Jean Bye (L) receiving her speaker award from Meeting Chair Gene Muratore

Bio

Jean Bye has worked for the Dotson Company for over 30 Years and for the past fifteen years she has been the Executive Vice President of Dotson.  During that time she has managed most areas of the company including Human Resources, Finance, Accounting, Purchasing, Information Technology, Customer Service and Production.  Jean has been the champion of the data processing area and managed it through four different platforms over that 30 year period.  Most  recently, Jean's focus has been on culture change as the company adopts a Lean approach to thinking and operations.

Jean has served on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Center for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence, The Greater Mankato Area Economic Development Board and the SCOLA Endowment Fund Board.  Jean is married and has three children.

Transitioning to a Lean Culture

Jean Bye - Dotson Company 

As background, Dotson is a ductile and gray iron jobbing shop at a single 110,000 square foot location.  Active customer base is 200 and there are 137 employees.  The company pours 24 hours per day for 5-6 days per week. There are two 8000 pound induction furnaces; three 20x24 molding and pouring lines; Laempe core machines; and 40% of castings are ground on automatic Barinder grinders.

What did we have?

We were a traditional foundry with long lead times.  Nervous customers were expediting rush orders. We had very complex systems and many times conflicting priority lists.  Excess inventory and lots of excess material handling.  And, paper everywhere (which was never current).

Why did we need to change?

Like everyone else, we have lots of foreign competitive pressures.  We wanted to compete on something other than price. Many customers were putting pressure on for us to handle their inventory.  There was a severe space constraint.  Always “fighting fires” was inefficient and ineffective.  Simply stated we need flow.

How did we start?

One of our customers gave us a push and we partnered with Minnesota Technology for training.  In hindsight, this was essential.  It is almost impossible to drive a lean change without some outside help.

What did we do?

The first step was a value stream map event that gave us a plan for reducing inventory and improving flow and throughput.  Second step was a Lean 101 class for all employees with a goal of team building and developing an appetite for changes. Then began the real work (fun).  Lots of kaizen events.  Gemba visits by shop floor employees to customers.  Customer visit at our foundry with production workers.  5S events to increase efficiency, develop shop floor initiative and ownership across shifts. Redesigned flow of castings from shakeout to grinding (installed nine new conveyors).  Extensive use of visual touch screen boards.  Real time entry for scrap (95% is entered within 90 minutes of pouring).  Department specific results automated and displayed at the work station. 

What did we learn?

Culture change is everything – have to break down the cow paths.  You need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable in an uncomfortable environment.  Supervisors like to see they have work for the crew – need to be comfortable with no queue and depend on the flow.  The primary driving force has to be customer centered rather than production centered. Schedule to the customer, not the employee’s week.  Not done with the metal grade or week until we have met all commitments. Decisions have to be based on long term not short term.  Must resist the temptation to pull orders in to fill an open capacity hole.  It’s ok to work 4 days one week and 6 the next if that is what meets the customer needs.  Need to align measures to new goals.  The traditional labor hours per ton measure may impede flow.  As product exceeds department flow goal deal with each and every situation.  Don’t hedge, trust the system. Train and cross train.  Shift employees to bottlenecks.

What were our results?

• Number of changeovers doubled
• Work in process came down by 70%
• Max days in WIP dropped from 23 to 3
• Order expediting disappeared
• Finished goods dropped by 50%
• Box moves down by 90%
• Production order lead time is now 14 days
• On-time shipment for production castings year-to-date is 99.2%

What’s next?

Shop floor technical training is ongoing.  Balance of 2007:  Moving all quality decision to less than 24 hours.  TWI job instruction classes.   TWI job methods classes.  2008: TWI job relations classes.  Reliability Centered Maintenance implementation.  Six Sigma programs for process variations. 

Transitioning to a lean culture is a journey.  Filled with hurdles, hesitations, and wrong steps.  But, with persistence, great successes.  The progress at The Dotson Company has been significant and it encourages us to do more.