A true journey of Continuous Improvement

The Bottom Line

Over £600,000 worth of annualised savings have been realised in 18 months through the implementation of a series of cost, quality and delivery improvement projects by HS Marston Aerospace employees at all levels and disciplines across the business. This has been achieved with the coaching support and guidance of the LEAD resident team.

 

Background

HS Marston Aerospace are a World Class manufacturer of heat transfer and fluid management products to the aerospace, motorsport and electronics sectors and employ over 400 people in the Wolverhampton area of the West Midlands. They have an excellent reputation for product quality and innovation and their customer base includes most of the leading manufacturers of finished products within those chosen sectors. Part of the Hamilton Sundstrand and United Technologies Corporation Group, HS Marston has driven lean and continuous improvement methods for many years through the adoption of the Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) programme which is mandated by the parent group.

 

Initial State

The ACE programme has successfully raised the awareness of lean principles to all HS Marston employees. The natural next step was to involve all employees in the process of applying lean tools in order to bring about quantifiable benefits. LEAD were engaged to support this next stage. The aim was to supplement and enhance the ongoing ACE programme, by facilitating and coaching teams of employees through the physical implementation of the continuous improvement principles and tools in the day to day business environment.

There was a clear synergy with the desire of HS Marston to maximise the benefits of lean and the unique approach LEAD have to supporting the physical implementation. Continuing engagement with all the employees has resulted in the desired culture change and additional lean benefits. Already at the silver standard of ACE implementation, our joint aim was to support HS Marston to progress to gold status.

 

The Approach

Through the adoption of the LEAD Practitioner Model (NVQ 2 in Business Improvement Techniques) all employees were grouped together in teams to address numerous practical projects.

These projects where selected by both managers and team members where they demonstrated alignment to the objectives of the business while also offering significant opportunity to gain quantifiable benefits. All were aimed at improving cost, quality and delivery measures. It was time to convert aims into action.

Three days of interactive training in lean and problem solving tools was followed by three days of physical implementation. The approach was to transfer key skills to team members in a live environment where the tools are applied to address a current problem and drive the improvement in a structured way. The training included:

• 5s Workplace Organisation
• Problem Solving Techniques (Cause/Effect),
• 5 Why’s,
• Measuring Performance,
• Visual Management,
• 8 Wastes Analysis,
• A3 Structured Framework,
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s)
• Process Flow Mapping and Analysis
• Other lean tools as selected by the client and teams.

Through the involvement of all team members and employees, the participants gain a practical insight into the application of lean/continuous improvement tools, see the benefit of working together in a structured way and feel the satisfaction of gaining credit for generating real bottom line benefits. The teams captured the initial state, developed an understanding of the real issues, applied the improvement tools, implemented the actions and presented the results. Through tailored training in lean tools, the use of a structured approach to solving problems and through focussed project management excellent results have been achieved. These skills can then be applied on an ongoing basis as the teams move on to their next projects in true continuous improvement fashion.

 

Examples of initial projects are shown below;

 

Headline Results

 

 

 

 

 

 

HS Marston are now well on their way to achieving the ACE Gold Standard and the LEAD materials have now been approved and accredited by Hamilton Sundstrand and the UTC group for use across the organisation as the preferred methodology for Continuous Improvement training.

 

As an example of the practical, hands-on approach employed by LEAD, the following represents a typical project.

The “Rocket” Team

 

Problem Definition

There is a 5.6% reject rate due to porous welds on the 40mm, 0.8mm wall thickness fuel pipes within the Westland Cell. This resulted in a reject cost of £540 per week and contributed towards an 85% on time delivery performance from the cell.

Root Cause Investigation

Using a structured approach to problem resolution involving the use of cause and effect diagrams and the 5 why approach, two key areas for root cause analysis were identified, namely the cleaning methods of parts and the production processes used by the tube supplier.

Resolving the Problem

Although the 40mm pipe was manufactured differently to the smaller bore pipes, which demonstrated less porosity, it was not possible to transfer the production methods over due to the relatively small volumes of the 40mm pipe. This root to problem resolution was therefore stopped.

The team focused their attention to the cleaning process before welding. They found inconsistencies and variation in this process. The answer was to develop a standard method of cleaning which was then documented on a standard operating procedure for all to follow. Upon implementation, the process was instantly improved,

Result

The reject rate was reduced to zero saving the company £540 per week and the on time delivery performance increased to 91%.

Improving the supplier’s production process is still under investigation.