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ManageMent
www.us-tech.com Using Self-Directed Work Teams By Steve Dicke, VP Sales, Connecticut Spring & Stamping, Farmington, CT
techniques to reduce internal waste and costs. The company really expand- ed its lean manufacturing initiative in 2010, when it opted to use the concept of self-directed work teams (SDWTs) to achieve 100 percent on-time deliv- ery of product to its customers, with 100 percent quality. An SDWT is defined as a group
S
of employees who combine different skills and talents to work, essential- ly without managerial supervision, toward a common purpose or goal. Management’s job is to set the initial objectives, give the SDWT the neces- sary authority to do whatever it takes to improve the process, provide resources requested to accomplish objectives — and then step aside.
Self Directed Pilot Team Leading the charge was Gaston
Pelletier, VP of Continuous Improve- ment, who used a well-known SWDT “Bible” to guide his efforts (Leading Self-Directed Work Teams: A Guide to Developing New Team Leadership
ince 1994, Connecticut Spring & Stamping (CSS) had been using a variety of lean manufacturing
Skills, by Kimball Fisher). Gaston began by selecting the 11-member automatic loop and torsion team as the pilot SWDT. The auto loop team, which makes extension springs and complicated wire forms, is one of the more self-contained of the work groups, making it easier to effect change by its own efforts. Gaston served as a coach, initially guiding the team but ceding more and more latitude as the pilot team took on more responsibility and ownership. Brainstorming about how to
make improvements, shop floor workers noted that there was not an effective feedback mechanism be- tween the shop and the front office about actual shop floor realities. This resulted in slower and less efficient job performance. The team’s first decision was to
radically alter the way the actual work flow and timing of work among teams was synchronized with the master schedule and electronic sys- tems. A master schedule job track- er/work flow board system was devel- oped to help clearly visualize each job scheduled for the next 6 months. The
scheduling personnel are alerted im- mediately when there are any con- flicts or issues and there is a process to continually provide feedback and changes to the master scheduler. The electronic scheduling system was up- dated with the changes for all future work, which helped minimize future schedule juggling.
Work Flow Board The job tracker/work flow
board has been revised fre- quently as team members add new information to improve performance. The board has been a huge success — previ- ously, 50 of every 100 jobs had to be juggled; now minor changes are made to about 10 of 100 jobs.
Hundreds of other pro cess
and quality improvements have been implemented, in- cluding bringing some ma- chines physically closer to- gether, printing the job start date more visibly on work orders, moving break areas closer to ma- chines, establishing a permanent cell for quick die jobs, giving the team leader control of overtime, tracking the time parts should stay in the de- partment, and discussing ways to get material to the shop floor faster. The team also made changes so
they could more promptly catch in- ternal rejections in the department rather than further down the manu- facturing cycle. The process led to an under-
standing that any waiting time be- tween part processing steps slows down the whole production and re- duces on-time delivery rates. Achiev- ing as close as possible to “one-piece flow” is seen as the desired end. A key element of the auto loop
SDWT is a reward system for meet- ing objectives. CSS established a three-stage program to make the re- wards achievable, yet challenging. The team came up with its goals
and time frames to achieve them. The first stage was to get a pizza lunch after achieving 95 percent on- time delivery for one week per month. After reaching this goal three times, the team must achieve a monthly 95 percent average to get the reward. In the second stage, if the team achieves an average of 90 percent on-time delivery for eight straight weeks, each member re- ceives a monetary gift card. After achieving the second stage
goal three times, the team moves to the third stage goal, achieving an av- erage of 95 percent for eight straight weeks.
At the outset, the auto loop
team had a very low on-time delivery performance and it took about six months for improvements to kick in. On-time delivery performance in- creased significantly by the six
Auto Loop Team job tracker work flow board.
One tool for achieving the suc-
cess is measurement and posting of the overall parts per hour goal versus an individual operator’s efficiency, so workers can see the relationship be- tween lost time and on-time perform- ance. No one is singled out, but there are discussions with the team leader on why an operator’s performance is at the lower end, and to discuss training or tool needs to improve performance.
Expanding the Program The auto loop pilot team is now
training and giving guidance to 20 other SWDTs. Team leaders meet weekly to share ideas on SDWT progress. No management employees are in the room except Gaston, who only reports what the teams’ prob- lems are, so management can focus on providing any resources needed so the teams can achieve their goals. None of the other SDWTs are
quite as far along as the auto loop team, but several are picking up speed, particularly the secondary power press team, which is focusing on one piece flow of multiple opera- tions. Each SDWT team begins by de- veloping a complete understanding of the master schedule, then synchroniz- ing work details with the electronic system. This process has also yielded a much closer bond, understanding, and alliance with the office personnel. Gaston concludes, “Any organi-
zation can benefit from the SDWT ap- proach, but it will only be successful if it gets support and commitment from the highest management levels, to the supporting office functions, to the shop floor. The results are worth it.” Contact: Connecticut Spring &
Stamping, 48 Spring Lane, Farm- ington, CT 06034 % 860-677-1341 % Direct 860-703-1633 E-mail:
steve@ctspring.com Web:
www.ctspring.com r
month mark, and currently stands at about 96 percent. In addition, the quality control operator is now au- thorized to conduct the first piece in- spection. To improve on-time deliv- ery even more, the team hopes to eventually package and ship its prod- uct directly from the shop floor.
April, 2012
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