Bases are settled, handover is done, a follow-up is done frequently to be sure nobody forgot the rules.
Wasting time for lost materials and some bad habits have been eliminated. It's now easier to detect a problem.
So now, let's go deeper to solve other problems detected on our "first look around" + during the implementation of the basics.
Principles and holistic methods in Total Quality Management (TQM) appeared suitable to our needs.
Why do we deliver our products on delay?
Based on the manufacturing manager reports, each product on delay has been checked as follows:
- Each time a delay appeared in a department a point is added.
- In parenthesis, the reason of this delay.
- 3 categories corresponding to the main departments in delay (Cutting, Welding, Assembly) + an addition category: “Others” have been chosen.
First Results
Applying Pareto revealed that "Assembly department" generates most of the delay. Now a second analysis is performed inside this department.
By analyzing the flow of parts coming to this department, 4 categories have been chosen:
- Sub-contracted MFG (manufactured parts to be assembly coming from outside the organization).
- SB&Painting (Sand-blasting and Painting: crucial operation on the structure, done by a sub-contractors outside the organization).
- Supply Chain (consumables such as hoses, bolts, screws... purchased).
- Others.
Here are the results
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Results are not so different from each other; for the next analysis "Sub-contractors MFG" has been chosen but at the same time, a solution for "SB&Painting" has been developed:
Sand-Blasting & Painting Operations Previous Organization
- Needs: around 20 products per year to sand-blast and paint.
- Operations done by a sub-contractor installed in another company’s facilities.
- Requirements: customer papers are needed for all entries or exits of products from the free zone.
Problems
- Our products are not treated as a priority by them (Delivery time inconstant; between 1 and 6 weeks).
- Quality (many returns due to bad paint quality).
The flow of finished products was badly disrupted by these crucial operations because they represent the quality of the product’s life span (around 20 years). After negotiations with the sub-contractors we built our own facilities to sand-blast and paint.
See results below
Sand-Blasting & Painting Operations New Organization
- Higher Quality.Lead Time Controlled.Increased Flexibility.Administrative costs & delays (due to bounded zone) disappeared.
- Lead Time: 3 days.
- Costs: USD152,78/shipment.
- -80% on the process total time (Outside average=15 days; In house < 4 days).
- Minimum investment (No hiring personnel, the sub-contractor works with his own crew and equipment; contracted with a daily rate).
Back to Pareto analysis inside "sub-contractors MFG"
- Delays on 30 manufacturing orders called JORS (Job Order Routine Sheet) for parts to send to Sub-Contractors have been analyzed.
- 5 departments have been defined: Production, QC, Custom, Cutting and Sub-Contractors.
- Performance in each department has been calculated by comparing due date in JORS and real Starting date and Real Final date.
Conclusion
100% of parts for Sub-Contractors are on DELAY.
Consequences
92% of the units are on delay with an average delay of 200 days.
Performance
- 77% of the JORS in the cutting department are on delay: JORS are given one by one and the cutter waits to gather drawings according to plate thickness before he starts cutting (local optimization, but dramatic effects on the global schedule applying the Theory Of Constraint).
- 87% of the JORS in the production department are on delay: many JORS are lost, mistakes are hidden (Non Conformance), no sequences are pre-defined, no schedule, manager was inefficient (dismissed and replaced by a new one > important improvements).
- 63% of the JORS in the quality control (QC) depqrtment are on delay: All parts (even those without a mechanical function) are checked, JORS and manufactured parts do not arrive at the same time at QC so they wait for JORS and also poor communication between departments.
Other Pareto analysis
An analysis dedicated to Production department has been done for the second line of business: downhole tools. This analysis was based on the question:
Why is there so much Non Conformance (NC) on downhole tools?
NC means parts rejected after quality control means we have to manufacture new ones. It's a waste of both time and money.
The methods used follow the upper analysis and the results have showed that most of NC are due to Human error.
Actions taken
Reinforcement of operators' training, the production manager assists them and provides more feedback to engineering departments (JTC & Paris).
Immediate results
-2% of NC.
Let's check the solutions adopted to reduce the delay on our products on "Going deeper... Solutions"
Another analysis: TOC
Using the Theory Of Constrainst , a simple study revealed where bottlenecks are located in the manufacturing flow of the products.
2 studies have been done: The 1st one using the original products’ design and the 2nd one using new designs. The location of bottlenecks has been moved with the new products.
Study using the previous design
Our bottleneck was located in the production department: the CNC milling was used for downhole tools and wireline products because the design of some parts needed a computerized machininery.
After the study, the decision to purchase a new CNC milling machine was made and a 5-axis Mori-Seiki CNC machine was purchased. This was done to support downhole tools manufacturing (mainly prototyping coming from headquarters and here at JTC).
Around 30% of the current CNC milling machine time would be freed up to be focused on wireline units. In reality there were no dramatic changes, only a 10% reduction mainly due to the introduction of a new product which takes up most of the 5-axis machine’s time.
Study using the new technology
A new generation of wireline units has been developed with a powerful hydraulic system which is its main asset. Close cooperation between engineering and manufacturing evolved the design, making it simple enough to reduce manufactured parts (decrease cost) and assemble products (saving time, easy maintenance…). With the new design,90% of the parts are now produced by manual machines (lower hourly rates).
The bottleneck remains in the production department, the 2 milling machines: too many parts go through these machines and breakdowns are frequent (due to the age and poor maintenance).
Studying the flow of each part revealed a new problem: because the drilling machine wasn't accurate anymore, the milling machines were used for drilling. It results in additional tasks for these machines and a subsequent queue of parts in front of them.
Solutions implemented
1st implementation
Parts going through these milling machines are simple and don’t all have a vital mechanical function, so milling operations are limited (eg: milling only 1 edge for the welding positioning, the other edges only grinded). A new preventive maintenance schedule has been set up.
2nd implementation
Investment in a new manual drilling machine (<USD2000)
-59,8% of parts for milling machines and 35 milling hours saved per product.
-27,6% of the total process time in production department per product (the drilling machine has become the bottleneck and to reduce its load charge, manual milling machines are also used for drilling operations on specific parts, for example: parts which have high setting times).
3rd implementation (future investment)
To purchase a CNC waterjet machine.
The cutting is done by hand with a plasma torch so it results in poor quality work, complex shapes are impossible to make and setting times are very high (shape are drawn by hand directly on the steel plates).
Advantages
- -48,21% of parts going to grinding (1 workday of 1 helper saved per product); Increasing of quality.
- -57,8% of parts going to production department for various operation (-94,34% in milling and -41,81% in drilling)
- 90 work-hours saved in production department
- Reduced cost per part
- Reduced process time from cutting to welding.
- Increasing of numbers parts which can be cut.
- Raw material plates consumptions optimized
- All type of materials can be cut respecting norms (ex: pad eyes->no heat elevation; Aluminum: future light wireline units).
- Decreasing of third parties use (only bending will remain outside).
- - 80% setting times (computerized standard programs) and - 20% cutting times (estimations).
Other consequence
The bottleneck will move to the welding department.
