A manufacturer of dehydrators used on natural gas well heads was experiencing quality and delivery issues due to turnover and a lack of training of their people. In response to these issues, they trained several dozen people on the 4-Step JI method of instruction and chose to initially focus on improving the first time quality of their Continue reading
Author: Roger Bilas
Demonstration and Practice Repetitions in the JI 4-Step Method – Key Learnings
The post on how many repetitions are best in JI resulted in several key learnings for me. I contacted numerous people I have trained as a Master JI Trainer to see if they are using the 3 reps for Present the Operation- 4 reps for Try Out Performance. All of them said it depends. The consensus was Continue reading
5S at Community College Reprographics Center
This video chronicles the improvement efforts of a reprographics shop at a community college. Continue reading
Throughput Gains Through Basic Stability Improvements in the Aerospace Industry
Confronted with a rapid increase in demand from the customer, an aerospace defense manufacturer had to rapidly expand production 50% without major increases in capital or manpower. By focusing on the constraint operation in the value stream making improvements in workplace and station layout, standardizing tools and Continue reading
Productivity Improvement and Learning Curve Reduction in the Aerospace Industry
A defense contractor was experiencing significant difficulty manufacturing an extremely complex component of a missile system. The organization was working over 8 hours per day 7 days a week shipping on average 2 units per week. Customer requirement were being missed. Rework costs were running $2,400 per unit and in the last batch of 15 sent to final test, all 15 failed. The supervisor decided to try using Job Instruction to at retrain the assembler on the job. Continue reading