Challenge
AThere had been a strong downturn in the market in terms of demand and price for polypropylene, which is used in automotive parts, such as battery cases, dashboards, running boards and bumpers. Our client, a second-tier automotive supplier based in Germany, wanted to take this opportunity to prepare for the next upturn, meaning that fixed cost had to be taken out and the people and equipment needed to be ready to generate significantly more output than before.
Approach
In many businesses there is often a belief that the way we do things now is the best way, which is understandable. So,when an outside company comes in to look at your processes, it is almost unbelievable that someone who does not know your business can improve it. For change to be sustainable, it must come from within, and at Axisto we always work with clients at all stages of a project to make sure there is never a “them and us” situation. As a result we encourage cooperation, belief and ownership – and this creates better and more sustainable results.
We began the project by undertaking a joint analysis of the factory’s performance. This allowed us to work hand-inhand with the teams on site to look at the challenges the business was facing and the performance issues within the factory. Through this cooperative and joint approach we gained a mutual understanding of the problems, which led to an initial level of buy-in from the teams on the shop floor for potential improvements and generated ideas on how best to make the changes.
We like to help our clients succeed and grow. One of the ways we do this is by giving shop-floor operators and supervisors opportunities to present their ideas and analysis to senior management. During the project, we involved shop-floor employees in the steering group meetings, so we had German shift operators making presentations to European, English-speaking, senior managers. This allowed the employees to demonstrate their capabilities and offered senior management a chance to recognise good work and showcase key people. Word soon spread that involving yourself in continuous improvement projects was a good thing and was beneficial to your career. This further underpinned the long-term cultural and behavioural changes needed for the organisation to succeed.
Extrusion is a capital-intensive process that requires high levels of output and quality in order to achieve the necessary returns on capital employed. Small improvements in such a volume environment lead to large returns on an annualised basis. Therefore, when downtime was measured at 22% of available time, this was a huge opportunity in terms of capacity and cost savings.
Part of the problem the factory faced was a lack of clear daily production performance data. This meant that management was not aware of the root causes of performance issues and, as a result, was unable to assess the corrective actions required. In addition, there was a lack of preventative maintenance data, and this led to frequent and unpredictable breakdowns, which further compounded poor performance.
In order to fix this problem, we installed short interval control around the production process and monitored output on an hourly basis, recordingdowntime issues when they occurred. This allowed the team to understand the production losses. We found quite quickly that the losses in the downtime figure of 22% were attributed to changeovers (11%), breakdowns (7%), colour adjustment (2.5%), staff shortages (1%) and other (0.5%).
It was found that, due to poor planning processes, colours were not always run in the correct order – that is, there was not always a transition from light to dark colours – and this had been causing extra downtime in cleaning and changeovers. The team was able to decrease the changeover times by fixing the planning rules, improving communication across the process and working on pre-mix scheduling.
Breakdowns were also an issue, so the team implemented a planned preventative maintenance schedule to regain control. In order to calculate Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), it is necessary to collect historical data on breakdown patterns; therefore, this system element only started to deliver results later in the project. However, even in its early stages, the team saw a reduction in unplanned downtime due to breakdowns.
As part of the TPM process (Total Preventative Maintenance), we began a 5S-training programme with first-line operators. This led to a much more orderly workplace with a place for everything and everything in its place. The second stage of this process was to move onto first-line maintenance and safety, with the proper guarding of machinery and safety procedures put around operating machinery. The employees were then trained in how to maintain key equipment components and how to clean down properly. All of this activity led to a cleaner and safer working environment and greater visibility of issues. To boost morale, the team also arranged for the control room to be refurbished, which led to increased self-esteem, motivation and project engagement.
A full Preventative Maintenance (PPM) roadmap was designed and left with the client after the project ended, and we know that the results from this area have continued to grow.
Results
With buy-in from the employees, the improvement teams made changes throughout the factory, resulting in:
- improved production planning & forecasting.
- An effective labour planning process, which eliminated the labour-shortage downtime.
- Improvements to the colour adjustment process, which reduced the downtime.
- Fewer breakdowns through equipment improvements and improved housekeeping.
- Equipment adjusted for quicker changeovers.
- Implementation of a shop-floor performance measurement system.
- A new management performance framework.
- Improved teamwork within the management team.
A culture of continuous improvement had been adopted by the employees: five months after the end of the project the OEE had reached 82%; the equipment downtime had decreased from 22% to 8%; and the daily output was 350 t/d, with annualised savings
of €7.44m.
Follow up:
Following the successful completion of this project, Axisto was asked to do a further eight projects in factories in Germany, England, Italy, Holland and France.
