Working with the SAI Global Lean Enterprise team, the following companies have achieved signficant, measurable, cost-saving process improvement.
A Leading Insurance and Wealth Management Company
- Guided the company through its initial business process transformation starting in 1999, developing their corporate Continuous Improvement / Lean Program, working with a high level guiding coalition, training the trainers, facilitating events, and mentoring all involved.
- Through the first 29 Events, more than $2 million in savings had been booked, with more than $5.2 million in additional annualized savings realized.
- ROI tracked at 5X over the first two years.
- In Materials Fulfillment, four distinct departments with similar outputs were merged into a single business team. The savings from this one event alone will total more than $1 million annually.
- In the Printing Process, set-up on the critical path 5 color printing press was reduced from 2 hours to 38 minutes - in 4 days, enabling immediate lot size and inventory reductions of 60% or more.
- The critical Product Development Process lead-time was reduced from 74 to 26 weeks, creating nearly a full year earlier revenue stream on new products.
- An enabler for the Product Development Process, The Actuarial Modeling Process was reduced from 20 to 5 weeks.
- The Hiring Requisition process was improved from 63 process steps to 6; 12 days to 20 minutes, resulting in quicker response time, better accountability, and rapid application of resources.
- Billing and Reconciliation cycle time was reduced by 75%; process steps reduced from 14 to 2; documents from 11 to 4; hand-offs from 7 to 4; inventory backlog from 100 to 10.
- Conservation process lead time reduced from 11 days to 2 days; reduced hand-offs from 35 to 4; documents from 11 to 3; process steps from 80 to 7; delays from 33 to 2.
- Field Compensation process steps reduced from 65 to 22; hand-offs reduced from 25 to 7; lead time reduced by 25%; points of contact reduced from 13 to 1; statements reduced from 9 to 2.
- Two events involved "Rapid Technology Deployment", in which significant business service processes were simplified, and then had the appropriate technology solution applied in a single week.
- In all, the company conducted 25 separate events in 2003, and nearly 100 in 2004, based on the infrastructure and training program that EXCEL Partnership's Lean Support Team provided.
A Contract Product Development & Manufacturer of Leading Edge Technology Oil Purification Equipment
- Designed and implemented their mixed-model production system, with component pull systems and multiple level quality checks.
- Reduced their lead-time from 4+ weeks to 1 day, while reducing defects 80%.
A Leading Medical Instrumentation and Device Innovator and Manufacturer
- Reduced the Stage Three Product Development Process time by 65%; reduced documents from 63 to 21; hand-offs from 860 to 200; distance traveled from 47 miles to 7 miles; and transport time from 17 hours to 2 hours; restructured product development team into product-focused, co-located unit with increased authority, responsibility, autonomy and risk/ reward measures aligned with company goals.
- In the VAC II Disposable Pencil assembly process, we eliminated over 200 days of overtime, and reduced the people needed to build that product from 10 to 7. Through one piece flow implementation, the lead-time was reduced 8 hours to 1.5 hours; defects were reduced by 60%; WIP was reduced by 90%; space was reduced by 60%; walking distance and process distance was reduced by 50%; total savings, $120K.
- In the low volume Power Pencil manufacturing process, we reduced the number of people needed to build the product from 12 to 1; productivity was improved by 67%; defects were reduced by at least 70%; lead-time was reduced from 3 days to 44 minutes; cycle time was reduced from 11.6 minutes to 3.6 minutes; process steps were reduced from 23 to 5; space was reduced by 70%; process and walking distance was reduced by 85%. This was a classic example of a one person manufacturing cell. With only a 17,000 annual volume, we were still able to save $60K+ in 5 days.
The Leading Manufacturer of Professional-Duty Water Pumps
- Installed pull systems in Jet Pump factory, created cells and one-piece flow throughout, resulting in lead-time reduction from 3 to 1 day, and a $280K WIP reduction in 4 months;
- Reduced lead-time on 4 other pumps from 6 to 3 days, reduced assembly time 30%, 35%, 50%, and 10%; reduced lead-time on the "85" line from 3 to 2 days, reduced assembly set-up by 85%, recovering 2000+ hours, and set up a one-day pull that reduced inventory $300K over 6 months;
- In the Commercial Business Unit, simplified two distinct, but linked business support processes - the Customer Order Entry, and Shipping, resulting in an improvement from 70% on-time shipments on a 6 day lead time, to a 90% on-time shipping rate on a 1 day lead-time. This increased inventory turns by 10% immediately, and increased cash flow by $560K annually. Total savings $1.1Million.
- Transformed entire company from traditional functionally separated organization into 2 co-located customer
An Injection Molding and Medical Device Assembly Company
- Focused self-directed business units; reduced overhead from 40% to 14%; reduced 2 weeks lead-time to less than 2 days; improved 1st pass yields 10X; doubled revenue per square foot; created rapid tool-building team; increased revenue per employee 2.5X; saved over $3.5 million.
A Leading Capacitor Manufacturer
- Transformed an entire product family value stream into an integrated, co-located business team, while reducing dock-to-dock lead-time from 41 to 9 days.
- Reduced customer-order entry from 3 weeks to 8 hours; improved productivity by 27%; relocated 30 machines; reduced footprint by 70%; implemented pull systems and single-piece flow assembly, reducing inventory $85K in 3 months; reduced impregnation cycle by 17%.
- Key impact - dramatic transformation of the fundamental operating systems and structures for key product family to agile customer / team focus. Built operating business unit model with dramatic improvements in performance all in one week.
An Eyelet Specialty Manufacturer
- Transformed four processes; increased productivity by 23%, increased capacity and sales volume by 44%, reduced travel distance by 73%, saving $130,000 per year on the Ensign-Bickford Blasting Cap deep drawing machine cell.
- Within 4 events, reduced 21 trailers of inventory to zero, increased sales per employee, reduced scrap by 50%; improved productivity from 65 to 125 pieces per person per hour; reduced lead-time from 21 minutes. to 45 seconds.
- Reduced space by 1/2 in a washing machine drum assembly.
A Leading Manufacturer of Fire Control Systems
- In the first two assembly events, improved productivity 27% and 36%; reduced lead-time from 3 and 5 days to under 5 minutes; reduced WIP by 95%; reduced parts travel by 43% and 81%; reduced walking distance by 66% and 99%; reduced space by 47% and 76%; reduced defects by 18%; reduced changeover time by 60%; set up system that will reduce inventory by 95% over 6 months.
- In the Distribution warehouse - reduced square feet by 16% and pallet space by 10%, avoiding the need for increasing warehouse space. Reduced order picking costs and time by 64%.
- Total savings to date - over $660K.
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