Aluminum Manufacturer
SITUATION
Manufacturer of extruded aluminum shapes/profiles facing increased off-shore competition needed to reduce manufacturing and maintenance costs while increasing throughput.
DRIVER GOAL
- Reduce the cost of production by 10%.
- Improve throughput volume.
RESULT
- Reduced cost of production by more than 14.5%.
- Reduced machine set-up and turnaround time by over 50%.
- Increased throughput volume by more than 17% the first year.
Case Study
Reduce Costs, Improve Throughput & Increase Profits
Issue
A manufacturer of extruded aluminum shapes/profiles facing increased off-shore competition needed to reduce manufacturing and maintenance costs while increasing throughput. The Highland Group was asked to develop and implement a program that would improve the bottom line.
Highland Approach
The Highland Group analyzed the operation and defined and quantified several cost reduction opportunities as well as ways to streamline processes and increase throughput. The team engaged client personnel to apply Lean methods and achieve identified gains. A System For Managing further developed client team ownership of the improvement process, linked high-level goals to shop floor performance and gave leadership visibility to progress.
Actions Taken
- Identified and rectified the major reasons for scrap, significantly reducing material costs.
- Determined the most effective purchasing methods.
- Designed and implemented predefined processes and structure for machine set-up within all the primary aluminum extrusion processes.
- Developed and installed a tracking system to measure MTBF (mean time between failure) and MTTR (mean time to repair) on major critical assets and used the results to determine the optimum equipment preventive maintenance schedule.
- Identified and implemented methods to increase productivity for the secondary aluminum extrusion processes.
