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Plant Layout – Gateway Cylinder

New plant layout for test / assembly / paint operations to improve safety and product tracking

Plant receives compressed gas cylinders from customers to test, performs re-assembly as needed and paints before returning to customers

  • Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) Inbound from customers, 2) Test, optional re-assembly and paint, 3) Prepare to ship back to customers and 4) Information flows from customer order to ship
  • Used Theory of Constraints to identify bottleneck in the process, and use this to control flow in and out of the operations/processes
  • Improvements: 1) Added time-saving equipment to the bottleneck operation, 2) Incorporated bar-code to track product through the operation, and 3) Added safety improvements to cylinder moving which was identified in time and motion studies to be inherently dangerous

Results

  • Reduced staffing through attrition by 15%
  • Improved customer satisfaction by effective order tracking
  • Improved safety resulting in fewer lost time accidents

Plant Layout – BCI Packaging

New layout to separate finished goods storage from production and to increase throughput and labor productivity for organization that employs Adults with Developmental Disabilities

  • Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) Raw material staging, 2) Scheduling, 3) Packaging, and 4) Palletizing and prepare for outbound shipping
  • Discovered that production space was used for storing finished goods, instead of using the finished goods warehouse and that equipment was aligned toward the middle of the factory, creating a material movement bottleneck
  • Improvements: 1) Moved raw material storage and staging from the warehouse to the factory for quick replenishment of materials to the production lines, 2) Reoriented all production lines to flow to the outside of the factory, improving material flow, and 3) Used visual factory tools to make order details and material staging mistake-proof

Results

The new layout relieved bottlenecks that allowed BCI to pursue new packaging business and grow sales from $12 million to $16 million