New Line Start-Up: Crashes Eliminated and Defects Reduced

Q. When a new line starts up and everything is new to operators, supervisors, managers, and mechanics, how do you get everyone on the same page quickly? How do you learn and practice necessary tasks yet minimize downtime and meet production targets at the same time?

Client

A midsized medical device maker bringing up their first department running automated production lines.

Challenges

New automated lines were installed to launch a critical mission: a new product crucial to the company’s future. The start-up was characterized by traditional approaches that included informal, experiential learning (versus designed training) and top-down, expert-driven problem-solving.

Upon launch, both lines were plagued by excessive crashes and downtime. In particular, there were ongoing and severe crashes at a bottleneck workstation. These ongoing crashes frustrated engineers and mechanics alike, who made little progress avoiding the laborious and costly, multiple-hour down periods. Compounding crashing problems, there were a large percentage of defects coming from operator set-ups and monitoring activities at a key printing station.

Solutions

We introduced two systems to address the multiple factors causing issues.

The first was a shopfloor management system (SFM). We taught managers how to run this basic system in a short period of time.

Floor operators were given the responsibility to maintain key metrics. Operators, managers, and support staff reviewed these key metrics on a daily basis. Anyone could raise an issue, and then management was responsible for validating and prioritizing the follow-up tasks. Managers assigned tasks to cross-functional teams who then mobilized and collaborated across specialties down to the factory floor. This reorganization took operators from a position of boredom—simply watching automated machines—to a level of engagement in the issues and problems that interfered with measurable results.

The second necessary system was a structured on-the-job (SOJT) training system—a system of reliable skill transfer. We taught operators instructor skills that allowed them to transfer their know-how error-free.

These paraprofessional trainers were responsible for seeing their instruction as specific, desired, and measurable results in their trainees’ performance. This ultimate training network became a key enabler of standard work: the condition where desired work standards are performed consistently across individuals, work groups, lines, and shifts. Due to a lack of reliable standard work among printer operators, the printer station set-up and operation became the first target for trainers, training, and cross-training. 

Results

Due to progress on standard work, the print defects were reduced by 75% across four shifts. This was the equivalent of 5% of production for this premium product in an environment where every part that three automated lines could make could be sold—the equivalent of $59,000 per day (2021 dollars) in wholesale revenue.

The stressful crashes at the bottleneck machine were eliminated with an operator solution. The SFM system allowed for productive inputs and prioritized solutions, so that an operator’s keen auditory observations led him to experiment by pulling questionable parts from an infeed. Through the process, the team discovered that there were variations in vendor-supplied parts that were not inspected or adequate for the line. This overlooked variation was the cause of the ongoing jams and crashes. The operators who discovered the root cause proudly displayed the impact to their metrics on the shopfloor board. Downtime went from 13% to 5%, the equivalent of at least $45,000 per day (2021 dollars) across all product lines.