About this Presentation
This presentation provides a background on Graphicast, a manufacturer founded in 1978, located in Jaffrey, NH; contract manufacturer of machined, zinc alloy castings; in-house design, mold making, casting, machining capabilities; proprietary, graphite mold casting process creates high-density castings with exceptional surface finish; most applications are high valued-added machine components. Parts were for laboratory analysis equipment, printing presses, and automation equipment. Graphicast continually had scheduling problems. Graphicast used Visual and they finally developed a drum buffer rope (DBR) module. The presenter indicated that he called his scheduler lean since it was a better marketing advantage though it was DBR. Lead time was 16 weeks and by day 4 they had reduced the lead time to 5 weeks. After a month they reduced the buffer to 4 weeks and eliminated all overtime. Graphicast gave employees a bonus to compensate for overtime. It has been working well for over a year. Power consumption was reduced 15%, reduced WIP 30%; doubled capacity. The primary issue is not scheduling now it is sales and marketing.
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.
The session reveals why traditional scheduling systems fail to reflect real shop-floor dynamics: they treat all capacity as if it were equal, leading to overloaded work queues, long lead times, and constant firefighting, even when people and machines are busy.
It shows how Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) aligns the pace of work with the true system constraint (the drum), uses time buffers to protect flow, and controls work release (rope) so that production becomes predictable instead of chaotic.
The presentation illustrates how integrating TOC with Lean thinking simplifies scheduling by focusing first on system constraints and then on eliminating waste and variability—leading to reduced inventory, lower lead times, and significant operational savings.
It emphasizes that a lean DBR schedule doesn’t just reduce lead times; it changes how organizations think about scheduling—encouraging simple visual controls, rapid response to disruption, and a pull-based work release that supports flow.
Instructor(s)
Val Zanchuk
Val Zanchuk, President
Graphicast, Inc