move towards a creative society with design and user experience at the top of agendas, publishers of information are looking for new ways to capture the ever decreasing attention span of its readers. To coincide with the UK launch of the Apple iPad in early April, here at KCTS we will be launching a brand new weekly video podcast which will target the manufacturing science and technology sectors, providing weekly snippets of education and learning in rich media format.
As a provider of business improvement training and consultancy services, we are an extremely knowledge intensive organisation with many years of experience in helping global businesses to become successful in manufacturing excellence. ‘We have used our video production facilities to enhance our training courses and consultancy activity for the last 5 years, says Matt Treby, Technical Consultant for KCTS. It is through the medium of video that we will leverage our expertise in order to bring together a series of best practice video casts, which will feature various KCTS trainers explaining their experiences in World Class Manufacturing’
With subjects in Lean manufacturing, Total Productive Maintenance, Value Stream Mapping, Workplace Organisation and many more, we are aiming to offer this content online, through our website and also other 3rd party video podcast hosting sites. This service will be a free subscription and is due to be launched on the 8th April 2010. Further information is available at www.kcts.co.uk
Last week we successfully completed a problem solving project in the Netherlands. Our brief was to eliminate a reoccurring defect on a 1400 tonne injection moulding machines using Focused Improvement, which is part of the Total Productive Maintenance methodology.
KCTS trained 5 of the client personnel to practitioner standard in Focused Improvement which enabled the project to be completed with savings of €10,000 per year. The newly trained practitioners also completed another problem solving project in the same week resulting in an extra saving of €5,000 per year. Also as part of the course, the largest Customer Complaint issue on the 800 tonne injection moulding machine was eliminated.
Course Overview
Focused Improvement Standard Kaizen is one of the middle level WCM training courses run as an integral part of the WCM TPM programme within an organisation. It is designed to build on other Total Productive Maintenance experience and provide the skills and knowledge to help solve more complex site problems. The Course is designed to create focussed improvement practitioners who can lead (or be involved in) Focussed Improvement projects in their own Plant and support the implementation of WCM.
The Instructor Course is an intensive training event and a journey of discovery for all participants. Designed as a basis for real cultural change to give delegates practical experience to make a difference. All team working is based around real workplace scenarios.
Delegates are set daily challenges as part of a Team Game and application of Total Productive Maintenance Pillar tools, to improve their self management skills and adding to their learning experience. An exam and awards ceremony form the climax of the second week.
Ideally, candidates coming onto this course will have responsibility for an improvement programme or operational management within a manufacturing or service based environment. The second part to this event is a 100 day post review with the delegates, where to attain full course awards they must demonstrate to a senior panel within the organisation that they have delivered change in their place of work following the review.
Features:
• A unique, character building and life changing event.
• Highest level training in Total Productive Maintenance.
• Held onsite at client location.
• All workbooks, worksheets and manuals included.
• Work wear provided.
• 24 improvement projects are selected and completed over 13 Days.
• Assistance with the selection of improvement projects.
• Filming of case studies and projects.
• Team games.
• Weekend activities.
• Awards ceremony and guest speaker.
Benefits:
• Create “Change Agents” who will lead and inspire sustainable improvements in your factories.
• Return on investment after approximately 12 months through solving factory based problems during the course.
• Host site becomes a flagship site for Total Productive Maintenance within the whole organisation.
• Embedded learning through the use of Learning Reviews.
• Refreshed and current approach to implementing core TPM and WCM Pillars.
• This course creates a real “buzz” throughout the company, creating a demand for change.
• Delegates understand the practicalities of change and the impact they will have on factory performance.
• Be part of an elite class of Total Productive Maintenance Instructors world-wide.
• Build employee relationships across your individual sites.
