Lean Production – PSC Info Group

Results Case Studies

Case Study Snapshot

Results At A Glance

On-Time Delivery

<50% to 85%+

Throughput

+20%

Layout

Departments to Flow Lines

Key Takeaways

  • Lean assessment identified product families and mapped sub-process takt times.
  • Facility re-layout replaced departmental equipment groupings with flow-based production lines.
  • Personnel realigned from department teams to flow-line teams for ownership and accountability.
  • Standard work documentation enabled consistent output across shifts and operators.

Where This Approach Fits

Best for print, packaging, or batch-process manufacturers where departmental layouts constrain throughput and delivery.

Lean Process Improvement Facility Layout

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Problem / Challenge:

PSC Info Group is a leader in data management, printing and mailing technology and online solutions that facilitate billing, collection.

Originally a much smaller “making copies” company, growth into online solutions and advanced mailing technology opened up new product and growth opportunities but it quickly rendered their old production processes incapable of meeting a rapidly growing demand.

In early 2000’s PSC was acquired by private equity, requiring the business to dramatically overhaul in order to meet more aggressive demands.

Lean Assessment

A Lean Systems Assessment was conducted to identify issues and opportunities for driving necessary improvements. The Assessment recommended projects to address the following:

Performance Measurement for Decision Making

  • While the organization was growing, which made personnel feel good about performance, there were few key performance measures in place to drive accountability or challenge continuous improvement

Organizational Alignment

  • Related in part to a lack of key performance measures, the organizational structure did not align well to the new mission drivers of the business

Lean Flow & 5S

  • Production scheduling was very manual and did not support flow through the facility. Unfinished work in progress (WIP) was prevalent and there was a lack of visually obvious 5S organization, slowing down production. On time delivery was poor, so the schedule was constantly being adjusted to escalate major client delivery needs as priority, which tended to make other clients late.

Break Down Operations Into Subprocesses

Chart all Sub-Processes and Map Product Family Flows

  • Identify each sub-process
  • Identify product families
  • Create Time Study Matrix
  • Collect Demand Forecast per Product Family
  • Calculate Takt time and resources required
  • Balance and group resources into “Flow Paths”
  • Re-layout facility from “Functional Equipment” based to “Flow” based

RESULT: 5 Lean Production Flow Lines

5 Lean Production Flow Lines:

  • No manual scheduling, first come first serve flow
  • Dramatically reduced WIP
  • Personnel aligned into flow line teams and NOT by department/equipment
  • Visually obvious 5S organization

Results

  • On Time Delivery immediately soared from sub 50% to over 85%
  • Capacity/thruput increased 20+%

Learn more about Lean Manufacturing

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