Project Overview
Project Overview
Faced with a competitive bidding environment, disrupted supply chains, and little predictability within its manufacturing department, our Partner, a Make-to-Order Manufacturer in the Defense Industry, struggled to get its product out the door on time and under budget.
Straining to scale with outdated production paradigms, our Partner also faced a generational management transition. Managers who had been there for 20+ years were set to retire and take their years of experience with them.
With numerous programs behind schedule and customers to satisfy, program managers were forced to compete for limited resources, with senior management having little visibility on how these decisions impacted the entirety of the operation. This opaque view created a culture lacking accountability.
Product rework time nearly equaled first-pass assembly time with no “lessons learned” at the execution level. Instead, the entire operation existed on a “whatever it takes to get it out the door” firefighting culture.
Performance Results
59%
Increase in On-Time Performance
20%
Increase in Scheduling Accuracy
22%
Improvement in Stock Room Outputs
56%
Reduction in Indirect Time Charged
69%
Reduction in Lost Time
65%
Reduction in Lead Time
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Analysis of Challenges
- Inaccurate and Insufficient Production Data: Work/time relationship studies found our Partner could not reliably plan or forecast resource requirements due to significant database inaccuracies.
- No Unified Production Schedule: Lack of a unified schedule created constantly shifting “hot lists” and a climate of reactive production.
- Poor Collaboration and Communication: Timelines for individual programs were created within silos without reconciling resources across the enterprise.
- Poor Shop Floor Control: Supervisors were hindered from assigning operators effectively, wasting time determining what could be worked on rather than managing execution.
- Wasted Time and Resources: Determining manufacturing status diverted time from manufacturing, scheduling, and program management.
- No Performance Reporting or Accountability: Without operating reports, there was little understanding of department performance or process evaluation.
Solutions Implemented
POWERS worked with manufacturing engineers to construct observations and time studies to set reasonable expectations for hundreds of unique routing operations. Key initiatives included:
- Capacity Modeling: Developed a model for both short-term department scheduling and long-term resource needs planning.
- Front-Line Leadership Support: Improved short interval scheduling and barrier identification at the supervisory level.
- Lost Time Capture: Developed root cause analysis to improve output and align performance with capacity.
- Operating Reports: With IT assistance, developed reports to illuminate performance and close the feedback loop between production and management.
The Detailed Results
- On-Time Performance: Increased from 56% to 89% due to real-time ERP usage and shop floor planning visibility.
- Scheduling Accuracy: A 20% increase in the cable and wire department.
- Stock Room Outputs: Improved by 22% without increasing headcount through root cause analysis.
- Indirect Time: Manufacturing operators saw a 56% reduction in indirect time charged.
- Lost Time: A 69% reduction in Surface Mount Technology lost time via SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Dies) analysis.
- Lead Time: Decreased in testing from 7.5 days to 2.5 days (65% reduction).
