Continuous improvement in metal fabrication: Role changes in a lean transformation

Welcome to Typical Fabrication Co. A fictitious company, TFC will be this column’s home for the next several months. Each month we’ll feature one hypothetical employee and describe his or her day before and after a lean transformation. This month, let’s take a look through the eyes of Carl, the production supervisor.

Background

Part of TFC’s operation is repetitive (selling to a Tier 1 that then sells to the OEM) and part is very low-volume, high-product-mix (providing structural materials used at construction sites and major refurbish projects). TFC laser-cuts, saws, punches, bends, welds, paints, and assembles various products out of sheet metal and tube. The single-plant operation has 120 employees and runs two shifts.

TFC has typical issues, including capacity constraints around specific processes. Although the demand for the repetitive products is reasonably predictable, the company’s construction products have highly variable, unpredictable demand. Most employees have been with TFC for 15 years or more and are somewhat set in their ways.

The Production Supervisor’s Day, the Traditional Way

Carl has been with TFC for more than 20 years and knows all the tricks to getting product out the door. He gets to the plant at 6 a.m. and finds that today looks like most any other day: lots of firefighting, but he feels he can solve enough problems to make it through the day. Material shortages ensue, a key machine breaks down, and the sales department drops in an order that makes production late before it even starts. But Carl is confident that he will figure a way to keep everyone satisfied.

“Hey, Carl. Do you know where the tooling is for this job sales dropped on us yesterday? I thought it was in one of the racks behind the press brake. I sorted through the pile, but can’t find it.”

So says the press brake operator. Carl spends the next 15 minutes searching with the operator before they find the tooling on the wrong shelf. Carl shakes his head and mumbles, “Those were 15 minutes I’ll never get back.”

At 7:30 Carl runs into the operations manager, who is clearly upset because two orders that were supposed to be completed on second shift and scheduled for shipment this morning are not ready. Carl is in the hot seat again. “Why wasn’t the job finished last night, and how can we finish the job this morning?” he wonders.

Carl’s priority just got yanked around before he even had a good start on the day. What was shaping up to be a reasonable plan to fulfill that extra order from sales just got derailed by the operations manager, who is responding to heat from farther up the food chain. This seems to be a daily occurrence.

In the areas of the plant where things seem to be going OK—that is, Carl is not hearing the “Hey, Boss” questions—operators, welders, and assemblers are producing as much as possible. After all, there is plenty of work-in-process (WIP) awaiting processing. They keep making parts, shoving them along into storage to wait for the next operation. Are the parts needed immediately, and are they in the right sequence for the downstream operations? No matter. They’re earning lots of standard hours that drive good efficiency metrics. This is the one bright spot in Carl’s day!

Carl came in to work expecting to know how to resolve the constraints left from yesterday, how he would sequence jobs through the shop to get the necessary outputs, and how he would spend part of his day improving one of the processes in his area. Instead of a steady and predictable day, though, Carl pushes through numerous starts, stops, and disruptions. The pressure builds, and Carl never seems to catch up. Every time he sees the boss, Carl hears, “Why didn’t you …?” No wonder Carl tries to avoid him.

TFC leadership eventually began to understand that the current situation just wasn’t sustainable. They came to understand that people, including Carl, worked hard and had the company’s best interests at heart. But they worked with lousy processes that were doomed to fail. Hence the need for a lean transformation.

The Production Supervisor’s Day, Lean Transformation Embraced

In the transformed business, Carl still gets to the plant at 6 a.m., but his day is completely different. By working in smooth and predictable processes, Carl can guide the work and coach his employees to make decisions for themselves based on standards, rules, signals, and data. Plant operations now have a rhythm to them, as does Carl’s day.

Even in the transformed operations, Carl still gets surprised by unplanned events. For example, how would Carl handle the sales order that drops in unexpectedly? The short answer: much differently than before. Let’s take a look.

The sales manager approaches and says, “Carl, got a hot one here! The customer needs this order filled by the end of the week. They are in a pinch. Can you get it done?” Carl says he’ll get back with a plan in 30 minutes.

