A uniform approach

If it's been a while since the most recalcitrant Dilbert of a corporate terrorist popped his head above the parapet to squeeze off a round in the general direction of the company's continuous improvement programme, you're either winning the war on waste or you've capitulated. And if the general consensus at last month's Lean Business Summit (see box, p23) in Derby prevails more widely out there, you're winning. Cy Wilkinson, manufacturing director at Cressall Resistors, sums it up nicely: "I am still surprised - perhaps naively - that there remain businesses out there not on the lean journey. Those that are [on the journey] may not all be doing it right, but at least they're trying." The Derby event was attended and addressed in pretty equal numbers by those at the beginning, middle and advanced stages of their own never-ending journeys. No-one seemed complacent though, and none of those doing the addressing had forgotten their previous-state positions or the scepticism they met as they edged towards the new world. And they knew they might only get one chance to implement lean. Failure would mean handing the 'it's not working here' excuse on a plate to the brigade that New Balance Athletic Shoes factory manager Andy Okolowicz wickedly and wittily christens "the citizens against virtually everything". Indeed, for all lean's current acceptance as an imperative for the survival of UK-based manufacturing and its apparent success in helping to achieve world-class status for some British beacon plants, the people and culture issue remains a significant challenge. Cressall's Wilkinson is someone who actually did have to pick up the pieces of previous failed attempts to 'do lean'. "When I joined Cressall in 2006, there had already been several attempts to roll out 5S and to implement flow - all with varying degrees of success," he explains. "Though there was buy-in from senior management, these earlier lean attempts failed due to lack of follow-up and buy-in from the workforce." It was a workforce, he says, that had "heard and done it all before". "A proactive approach was the only way to move lean forward," he says. And the way he kicked things off is living proof that not everything has to be as complicated as the books and the gurus make out. Wilkinson may well have sweated blood formalising his three to four year customer-focused strategy and working out how less expensive, high quality products could be produced better and faster. Assessing existing operations and formalising a strategy to implement an improvement programme via the roll out of a lean programme built around value stream mapping, 5S, standard work, flow, pull, TPM, mistake proofing and set-up reduction may also have kept him awake for a night or two. But his next move couldn't have been simpler. "The workers needed to feel they were part of the new team," he says. "The first thing was to provide everyone with new Cressall workwear." The 'Why?' question was easy to answer, too. It wasn't: 'Because we're doing lean.' It was to improve the image of the workers and what they did while travelling to and from work; to improve security (if someone was on site without a uniform, perhaps they shouldn't be); and to preserve personal clothes for personal wear. Next came the lean training. Four and five-day offerings, leading the site towards leaner operations and the staff to NVQ Level 2. Little more than 18 months in, space savings range from 14 to 60%; employee and operator movement is down by between 50 and 60%; single piece flow has reduced work in process, and stock-take time is down 50%. Oh, and financial turnover has increased 100%. "Our lean journey has only just begun and we don't ever expect it to end," says Wilkinson. Just 50 miles north west of Cressall's Leicester plant, there's another uncomplicated lean journey taking place. At Langer UK in Cheadle, operations director Peter Taylor tells an inspirational 'Five-day lean' story. Langer makes unromantic ankle and foot orthoses, orthotics - foot and leg supports to you and me - and orthopaedic shoes. Lean manufacturing's contribution to flaccid foot drop wasn't conceived in the lightning bright flash of a bolt from the blue. "We just realised we'd reached as far as we could using our existing protocol," says Taylor. "We recognised that a change in our manufacturing approach was required." He set out a plan of what he believed could be achieved. On Day One, the 'lean team' was established, a stickle brick (toy bricks that adhere to each other by 'stickled' surfaces) lean simulation undertaken, and a start was made on collecting and analysing data. "We produced a 'big picture map' that gave us data from every department," says Taylor. The plant's overall right first time level was 81.5%, delivery adherence was 43%, productivity about 0.39 pairs per operator hour and customer demand in the region of 79 pairs per day. Days Two and Three were spent on work analysis. The working methods of every section of the manufacturing facility were videoed, a line balance chart showing current state and recording the imbalance between different sections was created, and takt time was calculated at 366 seconds a pair. Day Four was about the elimination of waste - "anything that doesn't add value". Taylor says: "We assembled the different departments to review the videos and discuss them." They found cycle times were too long; an inefficient layout and a heap of unnecessary paperwork. "The operators eliminated waste from each section to reduce cycle times," Taylor adds, "and we agreed best manufacturing practices." Day Five was trials day. "Having changed the batch sizes, we videoed the transportation and manufacture using the new method. We transferred work from one work station to another and established a new station; we eliminated and changed some of the paperwork and measured throughput." The results have been impressive. Productivity is up by two thirds; work in progress is down from 26 days to four; and delivery adherence has soared to 98%. Most importantly, technicians beg never to go back to the old ways, ideas for continuous improvement are coming from the shopfloor and customer feedback has been positive. Taylor is quite clear about the lessons learned so far. "The inclusion of the whole workforce is vital, they need to be listened to," he says. "Senior management must believe in the lean manufacturing protocol and lead from the front." If you were looking for a place where orthoses, orthotics and orthopaedics meet the glamorous world of fast and luxurious motor cars, it is here, on the training ground. Lotus Cars and Bentley Motors share more than pulling power for various incarnations of James Bond. John Vigar, continuous improvement manager at the Norfolk sportscar maker and automotive engineering contractor, came to Lotus to haul its heritage-steeped but variable quality standards up by the tyre levers. Then, it was building VX220 Speedsters for GM - and not doing it well enough for the global automotive giant. He completed the job and stayed on. Now, he's as passionate about the Lotus Elise and Exige. And about training people to build them. Right now, the plant has 296 of its people registered for NVQ training. So far, 149 of them have completed 40 hours in the classroom and 62 have their qualification - NVQ Level 2 in the main, but extending to Level 3 and 4. Those figures give the business more than a warm feeling. Vigar has put a value on the savings his students will have made from applying their continuous improvement projects to the line by the year end. He reckons it's a whopping £250,000. At Bentley, senior production systems development manager Shaun McNeil truly uses fine art and the appliance of considerable science to lean training. He sees it as the very essence of the Bentley Production System that provided the foundation for increasing production volume ten-fold, using the tools, techniques and lean philosophy practised at Toyota. Sophisticated manpower planning, recruitment and redeployment, production training and development, and kaizen continuous improvement activities provide the power that runs the Crewe plant and have established it as a benchmarking facility for lean manufacturing at its parent, Volkswagen. "There is no substitute for training everyone - new starters as well as existing employees - in the Bentley way," says McNeil. "We radically changed the recruitment process for all new associates," he explains. "It's no longer a case of 'I know a thing or two about cars.' 'Okay then, start Monday'. Assessment days not only include interviews, but also practical activities that provide evidence of an individual's ability to operate with lean principles aligned with the correct aptitude to team working." Subsequent training moves from basic awareness and understanding for new recruits to developing associates to team leader level. "Day in, day out, the work force has got to be engaged in where the business is going," urges McNeil. "It's alright telling them, but they have to see it working." The science mustered to achieve smaller ratios of team leader to team members is impressive - and needed to be to win the argument that it should be one to six instead of one to 30. It required working out exactly the time a team leader might have to cover absence and training, how much to respond to the line, and how much would be left for continuous improvement and kaizen events - kaizen events that save time and reduce takt gradually, but then invest that saved time in thinking about how each process can be changed to meet the next targeted takt time. So, finally, why is a Cressall Resistor like a Bentley Continental? Impressive people; impressive workwear.