Written by David Lewis
Customers that want cheap, mass produced parts buy abroad; those that want quality bespoke parts look closer to home. But such customers still expect low costs. Materials prices are fixed and the latest machinery is critical to producing high quality parts, so developing lean processes is a must for production engineers to stay competitive.
Dawson Precision Components (DPC) is one such production engineering company. The business makes some of the small parts which underpin manufacturing in areas such as Formula 1 cars, mass spectrometers and fighter jets.
To improve its lean processes, DPC put eight members of staff through The Business Improvement Techniques NVQ, which provides a lean approach to housekeeping. They found the course so useful that they are currently putting eight more people through it.
The course teaches a variety of techniques to encourage better organisation, teamwork and lean approaches to business. Managing Director, Simon Dawson, says “many of the processes we learnt are straightforward changes that anyone can make, but by bringing them in and implementing systems to maintain them, we have seen significant improvements.”
One technique which proved particularly beneficial was 5S, a widely used system for lean housekeeping. The details of each process - sorting, straightening, systematic cleaning, standardising, and sustaining - which involves getting rid of anything not needed, clearly designating places for tools near where they are used, labelling and stocktaking of all materials, and keeping the workplace organised.
Simon Dawson adds “we started the course by sorting our materials and found plenty we had been saving that was never realistically going to be used. Having agreed definitions of what is scrap has saved time and allowed us to ensure we get rid of what we don’t need and efficiently sort what we do need.”
Material is indeed sorted efficiently, in alphabetical order and by length and all is documented and labelled. When DPC get an order they know exactly what stock they have and can immediately quote a time for completion. If they have a repeat job, they can call up records of materials as well as machine settings.
Rectifying problems – if and when they occur - is also now formalised based on PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act), a technique taught as part of the Kaizen programme of continuous improvement. Staff have a set of processes to clearly identify and understand any problem and to set a plan to fix it, rather than waiting for it to get worse or reoccur. There is a requisite form to fill in explaining the problem, assigning responsibility and allocating a date to resolve it. This is critical as, if it is not solved, there is a way to identify what went wrong.
Simon concludes “Most lean techniques boil down to small improvements like adjusting layouts, keeping things tidy and fixing problems as soon as they occur. The key to lean success is putting processes in place to ensure we use our learned approaches to continually improve efficiency and always explore how we can do things better.”
This new structured approach to housekeeping has meant faster quotes for customers, faster turnarounds and less waste. As an organisation which sells itself on quality and speed of turnaround, rather than price, having a lean workplace which runs as efficiently as possible has proven invaluable.
