Situation: Ferco Tech was struggling to meet delivery deadlines and incurring high rework costs for parts that had not passed final inspection. Management recognized that this was an unacceptable level of performance that would eventually impact customer orders. To rebuild their reputation for excellence in the aerospace market, Ferco Tech sought assistance from TechSolve to help improve their quality and delivery performance. In addition, Ferco Tech looked to increase their business through process improvements, changes in their marketing message, and new product development.

Solution: TechSolve worked with Ferco Tech to identify reoccurring problems and performance measures to improve quality and efficiency. Visual Management Boards were developed with Lean metrics for each area of the shop and office. These metrics, along with 10-minute stand-up meetings at the start of each shift, helped employees understand what they needed to accomplish each day to “win the game.”

Value stream mapping performed within the New Product Cell Value Stream identified opportunities for improvement. Ferco Tech refined the cell, brought more operators into the cell, drained the work in process, and implemented Quality at the Source, KANBAN, and other Lean techniques.

The Plant-wide Quality at the Source process allowed only perfect work to continue through each step. Auditors on the shop floor supported this process to ensure work was done correctly the first time. Many improvements were implemented over a two-month period to relieve a bottleneck process that supplied two value streams.

By participating in the Eureka! Winning Ways innovation process, Ferco Tech was able to generate 73 ideas for growth. Two big-impact and two quick-impact ideas were picked to go through the “fail fast fail cheap” process. While two ideas quickly failed, the other two continue to be developed.

Results

  • Increased on-time delivery performance by 25%.
  • Decreased lead time from 53 days to 19 days.
  • Reduced plant-wide rework costs by 46%.
  • Continued development of an Eureka! Idea, which has the potential of adding $6.7 million in sales with $1.6 million investment in sales and marketing support.

TESTIMONIAL: “This is definitely one of those times having someone with knowledge helps you see things you otherwise would not see”

─ Joseph Murphy, Chairman