Kaizen #4: Bevel Department
Kaizen Team Members: Shelly Smith, Jessica Fisher, John Lenz, Rick Ruple, Chris Fogarty, Kevin Smith and Sue Held. Special thanks to Aaron Walz, Matt Bockover and Kim Landel for helping the team!
Kaizen #4 began Thursday afternoon with a detailed planning session to set goals for the upcoming event. The team decided to work together and focus on 5S, plant layout and visual management. Their goal is to make the bevel edge area clean, organized and laid out in the most productive manner possible. This is one of our highest costing profiles to manufacturer so any time that can be saved will help the company capture additional business.
Layout Changes:
- Relocated the chop saw
- Remove center station
- Tear down all non-functioning junk storage areas
- Move Karran work station and relocate second pinch roller
5S & Visual Changes
- Condense and organize supplies
- 5S entire department – Clean House!
- Build rolling tool carts to eliminate wasteful motion
- Build new table tops for fabrication
- Organize template areas
- Build new bevel holding area
- Reline walkways
The bevel department is a growing area of business for us and it was great to see the team make these positive improvements. We can now handle an increased volume of business without the need for expansion. The associates in the bevel department now have an organized, clean, purposeful area that will allow them to produce a high quality product while maintaining our increased productivity.
If you have any questions or are interested in discussing this further, please feel free to contact us at https://www.lesmith.com/contact-us.
Enjoy the Journey!