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THE LEAN JOURNEY AT ARI-JACKSON MANUFACTURING

August 14, 2007

Laura Klinkhardt

Jackson, Missouri

The corporate decision was made to begin the Lean Manufacturing journey. Lean requires all members of the organization to work together to improve the business. The corporate office developed the Corporate Steering Committee and their Corporate Lean Champions. The Jackson plant then assembled together their Lean Steering Committee and their Lean Champions. As different projects are taken on new Lean Leaders emerge at the Jackson plant.

One of the first things we needed to do was to train the Lean Champions regarding Lean manufacturing so the champions were sent for training. The next step was to begin training all of the employees at Jackson. Lean 101 Training / Simulations were organized and employees have been able to see how Lean works. Employees now understand this is a never-ending process and it can help them out on the shop floor by organizing their work area, eliminating unneeded steps and improving process flow. Some employees have had the opportunity to participate in some small group trainings regarding Set Up Reduction and Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED). More small group sessions are planned for the future.

Several kaizen events have taken place since the Lean process began. Those events were held on the Valve Line, Outlet Line and on the Fabrication Line. Small groups were assembled and any items not needed in the area were removed. Lots of cleaning took place, items and tools were labeled and shadow boards were installed for the employees to use. 

   

Valve Line 5S Team Members
Front: Terry Toombs, , Eric Mayfield
Back: Steve Schreiner, Gary Klinkhardt, Laura Klinkhardt, Darrel Davenport, Bob Hoffman, Brian Blankenship Dong Bailey (Corbitt), Dan Sterling, Amanda Sheffield
 
Floors, walls and machinery were cleaned and new coats of paint were applied where needed. 5S checklists were put into place so that the areas can be sustained. Sometimes during these events processes have even been changed or modified in some way or another to improve cycle times, etc.

Lean is all about keeping people informed about what’s going on and trying to make things as visual for everyone as possible. Because of this Key Performance Indicator Boards (KPI’s) have been installed throughout the plant. There is a plant board and every department has their own board. 11 different items are tracked monthly so employees know how their department is doing compared with the rest of the plant. Areas tracked include safety, quality, customer complaints and attendance.

Many more training sessions and kaizen events will be held in the future. This is a never-ending journey and just because we have already tackled a work area doesn’t mean we won’t be back to that same area again and again to see what else we can do to improve the way things are done. The employees know what makes their work area a better place to work in and we will always welcome any of their ideas and see what can be done to implement those ideas.