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The Lean Ledger - May 29, 2003 On March 31st, 2003 Conax Florida Corporation continued to develop Improvements within Manufacturing by revitalizing the Lean Initiative. John Lutocka, Director of Operations for Conax rekindled the initiative by signing another agreement with Florida MEP to head up the Value Stream Mapping of all support departments; and by hiring Harold Hills who will facilitate the implementation and training of Lean Principals throughout the plant. Along with those two additions, Conax purchased a series of "Work Cell" components which are expected to greatly enhance the work cell configuration of Aerospace, Pyro-Valves and Life Support. In the agreement with Florida MEP, Jerry Nelligan will and develop "present State" Value Stream Maps with each support department such as Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Marketing and Procurement. The intent of the Maps will be to standardize the "Concept to Market" process of all future projects. The Aerospace Assembly department, headed by John Alessi, has taken on a new look complete with work stations, material carts, racks and cabinets that are organized and labeled, which should add to the enhancement of a Lean Work Place. Along with the equipment changes, the department has begun to function with a new set of guidelines geared toward standardization in processes and procedures. These procedures include five concepts that the owners of the assembly process have been asked to adopt, which are: Carts for Parts, Racks for Equipment and fixtures, Cabinets for Supplies, only Work on Work Tables, and "an owner can only do one thing at one time" (no multi-processing). In addition to these concepts, the Aerospace group has been asked to record data on what they work on in any given day so that we can become aware of flexibility, change over, and critical paths required of the product they produce. This will give the planners a better understanding of what the REAL CAPACITY of the department is. And, it will give John Alessi the opportunity to better serve his customers by having a clearer understanding of the issues his group faces in meeting customer demands. The Aerospace group has gone through the first of three phases and will be entering into the data knowledge phase soon. Later, the plan is to try and level load an entire months schedule so that we can take full advantage of our Value Stream. |