Kaizen Success Stories
Real Manufacturing Results. One Kaizen at a Time
Explore real-world Kaizen success stories showing how manufacturing teams solved critical problems, improved performance, and created sustainable results.
What Are You Going to Screw Up Today?
A historic winter storm shut down the plant, stranded team members, and cut a four-and-a-half-day Kaizen nearly in half. Most people would have postponed the event. Instead, the team cut changeover time by nearly 50% and turned one skeptic into one of its biggest supporters.
Respect First - Running Kaizen Successfully in a Union Environment
How clarity, respect, and one simple agreement unlocked engagement and protected results.
A Little Dab Will Do Ya
In 1991, I was offered a line supervisor position at Armstrong’s ceiling grid factory in Franklin Park Illinois. I had been working as a staff Industrial Engineer at Thomasville Furniture in Thomasville North Carolina, so the position would be my first operations supervisory role.
Overcoming Resistance to Change
Process Improvement Partners was brought in to help a consumer goods manufacturer cut their changeover time (the time it takes to switch tooling and equipment over from one product to another) in half. By doing so, they would be able to reduce inventory and improve process performance.
Go See for Yourself – The Best Selling Tool There Is
In 2006, our Kaizen team was working on improving changeover time for a painting operation. After reviewing changeover reduction techniques with the team, we took a walk to the line to observe a changeover. The team watched the paint technician clean the front of the paint booth with water for approximately 10 minutes. After that, he walked behind the booth for a few minutes and then came back to work on the front of the paint booth. None of the team members had followed him to see what he had been doing in the back of the booth.
Improving Changeover Time in 4 Simple Steps
Have you ever watched an auto race? If so, you probably noticed what happens when a car enters Pit Row and is tended to by a whole team of people trying to get it back on the track as fast as possible. If you wondered how they knew what to do and how they didn’t get in each other’s way, the answer is SMED.