Challenge
The company was challenged with meeting lead time requirements for their customers. Backlog orders had grown to nearly $11 million. Average weekly production rates were stymied at 24k pounds. There was no robust system or process to understand root causes of downtime, nor a focused and disciplined approach to planning and scheduling production. Furthermore, the company had excessive equipment reliability problems, exacerbated by a lack of investment in capital improvements.
Solution
Following an initial focus on Planning and Scheduling, Synergetics led the effort to improve shop floor management and preventive maintenance. The team implemented:
Short interval follow-ups by Supervisors
Identification and recording of specific downtime causes using Synovate (Power Apps)
Visual management boards showing hour by hour plan versus actual production
An enhanced Maintenance Management Operating System: managers dashboard using Power Bi, daily huddles, production planning meetings, skills flexibility matrix, and identification and approval of nearly $2.7 million CAPEX equipment upgrades
An Operations Daily Operating Report and review meeting
An overhauled Gemba walk and continuous improvement meeting
