Amerex Corporation | Trussville, Alabama
Company Information:
Amerex Corporation is an affiliate of McWane Inc. and has been providing quality and innovative fire fighting products for over 30 years. Amerex is recognized worldwide as a leader in the manufacture of hand portable and wheeled fire extinguishers and has recently taken this wealth of experience to new dimensions with pre-engineered automatic restaurant systems, vehicle fire suppression systems, gas detection, industrial systems and fire detection devices.
Situation:
Facing long production lead times and rising costs of operation, Amerex Corporation’s management made the decision to pursue the implementation of lean manufacturing concepts. Key Amerex personnel were chosen to receive a week-long training course in lean manufacturing from the Alabama Technology Network at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (ATN-UAH). Amerex also utilized ATN-UAH to provide two 4-hour Lean Concepts training courses for over 20 additional employees. With a solid lean training foundation in place, Amerex chose to pilot their implementation efforts with a value stream mapping event for one of their product lines with an abundance of opportunity—the carbon dioxide (CO2) fire extinguisher line.
ATN Assistance:
A two-day value stream mapping event on the CO2 line was held at Amerex in May of 2006. The event was facilitated by Lean Enterprise Facilitators from ATN-UAH and included a team of Amerex employees representing production, maintenance, engineering, scheduling, sales, and quality. On the first day, a current state value stream map was created representing each step in the material and information flow for the CO2 line. Upon completion of the current state map, the team brainstormed wastes and problems that were inherent to their current mode of operation. Key issues identified included excess transportation due to a disconnected layout, excess inventory due to batch production, waiting and excess handling due to a lack of standardized material handling procedures, and inadequate sales forecasting. The team used the identification of wastes in the current state to generate ideas for the design of Amerex’s CO2 future state.
On the second day of the value stream mapping event, ATN-UAH employees facilitated the design and documentation of the CO2 future state. The future state map included countermeasures to address the key problems identified in the current state. A detailed implementation plan was also generated so that Amerex Corporation would have a roadmap to follow in their journey toward achieving the future state.
Results:
By following the value stream mapping process, the team at Amerex was able to identify existing waste in their process and set a vision of where they desire the CO2 line to be. The team identified 26 countermeasures to be implemented over the next year to improve the production process and shorten lead time. Some of the major countermeasures included the design and implementation of a cellular layout to eliminate excess transportation and to alleviate the need for large batch production, the development of supermarkets and standardized material handling procedures, and improved sales forecasting.
Results of the current state value stream map revealed that the CO2 line had 50 minutes of process time yet the material was in the plant for over 14 days due to the existing waste. A fully implemented future state featuring the countermeasures derived by the value stream mapping team would result in the CO2 extinguishers being processed for 39.6 minutes (a 21% improvement) and material only being in the system for 7 days (a 50% improvement). More importantly, Amerex employees have been trained to identify waste and have an implementation plan that will guide their efforts during their lean transition.