Lockheed, Toyota and Others Now
Blending Technology,
Companies
focus on processes and culture to get the most from new technology
Terry Costlow,
Contributing Editor -- Design News, November 20, 2006
When Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control decided to make
simulation a mainstay of weapons’ design, technical challenges were
many. The group had major facilities in Orlando and Dallas, with
designers on other sites also contributing to each design.
Issues like centralized versus local storage, bandwidth and updating
were all discussed over and over again. But changing the culture of
engineers who were comfortable with existing techniques took even
more management focus.
“The technical challenges were easier to overcome than the others,”
says Glen Oliver, manufacturing simulation lead at Lockheed’s Dallas
facility. To solve the cultural challenges, Oliver and others got
management to embrace simulation, and started an outreach program to
draw in the engineers. They also made sure each facility had a
specialty so all would be involved in the programs.
This focus on cultures is gaining more importance as companies
strive to continue improving productivity. Toyota is among those
leading the movement, detailing processes that determine the
operational behaviors that create the right results.
In the popular Toyota way, new managers don’t bring in their own
ideas. “When anyone leaves a role, the next person who comes in
needs to use the same process to keep the system running correctly,”
says Kenneth Kreafle, general manager of vehicle production
engineering at Toyota Motor Engineering in Erlanger, KY.
The aircraft industry doesn’t have the high volumes of autos, but
manufacturers are also finding that employing technology without
altering the groups that use it is not a viable way to boost
efficiency. For example, Bell Helicopters is currently validating a
handful of simulation tools it plans to roll out throughout its
operations.
When the Fort Worth, TX, helicopter maker deploys the software, a
key benefit will be the ability for manufacturing to easily provide
feedback to designers. But before this two-way communications can
happen, “We have to form a manufacturing simulation group,” says
Mike Wilson, manufacturing development engineer at Bell.
Even the companies that make the development
tools these companies purchase to boost productivity agree there are
substantial benefits to be gained by altering the groups that use
their tools. “When you do things with the computer instead of paper,
you can save 5-10 percent. With the right processes on top of that,
you can save 30-40 percent,” says Peter Schmitt, vice president,
marketing and business development at
Delmia Corp.
A key aspect of the processes being employed by successful companies
today is to make sure all segments involved with a decision have
input. A common technique is to make sure manufacturing and design
teams are aware of how their decisions impact the other group. “It’s
critical to look at the impact design changes will have on
manufacturing. You’ve got to look at changes from the overall
perspective,” Schmitt adds.
Toyota uses standardization as a way to make sure that when problems
arise, they are handled in a way that prevents them from returning.
This focus extends to the time new tools are deployed. Rather than
utilizing tools just because new equipment is available, Toyota’s
standard approach is to use them only when they’re necessary. “We
want to give people the best tools, but we only give them those
tools when the need is there,” says Kreafle, who directed production
of Toyota’s Avalon.
This focus on processes has helped Japanese automakers reduce their
costs substantially. Though much of the focus is on the interplay
between design and manufacturing, the change in processes runs right
down to the plant floor. SKF Reliability Systems, which helps
companies develop service solutions that optimize plant asset
efficiency, is currently focusing on what it calls operator-driven
reliability.
This technique asks the operators who use equipment every day to
perform simple maintenance or alert maintenance personnel when
something seems notably different. This type of preventive
maintenance can have a big impact in reducing unplanned downtime.
“We call this the hidden plant, where companies can get 25-35
percent more productivity once they think they’ve implemented all
the best equipment,” says Dave Staples, business development manager
at SKF.
Toyota is finishing up a $330,000 pilot program that uses simulation
to examine the postures of installers on the line. This project
should reduce $1.8 million in posture-related injuries, while also
making it possible to begin training installers before the line is
completed, helping increase productivity in the early stages of
production.
A number of companies are also beginning to use tablet computers to
help plant floor personnel see how products are built and what tools
are needed for their role. Observers note that as with engineers,
it’s not always easy to get plant floor workers to change the way
they do their jobs. “It takes a lot of hard work to get a system
that people on the plant floor will instantly want to use,” says Ed
Miller, president of CIMdata of Ann Arbor, MI.
Throughout the entire processing of designing and building a
product, yet another benefit of using standard processes is that it
becomes much easier to determine the status of jobs. When related
groups use many different approaches, it can become difficult to
determine what’s been finished and what hasn’t.
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