From disconnected flow to work cell in ten days: A case study

Abstract

To many organizations, implementing a work cell is a mystery.A composite of several successful implementations, this case study takes away that mystery, detailing the general thought process and several of the analyses that are required to do so. 0 I999Implementing the first work cell in a SAP long accustomed to repetitively routing large batches through several disconnected work centers is not for the fainthearted. Yet, it does not necessarily require a lot of capital, take a long time, or require a squadron of manufacturing engineers.Quite the contrary, qualified kaizen facilitators, assisted by five-to ten-person cross-functional teams, often do it in five days or less. Others, committed to transferring the technology as well as implementing a cell, routinely do it in ten days or less. In all cases, implementation comprises three phases: preparation, execution, and perpetuation. Preparation for the cell described here started when a kaizen facilitator first visited the target plant, in response to an inquiry from a plant manager. The initial visit served multiple purposes. It introduced the plant's management team to the kaizen event process, allowed the facilitator to assess the plant management's commitment to making the lean leap, and familiarized the facilitator with the plant's products and manufacturing processes.During the initial visit, roughly 60 days before the implementation of the first work cell, the facilitator used several proprietary checklists and templates to help the management team choose a specific target for the initial work cell imple-mentation; define objectives, scope, and boundaries for a team mandate (Exhibit 1); understand kaizen team roles and think about who should be on the initial kaizen team (Exhibit 2); identify the support resources that would be needed (Exhibit 3); and define a six-week get-ready process (Exhibit 4). The initial visit also resulted in a joint conceptual vision of a desirable future plant configuration and a written team mandate for the implementation of the first work cell. MOVING ON TO EXECUTIONPerhaps plan-do-check-act is the most apt description of the way the work cell was implemented, with the lion's share of the time devoted to the "plan" portion of the cycle. Hear-see-do is probably the best description of what went on during the "plan" portion.During the first four days of the work cell implementation, the team heard from the facilitator about the key questions to be asked and answered (Exhibit 5), saw how to use simple graphical and mathematical tools to find those answers, and did the required analyses and design work.During days six through nine, the kaizen team implemented (do), with the help of maintenance, each element of