For decades, companies have worked at perfecting their lean manufacturing tools and skills to improve quality and save time, resources and money. Freudenberg Sealing Technologies has been a leader in this approach through its Get Rid Of Waste Through Team Harmony (GROWTTH) program. Thousands of kaizen projects have been launched globally over the past two decades.
Freudenberg has been applying the same lean tools to administration that it has used in manufacturing. This may seem to be a stretch for lean concepts, but it is right on target. Admin processes account for a significant portion of manufacturing costs and advance work. Improving them can have a major impact on the company’s success.
During the GROWTTH Award ceremony this year, lean admin experts from the Troy, Ohio, facility were honored for the Best Lean Administration Project in North America. Troy supplies the Milan, Ohio Distribution Center with components, but disruptions in work flow had led to delivery delays and rework. Too often, the shipments received by Milan did not match the adjusted quantities from Troy.
Shorter production lead times
“Since the arrival of lean and just-in-time manufacturing approaches, shortening production lead time remains an ever more important, complex and demanding aspect of the value chain,” said Vicky Jandreau, Senior Vice President GROWTTH & Sustainability at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies. “We also see the same potential in our digital processes. ERP systems demand perfection and when internal processes don’t match what the sys- tem demands, it can cause interruptions in in- formation flow and negatively impact the de- livery of our products to internal and external customers. This is what Troy was facing with its shipments to Milan,” she said.
Employees in both locations conducted high-level reviews of current procedures, packaging, shipping and receiving, customer service, and bill of lading processes to detect potential steps that were contributing to the problem.
Then the lean administration team conducted interviews with employees in each area and laid out a current-state process swim line map to identify potential areas for improvement. Based on the findings, the team took action and drafted a “future state” to highlight future processes.
The new process was tested over 90 days and compared with the previous 30 days when the old process was used. The old process resulted in 40 incorrect shipments over 30 days, and the new one had zero incorrect shipments over 90 days.
Image: Jade Dew, a Warehouse Material Technician, in Milan scans incoming deliveries from the Troy plant. Dew was on the kaizen project team.
Status quo challenged
“Lean administration is such a powerful methodology and tool set. and, when used, it can improve many facets of an operation,” Jandreau said. “From data organization and office efficiency to efficient and effective processes and communication flow, to standard work for administrative teams, it will have a positive effect. It is our collective responsibility to challenge the status quo and improve every day and even when it seems that our processes are successful, we can always do better,” Jandreau said. “Lean administration methodology is more than just the conviction of identifying and documenting our processes – it is the desire for improvement that make it effective.”
Jandreau says that over the last few months, she has seen an increase in the demand for lean administration expertise to support initiatives and functions within the organization. “This is a sign that our mission is taking hold and I expect to see this initiative grow more and more interest and demand a change for the better,” she said.
