Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 18

5 HOW TO ISSUE OUR PROCESS: Step 1 – investigation phase • The role each and every one would take • The research to include pros/cons, costs and projections • What else we didn’t know, and where to learn what we didn’t know • Expectations and projections both in sales and throughputs • Ensured we had enough cash on-hand to manage the risk Step 2 – commitment phase • Having operators on board that understood no-bake • Having the right outside partners to work with us • Foundry floor layout, equipment, installation and trials Step 3 – production phase • Adherence to process • Operation in a high process quality state RESULTS Our market-driven prediction that bigger work would come our way, in fact did. Additionally, a large customer began designing bigger more complex parts and fortunately this now fit very well with us. None of this however, happened overnight. LESSONS LEARNED During the first few years after the new no-bake line was installed (and certainly not at capacity), we did have naysayers, questioning why we did this. You need to keep an eye out for those people, as they are probably the same people that embrace the status quo and would never change anything—for fear of getting called out or fired. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT Completing this pretty large undertaking and having it work out well for our entire team, has empowered us to research other areas of our foundry for enhancements. As a Lean trained operation, we are keen to identifying bottlenecks and ways of reducing waste. Like every other foundry, we are finding bottlenecks in the areas of grinding and hiring new talent. As a result, we are currently evaluating robotics for our finishing operation. The employment picture, which we all struggle with, has been positive for us due to HR & culture programs implemented several years ago to attract both interns and new hires. As the saying goes “Change begets Change,” and we see tremendous enthusiasm on our team to implement more changes while ‘the naysayers’ seem to have disappeared. Experiencing change as a good thing has become infections. Now…instead of employees saying, “Should we be doing this?” they now ask, “How about this new approach” … Contact: TAD OLSON tolson@olsonalum.com