Authors:
Wa-Muzemba Anselm Tshibangu
1
and
Steve Berlinski
2
Affiliations:
1
University of Maryland Baltimore County, United States
;
2
State University of New York /College of Technology at Alfred, United States
Keyword(s):
Lean, Cell Manufacturing, Layout Design, Continuous Improvement.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Facilities Planning and Management
;
Industrial Engineering
;
Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics
;
Lean Enterprise
;
Manufacturing Systems Engineering
Abstract:
This paper explains how a small-size company located in the western New York region has used a lean approach to redesign its operational layout and eliminate unnecessary transportation moves to deal with financial turmoil and survive global competition. Although this is a true real world case study, the company’s name is referred to as West City Vacuum Forming Inc. (WCVF Inc.) throughout the paper to protect the company privacy as they are still in business today. A couple of years ago when WCVF Inc. lost two of its major customers to competition and technology changes, the company sales were tragically impacted and severe measures of cost reductions were urgently needed in order to maintain the company in business. WCVF Inc. then decided to retrench and re-evaluate its manufacturing practices. As a result of this self assessment effort, drastic measures including a significant downsizing of the workforce and a consolidation of the space floor were addressed to save the company from
financial turmoil. This paper specifically analyzes the floor consolidation aspect because it resulted into a new configuration of operational layout that improved WCVF Inc. operations, productivity, and material flow by eliminating unnecessary transportation activities. Other benefits recorded include annual operational costs saving of approximating $50,000 and a reduction in cycle times in the order of 4.8 days for some products, representing a cut of 5%.
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