On May 19 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, hundreds of manufacturers gathered to attend WMEP’s Manufacturing Matters! Conference. Among many other workshops designed to help Wisconsin companies grow and prosper, WMEP moderated a roundtable discussion with three Wisconsin companies who are successfully implementing lean manufacturing.
For those who weren’t able to attend this workshop, we caught up with the three companies and asked them to share more about their journeys and the lessons they learned.
Beginning the Journey
Broan-NuTone cleans shop
Broan-NuTone is a company headquartered in Hartford, Wisconsin that makes range hoods and bath fans. They recently began their Lean journey in March 2003 with 6-S, a visual method of organizing and streamlining the workplace.
Dorner Manufacturing Corporation expands horizons
In the 90s, the demand for small conveyor systems grew rapidly. But despite being innovators of these systems, Dorner Manufacturing Corporation, located in Hartland, Wisconsin, couldn’t keep up with orders. “The more we sold the more we scrambled,” says Dorner President Scott Lucas. After visiting other companies who had streamlined their operations, they started on the road to lean manufacturing in 1999. Now they are working on their supply chain and product design.
Donaldson Company builds on small successes
Jim Martin, Plant Manager at Donaldson Company in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, says his plant took the first steps toward lean manufacturing in 2001. This maker of fuel, hydraulic and oil filters decided to start small and apply a “pull” system to a component manufacturing process. Currently, they are applying lean manufacturing principles to additional product lines.
Obstacles on the way
These companies succeeded in implementing lean manufacturing, but their journeys weren’t always smooth. Each one overcame obstacles in their journey.
Resistance to change
All three companies were already successful before they began lean manufacturing. Ironically, this made change more difficult. Each company took a different approach to challenging the accepted wisdom that “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. Donaldson stressed education and started with small, manageable projects. Dorner aggressively demanded lean performance from suppliers—they even sponsored training for suppliers who couldn’t afford it. Broan overcame resistance to change by getting all their employees involved in teams.
Payback mentality
Most equipment and process upgrades are justified by payback: if an improvement can pay for itself in a few years, it’s worth it. But Broan found their 6-S initiative difficult to evaluate by traditional payback formulas. Instead, the company is choosing to benchmark progress by safety improvements, positive customer feedback, and increased morale while they develop appropriate measures to quantify their results.
Skepticism about sustaining improvements
“We’ve seen a number of programs come and go,” says Broan’s Engineering Manager Dan Bothe. “What everyone asked was how we would sustain the improvements.” He cites WMEP’s philosophy of independence as part of the solution. “They partnered with us and taught us how to teach ourselves.” Follow-up sessions to cement positive changes were important as well.
Travel lessons
As the three companies took the risk of changing their operations, they learned some important lessons about lean manufacturing.
Learn from the shop floor
Donaldson discovered that many of their employees owned businesses on the side and possessed skills in management, inventory and finance that could be put to use streamlining the company’s operation. Broan discovered the hidden assets of second and third shift workers. “These are often younger people who have aggressive ideas,” says Bothe. “But they often feel invisible.” Broan empowered them by including these workers on core teams and giving them authority to make changes.
Get your suppliers involved
A manufacturing enterprise doesn’t stop at the plant walls. It branches out to all the vendors and suppliers that feed raw materials and components to the company. After a few years of doing lean manufacturing on their own, Dorner realized the implication of this and asked their partners to join them on the Lean journey. But Lucas stressed that Dorner had to clean its own house first. “Once you’re improved,” he notes, “you can see clearly how your suppliers need to improve.”
Redesign products and facility—but don’t go too fast
“Lean manufacturing would have brought us only 30% of the way had we not redesigned our products to work better in a lean environment,” says Lucas. This meant making Dorner’s conveyor systems easier to customize, so that engineering wouldn’t have to get involved every time a customer had a special order. They even built a new facility designed for lean manufacturing, though Lucas doesn’t recommend building a new plant and going Lean at the same time. Their performance dropped during this difficult transition.
Venturing out
WMEP manufacturing specialist Jerry Thiltgen moderated the Lean Journey workshop. He has some advice for companies wondering how lean manufacturing might benefit them: Hit the road and find out.
“You can only listen and observe for so long,” he says. “Eventually you have to apply lean manufacturing to your situation and learn from your successes—and your mistakes.”
That commitment sets a company on a never-ending journey to continuous improvement. “This is something I noticed when we were visiting other companies,” says Lucas. “Everywhere I went they were accomplished and had been doing Lean for years. But they seemed to be in the first month of their journey. To go Lean and get results is only to get a taste of it. There’s so much more to accomplish.”