With the WIP levels worked down, ability to perform quick changeovers, and effective use of visual controls, Carl can scan the shop quickly and get a sense of the work loads at each work center that will be affected by the new customer order. There is no scrambling for information. The small batch sizes in the shop provide great flexibility for Carl to adjust priorities without causing cascading “schedule slippage” on other orders. Based on takt time and the cycle time analysis, Carl has deep insight into the capacity utilization and capabilities of the work centers.

Carl adjusts the schedule and fits the new order in the sequence. One work center has a slight problem; it may require three hours of overtime, but that’s manageable. The sales manager is delighted when Carl informs him that the order will be completed on Thursday evening and packaged for shipment first thing Friday morning.

Based on his understanding of the overall fulfillment process, the sales manager knows that Carl is running a smooth shop that flows well, has good data for decision-making, and that Carl will tell him “no” when production really cannot respond to drop-in orders. Carl has minimized the disruption and is now on to his normal day.

The operations manager bumps into the sales manager and hears about how production has solved the customer drop-in problem. The sales manager repeats for about the umpteenth time how much he enjoys working with production since the plant has made the investment in the lean transformation. A few minutes later, the operations manager sees Carl (who does not turn the other direction!) and shares the feedback. It simply reinforces to Carl that the transition from the older, traditional way of running the plant to the lean way was worth every ounce of effort.

The employees at TFC now have greater clarity about what is expected, how to be involved in resolving problems, and how they interrelate with upstream and downstream processes. This allows Carl to spend more of his time coaching and improving, rather than looking for tooling or answering the repetitive “Hey, Boss” questions from operators and material handlers.

Although problems still arise, Carl has a plan for how he will spend his day. He has a daily five-minute stand-up meeting with shop floor employees to focus on issues from yesterday and today.

Carl starts the meeting with the first agenda item: safety. “Do we have any safety issues today?” he asks before he moves on to the next agenda item. Carl says, “I want everyone to know that we have a drop-in order that will affect our plan a bit. I have done the analysis with two of the affected operators, and we are confident we can handle the unplanned order. The lead person will be around to provide more detail to those directly affected today.” Then he asks if there are any materials or tooling issues. After that, Carl thanks everyone and brings the meeting to a close—at five minutes sharp!

He also has a 15-minute (tops) daily production meeting with no more than five people from production, materials, engineering, and customer service/order entry. And he has at least two hours set aside throughout the day to coach his employees. Carl helps make his area run smoothly, and he prevents major disruptions by dealing with them early and firmly.

The product flows predictably through the operation. With a solid grasp of takt time and cycle time, Carl is able to effectively deploy resources to minimize constraints, develop expectations with his employees about output performance, and provide value-added feedback to other functions (planning, customer service, accounting, etc.) for input into their processes.

Everybody is on the same page. Carl and his employees respect each other and share responsibility to get the job done—no need for high emotions, yelling, or getting mad. As Carl demonstrates respect for his employees, employees will mirror that respect back to Carl.

Carl uses data to frame issues, coach his employees, and make decisions. Where before employees had a “why are you making me do this?” attitude, now they are briefed on situations, provided data about the issues, and have a voice in the resolutions. Carl leads people through this process.

Finally, Carl doesn’t feel the need to avoid his boss. The same coaching, mentoring, and trusting relationship Carl has with employees exists between Carl and his manager.

A Better Day

The transformed manufacturing company makes it easy for Carl to focus on the right things, those that get product out the door, develop employees to have enriched jobs, work effectively with other functions, and satisfy customers.

Many of us either are, have been, or will be a production supervisor sometime in our manufacturing careers. TFC’s expectations of Carl are quite different in the transformed business. Carl had to invest in his own development, change how he relates to the workforce, become much more analytical, and function as a coach rather than an iron-fisted boss.

He has to think several steps ahead to anticipate issues, guide the right resources to the right problems/opportunities, and have the best data to make great decisions. In the transformed TFC, Carl is not playing checkers; he is playing chess.

So how does your company prepare your Carls to make this transition and be successful? It can be a difficult transition for some, easy for others. We need to invest in all the Carls so that they can be successful. The lean transformation cannot be sustained if Carl is not onboard.