Lincoln Industries, primarily known for its plating operations, also produces a product line of exhaust tubes for semi-trucks that are manufactured in many sizes and configurations. Their performance improvement goal was to simplify and shorten the amount of changeover time needed to produce the bends in the tubes.
To enable the improvement of the changeover, they contracted to host the NBDC Lean Enterprise Certificate training workshop on set-up reduction. By hosting the training at their company site, the company was able to have class participants analyze a changeover that was producing an exhaust tube.
The workshop teams were highly successful in identifying ways to improve this changeover, primarily with low-cost suggestions including specialized measuring tools, designated locations for materials and tools, visual means for measurements, standard work for a two person changeover, and eliminating waiting time during the changeover. Lincoln Industries formed their own team to implement all of these ideas and others.
By creating standard work, a better layout for the components in the area and having all the tools the operator needs available to them quickly, plus specialized tools, operators have reduced this changeover by 43%. The majority of this improvement was in reducing the amount of waiting time between the two changeover operators.
"Renee and team did an excellent job of training on the SMED philosophy and toolbox. The high energy and excitement really fueled the team to excel in a short period of time. We had the opportunity to send our own people to the event which greatly helped us implement and sustain the results. We are still utilizing these tools to drive even greater improvement. This training, along with the lean certification program, would benefit any organization wanting to develop their people to improve their business. We greatly appreciated the opportunity to host the event." —Tim Gesell, Operations Manager, Lincoln Industries