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Lean Consortia: A Value Added Alliance

WDMA Technical & Manufacturing Conference

June 17, 2015

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Founded in 1905 by C.T. Loewen as a lumber mill

Created a sash and door joinery factory in 1919

During the 30s and 40s, produced beekeeping

equipment, church pews, and wood cross-

members for rural electrification

Started producing pre-assembled windows (frame

and sash) in 1948

Today Canada's largest wood window and door

manufacturer

About Loewen

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Lean

• Relentless elimination of waste

• Identifying and removing non-valued added activities

• Delivering value to customers through people &

processes

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Why Lean?

Manufacturer’s Challenges

• Quality

• On time delivery

• Lead time

• Productivity

• Sales fluctuations

• Safety

• Performance

• Inventory

• Speed to market

• Economic stability, volatility & uncertainty

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Lean

• Easy to say, hard to do…

• But, we don’t learn it until we do…

• Where to start?

• How to implement?

• How to sustain?

Facing the Challenges

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Concept

• Non-competing organizations joining together to openly

share lean and business best practices

• Manufacturers

• Health care

• Government

• Service organizations

• You’re not alone out there!

• You will never live long enough to make all the mistakes

yourself!

Lean Consortia: A Value Added Alliance

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Results

• Collaborative learning

• Networking

• Share / generate ideas

• Support infrastructure

• Accountability

• Develop teams

• Initiative support

• Shared training

• See other plants / operations

• Move lean ahead

Lean Consortia: A Value Added Alliance

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Canadian Consortia

• 17 consortia nation wide

• Five Manitoba consortia represented by 45 companies

• Manufacturing

• Furniture, kitchen cabinets, windows & doors, steel

fabrication, sheet metal, plastic molders, casting, transit

buses, coaches, aerospace, agriculture, electronics,

trailers, canvas, furnaces, concrete, currency, packaging

• Printing

• Food processing

• Health care & Pharmaceuticals

• Law enforcement

• Education

• Forestry

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SMLC

• Southern Manitoba Lean Consortium (SMLC)

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Lean Consortia

Typical Structure

• 8 – 12 companies per consortium

• Each company formally represented by “board

members”

• Board chair & vice chair

• Member driven

• Lean & general facilitation through the Canadian

Manufacturers & Exporters (CME)

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Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters

• The nation's largest and most influential industry

association representing over 10,000 companies coast-

to-coast

• Mandate is to represent the interests of Canada's

industrial and international trade membership

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Lean Consortia

Typical Structure

• Three tiers of membership

• Annual fee (Tier 1 $7,000):

• Lean facilitator & general administration

• Seven facilitator days

• Lean assessment (two of seven facilitator days)

• Formal half day monthly meetings

• December annual business planning session

• Regular informal interaction between member

companies

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Lean Consortia

Formal Monthly Meetings

• At member companies

• Round table sharing last month’s CI activities

• Common template

• Reflection

• Planning ahead

• Solicit input from other’s experiences

• Shining moment

• Report on last month’s meeting mini kaizen

Continuous Improvement Plan

Acrylon Plastics + Barkman + Decor Cabinets + Jodale Perry + Loewen + Rainbow Trailers + Steel Tech + Valeant + Winkler Canvas

Last month Last month’s impact

Plans for next month Next month’s projected impact

We need help with….

• AGM

• Kanban replenishment of wrapping material

• Lean key discussion topic

• Discovered 7 years worth of material that will be reduced to 2-3 weeks

• Reduce Inventory of Raw Material in Warehouse

• Implement Kanban replenishment system for other materials

• Increase available cash on hand

• Easy to understand ordering system for new warehouse

• Kanban system logistics

• Investigate the use of QR codes

Shining Moment

Continuous Improvement Plan

Acrylon Plastics + Barkman + Decor Cabinets + Jodale Perry + Loewen + Rainbow Trailers + Steel Tech + Valeant + Winkler Canvas

Last month Last month’s impact

Plans for next month Next month’s projected impact

We need help with….

• Implemented a custom designed & built cabinet tilt-and-lift machine to Packaging

• Implemented new drawer front drilling locations and equipment in key areas

• Cycle time reduction from 105 s to 10 s, improved operator ergonomics

• Reduce travel by 45%

• Standardization and documentation of processes for new finishing line

• SMED project for finishing line

• Labour efficiency & quality improvements

• Set-up time reduction for colour changeovers

• Automation planning for labour efficiency gains

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7 8 9 10

Cabinet tilting process in Packaging, before:

Cabinet tilting process in Packaging, after:

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3 4 5

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Continuous Improvement Plan

Acrylon Plastics + Barkman + Decor Cabinets + Jodale Perry + Loewen + Rainbow Trailers + Steel Tech + Valeant + Winkler Canvas

Last month Last month’s impact

Plans for next month Next month’s projected impact

We need help with….

• Value stream mapping of packaging process.

