Hol-Mac Corporation | Bay Springs, Mississippi
Company Information:
Hol-Mac Corporation is a major supplier of welded steel fabrications, contract machining and assembly services to major original equipment manufacturers. Hol-Mac serves customers in construction equipment, forestry equipment, automotive, solid waste, railway and transportation equipment.
Situation:
Hol-Mac’s forklift body line was designed to meet customer demand and be profitable at eight units per day with five welders. Executives took the order specifically to learn how to improve Hol-Mac’s production system. When demand declined and varied weekly, Hol-Mac attempted to reduce costs and level production. Management reassigned personnel leaving three welders who were able to produce three per day, but the line was no longer profitable. A disorganized workplace, poor layout and frequent part shortages (even with overproduction) contributed to waiting, inventory waste, unnecessary operator walking and motion, searching for tools, excess material handling, defects and rework.
Center Assistance:
ATN-UAH initially trained corporate management in the Lean 101 simulation, and then helped them map the value stream of the forklift body product family. After scoping an initial kaizen event, ATN-UAH trained the kaizen team on the seven wastes, 5 S, layout and kaizen. Next ATN-UAH helped the team set stretch goals: reduce material handling by 50%, increase throughput by 33% to four per day, reduce operator travel distance by 50% and clean and reorganize the forklift assembly area. During for days, the team flowcharted the process, listed problems and brainstormed countermeasures. In addition to problems identified in the value stream map, the team identified equipment and process problems.
Results:
The original 84-step assembly process was cut to 73 steps. The team reduced material handling 80%, floor space by 50% and operator travel distance by 52% (650 feet less walking). The new layout enabled throughput to increase by 33% to four per day, reducing labor costs approximately $5,000 per month ($60,000 annually). The line is now profitable, with a much shorter total lead-time, and Hol-Mac now has the potential to assemble five forklift bodies per day. Hol-Mac employees and managers learned how to reduce wasted time, motion and space. Employees also learned good housekeeping practices, how to maximize team performance and teamwork, how to ask “Why?” five times to determine root causes, how to use kaizen events for quick improvements and how to maintain momentum for change.
Client Comments:
“I love to compete, and Hol-Mac must learn the lean approach to compete. This event exceeded our expectations. We have tried lots of training and consultants in the past with little long-term success. The ATN-UAH specialists really know how to coach and train our employees and managers to achieve quick results and maintain discipline. So we look forward to working with ATN-UAH to continue implementing lean.” – Charles Holder, founder and CEO, Hol-Mac Corp.
“As we simplify operations and processes, lean will help us solve some critical management issues. We just need to learn lean faster.” – Jamie Holder, President and COO, Hol-Mac Corp.