Investment casting firm takes lean approach to savings.Like many metalcasting facilities in the U.S., Doncasters Medical, Oregon City There are two places named Oregon City in the United States:
Precision casting for forming metal shapes with minutely precise details. Casting bronze or precious metals typically involves several steps, including forming a mold around the sculptured form; detaching the mold (in two or more sections); coating its firm that casts components for the medical industry, including artificial knees, hips and other body parts, decided that lean manufacturing Lean manufacturing is the production of goods using less of everything compared to mass production: less human effort, less manufacturing space, less investment in tools, and less engineering time to develop a new product. could prove beneficial. The firm enlisted en·list·ed adj. Of, relating to, or being a member of a military rank below a commissioned officer or warrant officer. enlisted Adjective the help of Lean Enterprise Training, Newport, Ore., to help adopt the lean approach. As a result, Doncasters cut its leadtime in half, created 32,000 sq. ft. of open floor space and improved its on-time delivery performance. The first step toward adopting the lean approach was assessing Doncasters' current condition. The firm produced 100 molds/day. Each mold mold, name for certain multicellular organisms of the various classes of the kingdom Fungi, characteristically having bodies composed of a cottony mycelium. The colors of molds are caused by the spores, which are borne on the mycelium. was valued at $1,000. with 4,100 molds in the process, the metalcasting facility was carrying $4 million in work in progress inventory. It also meant a 41-day leadtime. The firm also wished to improve its on-time delivery performance. Doncasters had a 100% on time delivery percentage--but it came with a price. When the firm ships the components on-time, the customer pays for shipping. But when the components must be shipped overnight or next day, Doncasters was footing the bill. That translated into $750,000 in shipping costs in 2003. After assessing Doncasters' situation, Lean Enterprise Training went to work finding a solution. First, Doncasters' takt time Takt time can be defined as the maximum time allowed to produce a product in order to meet demand. It is derived from the German word taktzeit which translates to clock cycle. There is a logic therefore to setting the pace of production flow to this takt time. was calculated. Takt time refers to the rate of rhythm of manufacture. It is calculated by dividing avail able time by demand. Doncasters' available time was 480 min. each 8 hr. workday. Subtracting two 10-min. breaks left 460 rain. At 100 molds/day, Doncasters needed to produce one mold every 4.6 min. The consultants then sought to calculate Doncasters' average operator cycle times (OCT OCT ornithine carbamoyltransferase; oxytocin challenge test. OCT ornithine carbamoyl transferase, a liver specific enzyme. OCT Oxytocin stress test, see there ), set-up times and machine cycle times (MCT See Microsoft certification. ) to determine the proper amount of people and product to have in the pipeline in order to run the system. The weighted average OCT was determined to be 512 rain. of pure touch labor. By dividing that number by the tam time, it was determined that 111.3 operators were needed. Next, the appropriate amount of operators needed for each step was determined. For example, if wax assembly required 23 min./mold, then 23 divided by 4.6 equals five operators. Then, the MCT was determined to be 6,400 min. The MCT divided by 4.6 equals 1,400. Theoretically, Doncasters could reduce its inventory to 1,400 molds. The firm was hesitant hes·i·tant adj. Inclined or tending to hesitate. hes  i·tant·ly adv. to make the drop from 4,100 molds to 1,400 so it set the goal of cutting clown clown, a comic character usually distinguished by garish makeup and costume whose antics are both humorously clumsy and acrobatic. The clown employs a broad, physical style of humor that is wordless or not as self-consciously verbal as the traditional fool or jester. to 1,800. Months after implementing the project. Doncasters reached its goal. In doing so, the firm had taken more than $2 million of inventory out ofthe system and reduced the average leadtime front 41 days to 25 (including one week to ship components to the Mid west for heat treating). More than a year after implementing the system, Doncasters has eliminated another 500 molds from its inventory. Now operating with 1,300 molds, the firm has saved an additional $500,000 of inventory value. The drastic reduction also has opened up 32,000 sq. ft. of floor space for other uses. At $15/sq. ft.-value/yr., this equates to another $500.000 in potential improvement. Doncasters also was able to go to one product line to simplify business. Combined with the vacant floor space. the firm is now ready to address rear-ranging the layout to make the next big step and reap more benefits. Select No. 002 at www.mederncasting.com/info |
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