• Assess and remove unnecessary screens from the 60 inch sieve.

• Reduced product waste and labour cost

• Reduced cleaning times between lots of different products

• Reduce cycle time for 24 inch sieves.

• Evaluate reduction of blend sampling from 10 locations to composite.

• Improved capacity utilization. Reduced backlog.

• Reduce cycle time of sampling and QC testing. Reduction in testing cost.

• Equipment change over cycle time reduction

Shining Moment

Sample of Packaged bottle opened to verify cotton, tablet count, desiccant and cap tightness. Empty bottles and tablets rejected.

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SteelTech

Situation

• Record sales – not enough space to handle volumes

• Batches of 50 – 100 depending on model

• Used consortium facilitator days to engage lean

facilitator

• Lean training & multiple kaizen events

• Mini kaizens during consortium meetings

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SteelTech

Results

• Moving from batch to flow

• Batch sizes now 8 – 10

• Reduced inventory by 50%

• Reduced WIP by 75%

• Hours per furnace cut by 33%

• Volume increased by 40% in same footprint

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Lean Consortia

Scheduled Monthly Meetings

• Host presentation

• Lean strategy / plan

• Areas of current focus

• Successes & challenges

• One area of challenge introduced for mini kaizen

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Lean Consortia

Scheduled Monthly Meetings

• Mini kaizen

• Two hour CI event

• A3 problem solving approach

• Value stream map

• Identify areas of opportunity

• Create value graph

• Generates an action plan

• Report results at next meeting

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Lean Consortia

A3

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Lean Consortia

Scheduled Monthly Meetings

• Mini kaizens

• Barkman: Shipping of large glass reinforced planters

• Winkler Canvas: Visual scheduling of work

• Loewen: Metal cladding cutting

• SteelTech: Raw material inventory reduction

• Valeant: Equipment set-up reduction

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Lean Consortia

Scheduled Monthly Meetings

Scheduled Monthly Meetings

• Plant tour

• Tour feedback

• Take away’s

• Improvement opportunities

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Lean Consortia

Scheduled Monthly Meetings

• Other business

• Facilitator report-out

• Up-coming events

• Next board meeting preparation

• Process check (Hensei)

• Networking lunch

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Lean Consortia

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

• Cross consortia areas of special interest

• Same concept of sharing best practices

• Monthly formal meetings of company specialists

• SIGs

• Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

• Human Resources (HR)

• Information Technology (IT)

• Safety

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Lean Consortia

Informal Exchanges & Support

• Sharing specific tools, concepts, best practices

• Exchanging resources

• Expertise

• Materials

• Facilities

• “Outside eyes” during events

• Support for information

• Problem resolution

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Benefits of Lean Consortia

Cross consortia Plant tours

• Always pick up ideas

• Send employees

• See other operations / different perspective

• Reinforce lean concepts and principles

• See what’s possible

• Hosting gives sense of pride & ownership

• Appreciate own progress

• Outside eyes provide improvement opportunities

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Benefits of Lean Consortia

Learning & Sharing

• Cost sharing

• Employee training

• Expert consultation or facilitation

• Share Showcase

• One day consortia mini conference

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Benefits of Lean Consortia

Accountability & Supporting

• Sustaining always difficult

• Support network to motivate & support

• Helps hold each other accountable to commitments

• To business

• To employees

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Supplier Consortium Involvement

Cardinal IG

• Part of Red River Valley High Performance Consortium

• 12 companies in the North Dakota Red River Valley

• Similar model to SMLC

• Biggest benefits

• See other plants

• Solve CI problems together

• Company leaders discussing challenges & ideas to

resolve

• Take ideas from each session Mike Arntson, Plant Manger, Cardinal IG, Fargo, ND

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Supplier Consortium Involvement

Intek Plastics

• Part of Manufacturers Alliance

• Part of AME Optima Consortium

• Key benefits

• Team development

• Benchmarking against other companies

• Plant tours

• Peer group meetings (SIG’s)

• Lean certification programs

• CI training Pete Barboni, Continuous Improvement Manager, Intek Plastics, Hastings, MN

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SteelTech Testimonial

• Many fruitful ideas come from SMLC Meetings and

members

• Cross company sharing of ideas helps in all areas of

business

• Vibrant, Hard Working, Open Group

• Work as a team to build each other up

• Friends, Contacts, Partners

• Shop re-organization to become more efficient done with

help of SMLC members at Consortium meetings

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What They Are Saying

• “Always learn something on plant tours”

• “Making a difference on our lean journey”

• “Outside eyes give amazing insights!”

• “Always bring a friend – changes their perspective”

• “Just as important to find out what doesn’t work”

• “You get out what you put in”

• “It’s such a relief to find others with same struggles”

• “I derive energy from like-minded people”

• “Lean applies everywhere!”

• “Each company is unique, but in very similar ways!”

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Together we get better!

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Questions?