They may have only moved next door, but Thew & McCann's shift was cultural as well as physical. With a new factory layout and knowledge of workflow and 5S Housekeeping principles, they have increased on-time delivery by 10% within five months, whilst also decreasing average product assembly time by 10%.
Thew & McCann Pty Ltd is a family-owned business in operation for 40 years. In 1967 Norm Pearce (now Governing Director) was sent to Brisbane to establish the Queensland branch of Thew & McCann's Sydney-based operation. In 1973, Norm Pearce bought the Queensland branch to run as an independent business, eventually purchasing the Sydney parent company in 1997.
Thew & McCann's major customers are power utilities throughout Australia, including Energex and Ergon in Queensland. Although their core business is supplying materials and equipment to electricity transmission and distribution utilities, Thew & McCann also supplies products to allied electrical industries, including electrical contractors, and some products support a new push into export markets.
The company has experienced considerable growth in the past two to three years, partly as a result of the government's investment in south-east Queensland's power network. New infrastructure to support this region's rapid growth has created opportunities for Thew & McCann.
"Our factory floor was getting more and more cramped as the business grew and we had to fit new machinery and staff into the existing assembly area," says Operations Manager, John Angell. "Fortunately Norm Pearce had the foresight to acquire additional land for expansion when the company moved to Cleveland 12 years ago."
A new adjoining premises was constructed and Thew & McCann shifted next door in January 2007 but the new building was not without its own limitations. Although 30% bigger in total, the factory floor has only increased 18% in size from the original 900m2 area.
Dedicated pedestrian areas make a safer workplace
"Over the past 12 years we have made four attempts to change the factory layout to improve our efficiencies and create more space. Whilst we had modest success, we didn't have the specific knowledge needed for a total layout design," says Angell. "We saw moving to the new premises as an opportunity to really get it right, to assess our existing layout and have a new and improved layout ready for the move."
So it was timely when John Angell heard about a QMI Solutions Factory Layout clinic through the Queensland Department of Tourism, Regional Development and Industry.
"I took my Production Supervisor along to a Factory Layout seminar and it was just what we needed – a resource we could tap into prior to making our move. So a couple of months later, we had QMI Solutions review the layout of our existing factory and make recommendations for the new factory," says Angell.
QMI Solutions, together with a layout team drawn from company staff, considered the objectives of the exercise. They needed to increase the space available for the safe assembly and manufacture of a variety of specialised products. Ultimately, Thew & McCann wanted to improve its on-time delivery performance.
By mapping the operation, the layout team was able to quantify material and people movements in each manufacture and assembly area.
"Workflow was affected by a number of things. People were often leaving the assembly line to fetch materials and components from remote storage areas. They were also walking further than they needed to, as the steps in the production processes were not laid out in a logical sequence. Additional mobile workbenches being used to hold components and materials were cluttering up the already small areas available," says Production Supervisor, Darryl Peacock. "The storage and racking area was not totally separate from the manufacturing and assembly area meaning that the forklift had to operate in high pedestrian areas. This required safety barriers to be erected to allow forklift operations, restricting productivity."
Priority orders were causing unnecessary delays to work-in- progress. "Once the priority order arrived, there was no adjacent space allocated for the work-in-progress to be parked. We spent time and effort moving materials and components away and then back to the assembly area," says Peacock.
Storing components under workbenches made them easily accessible and freed up storage room elsewhere
Whilst mapping the operation, constraints that needed to be considered in the new design were also identified. "Constraints we identified with our earthing cable products included; the need for custom-made benches to cut and assemble cables, our testing equipment needed to be moved between several assembly areas as it is used to test multiple products. Unique specifications are requested by each customer, so the assembly lines need to be able to be modified to accommodate these specifications," says Angell.
"Constraints exist with relation to the supply of cable, which requires careful management," says Angell. "In peak periods there is a 10 to 12 week delivery delay, and changing between suppliers is a time-consuming and costly exercise."
"The demand for our products goes through peaks and troughs, and we need to be sure we can supply that demand. Lead time can also be an issue, as all of our products have to be designed to order, and type testing can be quite expensive," says Angell.
Additionally, the company is importing increasing volumes of bulky products for direct resale, creating the need for additional storage space.
Factory layouts in world class companies are based on proximity relationship charts that group common products and tasks. The chart then ranks each workstation based on which products/tasks need to be located closely or separately. This provides the plan for the layout of the factory or work area.
For the copper cable assembly line, workcentre information sheets were completed by staff. Each machine, item of testing equipment, and associated 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. The proximity requirements between each workcentre was evaluated by considering material flow, shared labour, and sources of contamination such as dust and noise.
A basic block layout was developed using the workcentre drawings and refined using the proximity relationships and input from production staff. In the cable assembly line, staff input contributed to provision of extra space to allow priority orders to interrupt work-in-progress with minimum disruption to the process.
"The new layout now gives us room to park work-in-progress nearby and start on the priority job. We don't have to work on top of the existing job, nor are we wasting time moving materials and components out of way, then back when the priority job is completed," says Peacock.
The new factory design makes use of "U" shape or straight line workflows were possible. This has reduced the amount of material movement by around 66%.
By mapping movement, the new layout reduced staff and material movement by 66%. NB:
drawing and work centres are drawn at a conceptual level
red connectors show workflow for Fibre Glass Operating Sticks
blue Connectrs show workflow for Earth Sets
green Connectors show workflow for Cross Arms
The principles of 5S Housekeeping were incorporated to reduce clutter, which was contributing to the limited workspace and disruption to workflow being experienced. 5S Housekeeping is a structured, systematised approach to organising the workplace using the five following steps:
Sort - Sorting and removing unnecessary items
Set in order - A place for everything and everything in its place
Shine -Cleaning the work area
Standards - Establishing the rules and standards
Sustain - Maintaining the standards in a disciplined way
The layout team had already identified that workers were often leaving the assembly line to fetch materials and components from storage areas, and mobile workbenches being used to hold components and materials were cluttering up already small areas.
"By 'sorting' we could 'red-tag' and throw a lot of unnecessary items away before we moved premises," says Angell. "When we looked at the 'set in order' stage, we saw that storage built into the workcentres themselves was being underutilised. For example, under the benches in the cable assembly, are two rows of shelving. We didn't need as many mobile workbenches when we made a place for all the appropriate components and materials on the underbench shelves."
This freed up room for worker movement, trolleys on which to safely move heavy cable, and the testing equipment that does need to be mobile so it can be moved to the right place, depending on the specifications of each order.
Installing a mobile testing unit meant that equipment could be brought to workbenches
"We're trying to create a cleaner, tidier workplace, and encourage people to maintain these standards. There is still a little bit of work to do to 'standardise' and 'sustain' our efforts," says Angell.
Thew & McCann have used visual systems to identify workcentre envelopes, walkways and the forklift zone, which runs between and separates the storage and manufacture/assembly areas.
"In our new factory layout we have separated the storage and pedestrian traffic areas, to create the safest workplace possible for our employees. Due to supply constraints we do need to carry significant stock, but 5S has helped us organise it better. We have also reduced the space needed between shelves by investing in a narrow aisle electric forklift," says Angell.
Asked what has changed five months after the new layout, Angell is optimistic. "We already have tangible results in a number of areas, even though we are still implementing some new ideas and systems," Angell says. "People seem happier in the new premises, now that they aren't working under the previous space constraints. On average our assembly processes would be 10% quicker. But our first real test came when we won a large order to export manufactured product to Sri Lanka just after we moved. We met the tight delivery deadline. Happily it wasn't just a one-off. On-time delivery has improved by about 10% across the board."
