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Value-added
partner case study No. 8
The
problem
Bearings located in bins above a
production line needed replacing every time an auto parts manufacturer
switched to a different automaker’s parts. Scooping the bearings out by
hand took about 15 minutes to complete, which ate up valuable time and
created a bottleneck in terms of productivity. At a production rate of 240
pieces per hour, 15 minutes of downtime equals 60 fewer pieces every hour.
The solution
Weber Supply Company Inc. of Kitchener, Ontario, suggested a process
improvement. It exchanged the workers’ scoops for miniature vacuums,
which could remove the bearings from the bins faster. The new process
takes just two minutes to complete.
The
result
The new procedure increased production by 1,200 parts per day. The plant
operates three shifts a day, seven days a week, so production increased by
8,400 pieces per week, for a total of 403,200 annually. The unit value of
each component is $4, creating a total profit improvement
of $1.61 million a year.
The
documentation
Click here to see
the documentation Weber Supply used to demonstrate the productivity improvement.
The
story
Click here
to read about how Weber Supply demonstrated its value by making a minor
modification that reaped a big reward.
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