In the summer of 1999, WINOC hosted a conference which introduced High Performance/Lean Manufacturing to over 75 attendees from manufacturing facilities throughout Ohio. At this conference, Channel Products shared their lean manufacturing success story. Jim Ragsdale, Operations Manager of Channel, along with their implementation team presented their individual approach, results and benefits.

Channel Products, a circuit board manufacturer located in Chesterland, OH, formed a Kaizen Blitz team to reduce defects and increase first pass yield of circuit boards that control gas flow and ignition. This team was formed because Channel was experiencing a decline in profits for three consecutive years and competition was moving manufacturing outside of the United States. They had attempted to make internal changes in the past through a variety of consultants and "ideas of the month". These attempts were not successful and resulted in little confidence by employees in the ability to create effective change.

Several employees at Channel Products attended WINOC's Lean Manufacturing seminar in January 1999. After attending the seminar and meeting with WINOC Advisors, they decided to form a Kaizen Blitz Team. They felt this would be a focused effort that would produce significant results in a short period of time. The WINOC Advisors facilitated Channel's Kaizen Blitz Team through the entire implementation process. They walked the team through the investigative process, facilitated brainstorming sessions and helped implement solutions.

The first task was to investigate why Channel's first pass yield was low (85 percent). Their measures revealed that solder and workmanship were the two main reasons for rework and rejections. After learning what two areas were causing the problems, WINOC helped the team create a fishbone analysis of the problems associated with the materials, methods, design, machine and people for both solder and workmanship.

The Kaizen Team used the Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) approach to implement best manufacturing practices in the solder and workmanship areas. In their Transportation and Handling area, the team discovered that the handling of the circuit boards caused damage and loss of parts that lowered the quality of the boards. As a result, they created a new handling system. The circuit boards are now placed on racks that do not allow the boards to touch. This dramatically reduced damage to the circuit boards and reduced parts falling out.

In the Manual Stuffing area, the team found that holding the circuit boards caused pieces to shift or fall off, resulting in rework or rejection. They created a slide rail for the circuit boards which eliminated the need for the operator to hold the piece while inserting other parts. This reduced missing components and dramatically improved time. The group was so enthused with the outcome they actually created a visual scoreboard for the floor so they can see how efficiently they are working!

In addition, WINOC and the Kaizen Team found that there was a lack of standards that clearly defined acceptable and unacceptable parameters. Operators and inspectors had different opinions on what the standards were for accepting and rejecting the product. Implementing new standards was a culture change for Channel employees. However, the team created visual handouts at the stations to assist operators in the implementation.

The results of implementing the changes in these areas were dramatic in the Touch-Up and Manual Insertion areas. In Touch-up, the amount of rework being done was cut in half and the number of touch-up stations was reduced because the circuit boards had less damage. In Manual Insertion, the cycle time was decreased and approximately twice as many boards were processed in the same period of time. These productivity increases were achieved at the same time that defects, due to processing or operator problems, improved 70 percent.

The Kaizen Team not only improved results, it also improved morale and teamwork at Channel. The employees truly gained a renewed interest in improving the production processes. Many barriers that existed between departments in the past were torn down by the enthusiasm that came with seeing the dramatic results of the kaizen blitz.

Channel Products has conducted a second Blitz with equally significant results. They plan to establish a regular schedule of kaizen events using an internal cadre of facilitators trained by WINOC.

For more information on Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing, contact Dennis Hanink at (216) 520-0770 ext. 236 or Dee Holody at ext. 224.