There are many issues to be faced when turning a community-based employment program into a viable commercial enterprise. For Woori Wood Enterprises, based outside of Rockhampton, one of these issues was the layout and processes within its workshop. By applying the principles of Lean Manufacturing to the layout, Woori Wood was able to improve safety, process flow and product quality and importantly, know what they need to do to sustain these improvements.

Woori Wood Enterprises, located in the remote Aboriginal community of Woorabinda, meaning "Kangaroo sit-down" in the local indigenous language, produces a range of rustic timber furniture in native hardwoods for both indoor and outdoor use. It started life as a business unit of the Mimosa Community Development Employment Program (CDEP).

"The young guys in the community started making small items such as Boomerangs then gradually moved to bigger timber products such as chairs and tables," says David Hatfield, Indigenous Development Officer from the Queensland Department of State Development in Rockhampton.

In August 2005, a cross-agency group was invited to join a bus tour travelling the 170km from Rockhampton to take a look at the community of Woorabinda. "The CDEP timber operation stood out as having most potential for development," says Hatfield. "What resulted was a unanimous interest in helping the CDEP operation to become a long-term commercially sustainable business."

By January 2006, Mimosa CDEP had joined together with interested community members, Anglo Coal as the industry partners, and a number of government departments to start the transformation. A business plan was produced and QMI Solutions undertook a Technology Access Program (TAP).

"The objective was to improve the factory layout and process flow in order to establish a sustainable commercial business," says QMI Solutions' Geoff Wakeley.

The layout of a factory or workshop seriously affects the efficiency and flow of any operation. Really dysfunctional layouts become messier and reduce efficiency substantially as well as morale. Ideally it is a good opportunity to get the right factory layout in place when moving sites or commencing a business as was the case with Woori Wood Enterprises.

"For starters, our machines were far too close together without any demarcation areas around them. Even more clutter was created by a lot of mess lying around," says Woodwork Manager, Jason Smith. "It was a huge safety issue". The Queensland Department of Employment and Industrial Relations (DEIR) had suspended operations after a safety audit.

"Secondly, there was a problem with process flow. The machines were laid out in reverse order. You got to the finishing end and then had to lug the piece up to the other end of the workshop to get to the assembly area," says Smith. "Finally, spray painting was done in the assembly area of the main workshop, with all the dust created from cutting and drilling timber. As a result, workers would spray paint at the end of the day and leave the products overnight to dry."

It was clear to Geoff Wakeley that the workshop needed to be extended to safely accommodate the machines.

"The layout also provided an opportunity to include a separate dispatch area and showroom/office. So we extended the workshop at both ends," says Wakeley.

A list of current products, and those likely to be produced in the future, was compiled and grouped into product families, that is, products that are similar and manufactured by the same processes. Each machine, or processing activity, was measured and a basic drawing produced that included spaces required for material and operator movement along with maintenance access. The required services (power, air, extraction, water) were identified and this information was used to define each workcentre envelope.

The relationships between each of the workcentres were then determined. "By considering material flow, shared labour, and sources of contamination such as dust and noise, you can evaluate the proximity requirement between each workcentre," says Wakeley. "For example, a desirable close proximity between workcentres will optimise flow by minimising material or labour movement. A close grouping of workcentres may result in a work cell."

With this in mind, the Woori Wood workshop was divided into four work cells, a primary machining work cell, a minor machining work cell, an assembly area, and the spray painting work cell outside the workshop.

This information was used in the development of the final layout for the Woori Wood site.

"At the southern end of the workshop we located the large machinery used to break down the timber, such as the large panel or table saw, the thicknesser and planer. That all went into the primary machining work cell. It was located at the southern end as these machines are used in the first step in the manufacturing process. Also, the noisiest machinery would be well away from the office. The minor machinery area, where processes like drilling to accept bolts could take place, went in the middle as it was the next logical step. Finally, the assembly area went at the northern end closest to the planned dispatch area, display room and office. This way the products could be easily transferred to the dispatch area next door and the office could monitor finished products going out," says Smith.

The fourth work cell, the spray painting area, had a highly undesirable proximity relationship with both the primary machining and minor machining cells, due to dust contamination. A separate shed was built with a painting booth and fume extraction system at one end and a drying/holding area for finished goods prior to dispatch at the other end. The visual systems of demarcation lines and colour-coding are also currently being added to improve both safety and productivity.

"We are going to have demarcation lines for machinery with each area colour-coded. The primary machining area will be one colour, the minor machining area a second colour and the assembly area a third. All the tooling required for each area will be marked in that particular colour so it's obvious where equipment belongs. There will be a clear pathway marked right down the middle of the shop so that people can walk from one end to the other without tripping over, and red no-go zones to keep safety equipment accessible and fire exits clear at all times. There will be shadow boards behind each piece of machinery and visual safety and operation instructions to encourage workers to do things in a certain way," says Smith.

In keeping with 5S Housekeeping principles, spare parts and tools that were lying around creating clutter have been removed to the storeroom. It has been renovated with new shelving, which together with the colour-coding, makes parts and tools easy to find.

The future is looking bright for Woori Wood Enterprises. What started as a CDEP program is now the beginning of a sustainable commercial enterprise that will be of great benefit to this small community.

"We now have four first year trainees employed fulltime. They started their TAFE courses yesterday," says Smith, who became Woori Wood's first paid employee in June 2006. The operation still supports the CDEP program, with nine young people spending two days per week on-site completing the woodwork component of their program.

Two contracts for outdoor furniture destined for mining accommodation sites have been fulfilled, with the promise of more orders to come. Furniture, trophies and shields have also been sold to the local council and community members.

It is a deliberately slow start because the workshop is still under construction so has a limited capacity. "We are 90% done," says Smith. "We just need to construct some work benches in the assembly area, then move to the office area and construct a small kitchenette."

"Woori Wood might be a small operation but the principles that support an effective factory redesign don't change," says Wakeley. "We used the Lean Manufacturing principles of work flow improvement, waste reduction, 5S and visual systems. It's a tried and tested process that can be tailored to any workplace."