Centrifugal & Mechanical Industries (CMI) is a leading designer and manufacturer of centrifuges and process equipment for solid-liquid separation. Our centrifuges and process equipment maintain the durability and performance you would expect when handling tough, abrasive substances. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, CMI serves a diverse group of industries, including coal preparation, minerals and chemical processing, general manufacturing and automotive manufacturing. CMI is part of the Elgin National Industries (ENI) family of companies.

http://www.elginindustries.com/

Improved manufacturing productivity and the creation of a continuous improvement culture are two critical aspects for CMI’s continued success. The employees spent hours of their days searching to find the tools and did not always have the right materials on-hand to begin a job. A confined, under lit workspace, with unused material and rarely used equipment that took up space, added to the overall inefficiency. The most critical aspect was to establish permanent cooperation between management and the union employees to sustain improvements beyond an improvement project.

Previously, very little was deployed company-wide to improve operational results by eliminating waste. Poor cooperation between management and employees, combined with constraints from an old and limited facility, maintained a status quo.

The day of the kick-off, Definity Partners was not immediately allowed on the shop floor, due to a pending strike vote, stemming from a proposed wage freeze. Ultimately, a new contract was approved. Earning immediate trust would be the key for success, due to the high level of employee cynicism generated by past experiences with “efficiency experts” that tried to “squeeze more work out of them.”

The area that was selected to build confidence among all parties was the welding department. There were several reasons for this: it was the dirtiest and most poorly organized area in the plant; their earned hour efficiency baseline was 52 percent, by 20 points the worst performing area in the plant. It was also where the deepest skepticism resided.

To quickly gain credibility and rally the employees, a number of their ideas were immediately acted upon, including tearing down welding booths and upgrading the ventilation system to improve the air quality and overall cleanliness of the plant. In parallel, baseline measurements were established and daily huddles were implemented to improve communications. A visual measurement system that documented problems and defined the resolution actions was installed.

Over the next eight weeks, similar improvement initiatives were kicked off in the assembly, machine shop and paint departments. While high resistance was encountered by a couple of employees, momentum was built, physical changes were quickly made and visual measurements and 5S improvements were made in every area of the plant. There was also a strong focus on clearing out the warehouse and material storage areas, as well as making improvements to material kitting and staging. During all of these expanded efforts, the welding department continued to lead the way in productivity improvement and visual improvements to their area, challenging the other departments to get on board.

The shop floor efforts soon generated momentum for improvements in the non-manufacturing support areas. Poor shop scheduling consumed two to four hours each day of the plant manager’s time and required constant revisions. The existing system also created confusion on the shop floor concerning priorities and workflow. With the assistance of lyteITup, a Definity Partners subsidiary focused on technology solutions, an automated scheduling tool was implemented to utilize existing data from the company’s MRP system. This investment reduced the schedule development time and improved usability. This enabled the creation of accurate weekly schedules for the shop floor, reducing down time that resulted from uncertain priorities. Additionally, a cross-functional improvement team representing every support function was created to address material requirements planning (MRP) gaps that were affecting the entire business.

By the end of the focused effort, CMI had:

• Achieved a net negative variance to standards on production parts for the first time in a year
• Eliminated six non-value-added steps in the manufacturing order process
• Reduced “No charge order” closure lead time from weeks to same day for 80 percent of orders
• Necessary parts on hand due to creation of point-of-use stock room
• Began closing work orders at least every other day
• Improved cross-functional communication
• Refined the MRP and scheduling systems improving their efficiency and usefulness
• Reduced master scheduling efforts to 30 minutes per day
• Organization of tools and resources through 5S implementation
• Installed daily production measurements
• Instituted daily production meetings and visual management measurements

The most important change was the creation of a continuous improvement culture. CMI associates continue to contribute to the dramatic changes in operations. This ability to efficiently operate enables the company resources to be better allocated. Today, CMI is better positioned to adapt to changing customer requirements, remain competitive by eliminating waste and pursue new opportunities in China and other emerging markets.

• Total sustained productivity improvement is 31 percent in welding, 22 percent in assembly and 10 percent in machine shop.
• There is just over 20 percent productivity improvement across the entire operation that has been sustained post-focused effort.