Case study: Sheet metal fabricator

02/12/2023

The challenge 

A sheet metal manufacturer was missing delivery promise dates, incurring a growing backlog of orders and consequently experiencing a higher number of customer complaints relating to one of the companies key product range.
In addition, the quoted lead times for this product range were substantially higher than that expected by the customers and, as a result, some customers were starting to use alternative suppliers. 

 

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The solution

 

Utilising key Lean techniques and working directly with the operation team, the end-to-end production flow was mapped and reviewed. This identified where wasteful activities existed, where the flow of work was being interrupted, quantified bottlenecks and assessed the movements of the parts and resources.
Solutions were designed and an improvement roadmap established for greatest impact with regards to improving the production output rates, resource utilisation and overall process efficiency.
Improvements were piloted and rolled out with full involvement of the teams. 

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The outcome

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• ​Lead time reduced by 80%

• Operator output increased by 75%

• Work in progress reduced by 90%

• Self-sufficient teams

• No addition resource needed

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