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Welsh Automotive Forum at Toyota “The visit provided a very useful insight into the Toyota Production System,” said Daryl Powell, graduate engineer with Schaeffler, Llanelli. “This was particularly interesting for my current studies of MSc Lean & Agile Manufacturing Systems at Swansea Institute of HE. “One aspect that I found particularly valuable was that of Heijunka, or production levelling. I also thought that both the Andon and Kanban systems were excellent.” He added, “Small, standardised work teams of approx. five members, centred around a team leader who can offer assistance where and when required seemed to work very well.” Colleague and team leader Anthony Weston added, “I thought the visit to Toyota was well worthwhile. It gave us an insight into the way in which they worked. “For me as a team leader the walk around the shop floor was the most interesting because it showed us the efficient way in which they work, and we were able to see the systems which they use to reduce and eliminate lost time to production lines. “It was also good to see the Kanban system actually working in a production environment, I was very surprised how well it worked. Another thing I found very interesting was how they used the data they had collected on machine breakdowns to plan TPMs to prevent these breakdowns happening in live production. |
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One company to benefit from the IWI Programme was Llantrisant-based Sigma 3
Kitchens, which was able to streamline some of its manufacturing and quality
assurance procedures after visiting jumbo-jet overhaul teams at British Airways
Maintenance Cardiff (BAMC). The kitchen manufacturer decided that, despite the massive difference in their products, their managers could learn from the systems used by BA’s technical teams, whose work is critical for the safety of millions of passengers. Wayne Lewis, Sigma 3’s commercial contracts manager said: “BAMC runs a very impressive operation. As a direct result of studying their methods we have now adopted improved design, manufacturing and installation processes for our kitchens. Making kitchens and maintaining aircraft might not seem to have a lot in common but we took away a wealth of valuable information and advice.” The Inside Welsh Industry programme is successful because it is relevant, up-to-date and diverse. In fact part of its unique strength is that businesses from completely different sectors are able to learn from each other. It gives representatives of small and medium sized companies the chance to visit large flagship firms to see their management systems in action first hand. |
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Yale College at Brother A whole area of the company is devoted to recycling different types of plastic, cardboard, expanded polystyrene, paper etc and we were shown what they were used for. For example, the end products included park benches and rubber mats for children’s play areas. Two things really made an impression on me. The first was the resources (machinery, space and three staff) that Brother devote to recycling rubber from cartridge rollers, even though they do this at a loss simply because it is part of their genuine commitment to “green issues”. This type of unseen ethical behaviour needs to be applauded. Secondly, I was struck by the agility of the company and its ability to embrace change and refocus its activities in a relatively short space of time. The visit was also a good opportunity to meet people from a variety of backgrounds, being well-planned with a variety of interactive activities. We all found the visit an enriching and inspiring experience. Jon Cartmell |
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Hywel Davies, Dow Corning Engineering Manager and Planning
Team Leader recently took part in an
Inside Welsh Industry visit to British
Airways Maintenance Cardiff
(BAMC). Both companies face similar challenges, how to safely carry out thousands of maintenance tasks on equipment for safe reliable operation, whilst executing the work in an efficient manner. “There were many parallels to how Dow Corning and BAMC are successful at this. Both use Primavera Software and a SAP Enterprise Management System. From the visit we learned how BAMC were able to take this sophisticated computerised system and produce very visual displays of the plan and progress against this. This is something we can replicate at Dow Corning when we have large maintenance outages. We also saw some of the functionality in the software that we can use to further improve our progress tracking versus plan. Finally, the day was an opportunity to network with other leaders from Welsh Industry and benchmark a host of our internal processes against the best in Wales”. |
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