About this Presentation
In some rare industries, improving set-up time per job does not only give you more throughput; it also reduces your material cost and the way you quote new jobs boosting your entire income statement and competitive position in the market. In 2016 MET Fine Printers (MET) was only utilizing 7.8% of their printing press capacity on average. But the constraint was not in the market as its presses were already running around the clock to meet demand. The real estate boom in the city of Vancouver had created an insatiable demand for ultra-high end books, brochures and floor plans to help developers sell more condominiums. The printing industry, which had been under intense financial pressure for decades due to the Internet, is dominated by lean manufacturing techniques, and the prime measurement for any printer today is the lean metric of OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). MET's management team knew they had to break the vicious cycle they were in; being forced to run their printing presses on three shifts around the clock despite the low utilization of only 7.8% OEE. Drum-buffer-rope was able to lift the OEE (utilization) to 12%, but still short of the industry average of 14%, and leading competitors at 30%. TOC metrics helped the team focus on lean tools such as SMED and standard work charts during Kaizen events to aim for reducing set-up times from 3 hours to less than one hour. Over an intense 6 week period of buffer management was addressed, the press operators managed to get to approved color in three pull attempts from 20+ before. This allowed MET to achieve 20% OEE (triple the throughput) with the industry leading goal of 30% OEE well within reach. The unexpected surprise: material usage dropped by 20% causing an unexpectedly large boost to their bottom line!
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
Instructor(s)
Kobus van der Zel
Kobus van der Zel a senior consultant at MorrisAnderson, operating as a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP) in companies facing liquidity or transition challenges. Kobus holds mechanical engineering and MBA degrees, and is a qualified TOC Jonah (1999). Since 1999 he has tied his turnaround fees to monthly profitability or cash flow results, in order to create a pull system for truly understanding the obstacles for higher business and people performance. Coaching and interim CEO engagements over a span of 16 years in South Africa, Canada and the USA has enabled him to summarize the forces preventing higher performance in his book The Forces of Progress (www.lulu.com/spotlight/globalturnarounds). “When I engage with a new underperforming company I am always surprised at how so many weak people could have gathered in one company” Kobus says. “Eli helped me to understand that people are inherently good, and that it was the company that made the people weak – which is great news, because it means the process can be reversed to make them strong again!” Kobus’ system for people development is at the root of his turnaround strategies by using the online accelerator www.YourSensei.org – which combine the best of TOC, lean manufacturing and people development processes to ensure optimal cash flow generation when it is needed most.