Lean Implementation - Cold Jet
Company Profile: A world leader of dry ice blasting technology for over 20 years, Cold Jet, LLC develops and supplies dry ice blasting systems, production equipment, engineered systems, and nozzles. Cold Jet’s unparalleled experience enables them to provide environmentally engineered solutions to difficult cleaning, coatings removal, and surface preparation problems. Employing more than 80 experts at their Loveland, Ohio, headquarters, Cold Jet also has a network of hundreds of independent contractors and distributors throughout the world.
Project: Today, dry ice (CO2) blasting is used in a wide array of applications from heavy slag removal to delicate semiconductor and circuit board cleaning. Experiencing an escalation in sales and production, Cold Jet sought to improve both their processes and their cultural approach to business. Cold Jet partnered with TechSolve to implement process improvements and develop Cold Jet’s internal Lean expertise.
The project began with laying a foundation for a common Lean understanding. Key management and shop floor personnel learned about lean manufacturing and waste elimination through quarterly training sessions and meetings. TechSolve also teamed with Cold Jet to rearrange manufacturing cells in order to improve flow and reduce cycle time of various assembly and sub-assembly processes. Together they instituted visual management to track improvements, create ownerships in the new processes, and manage inventory.
Results: The program enabled Cold Jet to reduce inventory from 162 days to 76 days on hand and increase on-time delivery from 85% to 92%. They achieved a 26% increase in productivity (with a decrease of overtime from 40 hours to 12 hours per week), which enabled them to increase their internal production capacity from 60 units to 90 units monthly – equating to $4 million in additional sales and a cost savings of $303,500.
“TechSolve and Cold Jet have not only teamed up to improve efficiencies, reduce waste, and manage inventory but we have transformed the company culture. We started Lean in manufacturing but as different departments starting observing the vast improvements, Lean spread quickly.”
Robert Ooten, Vice President of Operations
