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The company are a large US multinational based in the West of Ireland. They manufacture replacement body parts and are the largest supplier globally.
The company had completed the build of a new site and wanted to get some expert input on maximising the throughput and how best to reduce lead times, costs and inventory to their minimum. The company wanted to ensure that the layout would deliver the capacity to meet its future plans.
The challenge was to deliver to the US company a clear recommendation on what was the best operating methodology to implement in the manufacture of the state-of-the-art replacement body part within the time limit before full production was due to begin.
Working within a tight time frame, the key challenge was to gather sufficient data on the production batch cycle times and takt time. An extensive future state value stream map was completed to identify the most efficient and cost effective workflow. With great support from the management team, and using 3D images of the equipment for the future state layout, the various possible workflows were designed using extensive spaghetti diagrams and calculation comparisons.
Standardising the roles of all the positions in the value stream was imperative to deliver the required efficient recommendation with the clear understanding that quality was a fundamental deliverable.
The extensive work designing the future state layout and getting precise measurement on what could be achieved if workflow and productivity were maximised, delivered savings in excess of €4,000,000. The layout, standard work and workflow gave the company sufficient head room for expected future capacity increases.