At Schaumburg Specialties, we’re on a daily mission to deliver top quality, cost effective production equipment to our valued customers. LEAN manufacturing is a tried-and-tested principle that we’ve recently embraced to help us continuously improve the efficiencies of our production processes, reduce waste and maintain a clean & organized workspace. Working with LEAN means our output increases and our costs reduce - which benefits not only us, but our customers too!
Client: Schaumburg Specialties
Industry: Metal Fabrication
Location: Schaumburg, Illinois

The Challenge

Like all manufacturers, we wanted our production line to be as smooth and efficient as possible. However, like many companies, we knew that there were lots of areas in which we could improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness, to reduce costs and boost productivity.

Enter our new Purchasing Manager, Bob Sorensen, who joined the team in January and has decades of experience in operations, procurement, supply chain, LEAN, 5S and inventory management!

Bob got straight to work organizing and streamlining our processes, and we have already seen great improvements in our ways of working and cost-effective output.

 

Our Solution

LEAN is all about working smarter, not harder! It’s about making continuous improvements (streamlining workflows to keep operational output smooth and cost-effective) and the elimination of waste (time, labor, materials etc) to maximize efficiency and productivity.

Within the LEAN concept, there are several elements – such as the 5S principles and the philosophies of Kaizen and KANBAN, which we have now also fully integrated into our working operations (read more on these below) …

 

The Principles of 5S

The principles of 5S are fully enshrined within the LEAN manufacturing concept. They provide a framework for implementing a workplace organization system that creates a cleaner, safer and more productive working environment.

The 5S system keeps everything in order and creates a structured, clutter-free workplace: “Everything has its place and everything should always be in its place.”

  • Sort – remove what’s unnecessary
  • Set In Order – arrange items for easy access
  • Shine – keep your workspace clean
  • Standardize – create consistent practices
  • Sustain – maintain and improve continuously.

In our plant workshop, for example, we now stop a shift ten minutes early, to clean and tidy workstations, sweep the floor and make sure all tools are put away in the correct place and are 100% clean and functional.

Workstations and the plant are tidied and cleaned

 

Everyone on the team leaves their workstation the way they want to enter it at the beginning of the next shift. That way, no time is wasted repairing, cleaning [or looking for misplaced tools the next day and work can begin the minute a colleague arrives at their station.

Naturally, this is helping to make our processes far more efficient and productive and we have seen great improvements in our operational proficiencies and output across the business.

 

Kaizen

Kaizen is all about continuous improvement, focusing on small, ongoing changes to improve efficiency and reduce waste.

In our workshop, we’ve carried out 20 Kaizen’s in the last three months and we are currently averaging two a week. Our target is one every day! Any member of the team can initiate a Kaizen and they can be as big as a whole workspace reorganization or as small and as simple as moving one thing off a workstation to make more space!

For example, we tidied away unused fixtures that were sitting in three separate areas for the workshop. We consolidated the three separate piles into one box, freeing up lots of space to store finished goods.

Unused fixtures were consolidated

 

We also acquired new racks to organise all our different casters and fasteners. Before these Kaizens, none of these pieces of equipment were easy to identify and were housed in several different disorganized boxes. Now, all our different types of casters and fasteners are in their new racks, clearly labelled with their part number and quantity, so we not only know exactly which type we need at a given time, we also know when it’s time to replenish our supply.

New caster rack

New fastener racks

 

Another really great Kaizen we’ve undertaken is moving the lockout/tagout box from the office to the workshop. Beforehand, the manufacturing team couldn’t easily access the lockout station, but now we have all our padlocks, tags and other lockout tools neatly stored and ready to use in an easy-to-spot location. This also saves valuable time because employees no longer need to walk all the way to the office to gain access to the box.

We changed the location of the lockout/tagout box

 

Other examples of recent Kaizens we’ve carried out include labelling all cartons and containers to make their contents easily identifiable (no need to go digging through boxes to find the part you want) and factory signage to clearly mark each area of the factory, so no one is wandering around unsure of where they are or where they’re going.

We’ve implemented factory signage

 

In addition, we’ve implemented floor markings, for example yellow markings indicate a safe walkway, blue identifies components, green shows finished goods and red is marked out as a holding area.

Floor markings make areas clearly identifiable

 

Moving to a paperless system for our inspection reports and product specifications is another huge progression we’ve made in our drive to maximize our efficiency and output. Beforehand, employees would have to walk to the printer in the office to print out inspection forms and then fill them out at their workstation. Now, they can simply scan a QR code on their phone to fill out forms and add pictures and convert the document to a pdf to save online.

This has proven to be a great way to save paper, time and money, not to mention work in a more sustainable fashion.

Paperless report system part 3 | Schaumburg Specialties

We now have a paperless report system

 

Kanban

Kanban is all about efficiency, agility and just-in-time production! It keeps production flowing smoothly by visualizing tasks, limiting ‘work in progress’ and reducing bottlenecks.

For us at Schaumburg Specialties, it’s all about making the flow of raw materials into our plant seamless, from supply through to shipping. Stock levels are established at both our workshop and our supply base and instead of ‘pushing’ material through the production system and running the risk of overuse and waste, we ‘pull’ it through instead.

For example, we have a two-bin program for our fasteners and casters. Each bin contains a pre-determined set quantity. When the minimum quantity is reached, a reorder point is triggered and our supplier immediately sends new materials through and replenishes its own stock. Simple!

 

Conclusion

Embracing the principles of LEAN manufacturing and 5S has made a huge difference to our efficiencies and productive output. We’ve managed – sometimes with only the smallest Kaizen projects – to reduce waste, streamline our workflow and maximize our productivity. We’ve got lots more plans up our sleeve to continue to further improve our production efficiency and output, for the benefit of our employees, our customers and our business. Watch this space!