February 2008 – A team of 12 employees participated in the company’s first Kaizen Event – a Kaizen Blitz of our Material Storage and Prep area, also known as the Cut-Off Room. Starting at the beginning of the month and ending in March, the team received formal 5S training on site from NHMEP, and used the techniques they learned to Sort, Set in Order, Clean, Standardize, and Sustain the changes they made. They cleared out the old Cut-Off Room, painted the ceiling and walls, installed a new floor, overhauled and refurbished the Cut-Off Saw, installed new racks and deployed a new material inventory management system. All material in the new Cut-Off Room is traceable to their material test reports. Over 800 square feet of floor space was gained, and the time it takes to locate material any piece of material was reduced from about 15 minutes on average to less than a minute. The Kaizen Team’s results were so impressive that this project is now a model for future events at Baron Machine.
More NHMEP’s Training
On the 21st, another group of 8 employees attended NHMEP’s Lean Mfg. Workshop.