For Christmas, my 12-year-old son wanted a computer, which I thought was a great idea.
Schoolwork, nowadays, requires visiting school websites and downloading homework or using apps to complete assignments and truthfully, I was just tired of fighting with him for time on my own computer.
So, off I went to the local electronics store a couple of days before Christmas to shop for a computer. To my surprise, there are so many options! For a child his age, he doesn’t need much. I found that most of the computers for his level all have pretty much the same internal package. I had my criteria: price range, best quality for the money, and with Christmas in a couple of days I needed it now! My first choice was not in stock, but I could have it the week after Christmas.
To stay in the same price range, I would have to buy a lower quality product. Forget it. I was willing to pay a little more to get the quality and delivery I needed.
The first company lost my business because they could not keep their product in stock and unable to meet the demand of the customer. The second company lost out on my business because they did not have a high enough quality.
As consumers, we all want quality, delivery, and costs that we can afford. This is no different than Cubic’s customers!
Due to globalization, the world is shrinking, and the number of competitors is increasing. To stay relevant and grow, we must provide customers with what they want and continuously improve in…quality, delivery, and cost! It doesn’t happen by itself.
What methodology is there to help us?
There is a proven methodology and toolset called Lean. Lean is a business philosophy that has proven highly successful since it can help obtain high levels of quality, improve on-time delivery, and reduce costs by eliminating waste and increasing productivity.
Lean has five key principles:
1. Value – The customer defines value and you must understand what your customer values.
2. Map the Value Stream – Identify how you create value for the customer (Anything that disrupts this value stream is waste and must be removed or minimized).
3. Create Flow – a constant flow of value (product or service) to the customer is needed to meet customer demand.
4. Establish Pull – produce based on the demand of the customer, no more, no less
5. Seek Perfection – never be satisfied with the status quo and continuously improve
Lean is not only for manufacturing.
For a company to be successful, it must embrace Lean in all aspects of its operations from quote and order entry, design, procurement, manufacturing, to accounts receivable and everywhere in between. To gain the full strength of Lean methodologies, all employees across the company must learn Lean and its tools and apply them in their daily lives to solve problems and improve their processes.
At Cubic, we are engaging employees in Lean and continuous improvement by providing, leadership, knowledge, and structure to build competencies for solving problems in order to transform Cubic into a culture of continuous improvement.
Two great Lean event examples at Cubic are:
Mobile Validator Production Line in Tullahoma
In our Tullahoma facility, we needed a highly efficient production line to meet the customers’ demand in quality, delivery, and cost for our Mobile Validator product. By creating a current state process map with takt time and walking the process we captured the as-is process and identified bottlenecks, underutilization, push flow, areas of quality concern, communication gaps, and other wastes.
Creating a future state value stream map and utilizing lean principles allowed us to identify takt time improvements. The comparison of the current and future state maps identified further opportunities. In total, we identified over 30 opportunities and over 40 action items. We attacked bottlenecks through level loading, improved processes, communication boards, and implementing Andon lights to signal for assistance quickly.
At the end of the Kaizen event, we had a disturbance-free continuous flow pull process producing quicker than takt time resulting in daily output increased by 100%, RTY sustaining 95%, and production time cut in half.
Improve the Cable Production Efficiency
In 2019, our Cubic de Mexico facility produced an average per month of 20,644 cables and 9672 standard hours gained with an efficiency of 87%. However, the customer demand required 24,000 cables and 12,000 standard hours gained with a production need of 95% efficiency.
Utilizing Lean tools of value stream mapping, spaghetti diagram, 8 waste analysis, and flow-layout analysis, we identified opportunities and implemented improvements for one product line and applied lessons learned to 8 other product lines.
After improvements, production increased to over 30,000 cables per month, greater than 16,000 standard hours gained, and surpassing 95% efficiency.
Our Lean transformation is increasing quality, improving delivery, reducing costs, and distinguishing Cubic from its competitors; therefore, enabling us to continuously raise the bar while focusing on Winning the Customer and Living One Cubic.
Patrick Vest, Senior Director of Continuous Improvement at Cubic Manufacturing & Procurement. Patrick is responsible for identifying opportunities for innovative improvement in order to thrive and drive change for manufacturing and procurement processes. He supports operational excellence and establishes a clear vision and strategic direction focusing on improving the scope, resources, and business prospects for the organization. Prior to joining Cubic, Patrick's experience includes 21 years of Lean Six Sigma experience with Emerson, Eaton Corporation, Cameron, and Schlumberger. He holds an MBA from Harding University and an Industrial Technology Degree from Iowa State University. Patrick is a Certified Master Black Belt from Six Sigma Canada. In his spare time, Patrick serves as an Assistant Scout Master with BSA and an Assistant Den Leader with Cub Scouts.
