Increasing production capacity

Objective: Increasing the production capacity and stabilizing it for the T2 supplier, at the request of his client T1. Implement a production system that leads to improved delivery predictability and improved internal communication as well as the communication between supplier and customer . Another objective was to support T2 in carrying out specific preparation for the new product (according to PPAP).

Initial situation: The T1 customer expects a significant increase in orders and consequently, he wants to ensure that his supplier, T2, will be able to deliver it according to this plan. Large investments have been made in new equipment but there are fears that even in these conditions, delivery risks might occurs. On the other hand, the communication related to the preparations for the new products and orders was not at the level expected by the customer. After several attempts to support the supplier (sending its own employees to the T2 factory), T1 decided to contract an external consultant (EFFECTIVE FLUX) to support T2 in order to recover the delays.

Activities carried out:

1. Detailed understanding of the situation as well as the estimated growth plan.

2. Discussions with T2 Top Management and factory processes assesment.

3. Identifying the first action, prioritizing it and starting them urgently. Some of it:

• Improving communication between T1 departments (planning, reception, quality) and those of T2 (logistics, production, quality).
• Implementation of a Lean type production system, in the manufacturing processes related to deliveries to T1 (performance measurement, staff involvement, process improvement activities, training and flexibility of operators).
• Reducing quality problems, starting with customer complaints.
• Increasing assembly efficiency and equipment effectiveness (OEE, by reducing downtime primarily)
• Reducing maintenance problems. Implementation of preventive maintenance.
• Training for technical staff regarding critical issues (problem solving, SPC, MSA, FMEA, PPAP) and coaching for implementation.

Results: After the 9 months of the consulting project, we obtained:

1. Defect rate decreased by 66%

2. Manual assembly efficiency increased by 50%

3. Equipment production capacity has been doubled: OEE has increased by 100%. Basically, the "old" equipment was enough.

Note: increasing the capacity did not required investments for new equipment but only with organization optimizing.