Automotive Supplier Meets New Product Launch Goals With 3P
Company Profile: Greenville Technology, Inc. (GTI) is a tier one, full-service, certified minority supplier to the automotive industry. Privately held, with 670 employees, GTI is TS 16949 and ISO 14000 certified and manufactures custom, plastic injection molded automotive parts such as instrument panel assemblies and consoles. The company’s Ohio location is responsible for product testing of their North American operations, which includes facilities in Ontario and Alabama.
Project: As the automotive industry demands lower costs and shorter lead times from suppliers, GTI faces the continuous challenge of producing new parts cost efficiently to remain competitive in this cost-driven industry. GTI realized that it needed to quickly adapt for changes in product lines and develop more efficient part manufacturing areas. TechSolve helped GTI define and develop an optimum manufacturing approach for a new part family and assisted them in achieving their goal of utilizing minimum manufacturing resources to deliver parts at the required customer Takt time and quality. The solution also required meeting GTI’s customer part demands throughout the program lifecycle at the lowest overall cost to GTI.
TechSolve partnered with GTI to perform a one-week 3P (production, preparation, and process) kaizen event to analyze the manufacturing process for the 2006 Honda Civic Visor Sub Assembly prior to new model part launch. The objectives of the 3P kaizen event were to eliminate waste prior to production, determine the minimal resources and cost to meet Takt time, and to build quality and flexibility into GTI’s production system.
TechSolve and GTI developed a cross-functional team involving all levels of GTI personnel with the goal of integrating flexibility, speed, lowest cost, and minimum capital into the production system. TechSolve helped GTI implement Lean initiatives — all with a focus on time, creativity, and simplicity to achieve dramatic cost and delivery improvements.
Results: Upon conclusion of the 3P kaizen event , GTI identified and quantified the following improvements:
- 100% elimination in changeover time
- 31% reduction in capital cost
- 77% reduction in floor space required
- 22% reduction in labor content required
- 16% decrease in WIP inventory
Through these improvements, GTI’s personnel developed into a cross-functional team that, by tapping into its internal expertise, was able to foster ownership of the optimum production process that they developed for the new manufacturing cell.
“GTI’s participation in this activity proved to be very successful and all participants had very positive feedback. It has become very apparent that 3P can play a critical role in the success of a new model launch.”
Kathy Galentine, Vice President
