Local sport equipment manufacturer, Play Hard Sports Equipment found its growth was hampered by production and capacity issues. With the help of QMI Solutions, the company (Oz Ring Pty Limited) implemented a new manufacturing strategy, doubling on-time delivery and increasing production capacity by 30% within six months and is on target to increase this to 50% within twelve months.

Play Hard Sports Equipment came into existence as Oz Ring Pty Ltd, to meet a market need. Back in 1993, Trevor Bowman came home from basketball practice frustrated  that the poor quality equipment at the local high school was constantly breaking. He set about designing a more robust basketball ring which led to Bowman patenting his own spring tensioned basketball ring technology. This was the beginning of Oz Ring's manufacturing experience. The patented ring has been used widely throughout  Australia and the USA over the last fifteen years.

Before long, orders were flowing in, not only for the spring tensioned goals but also for other basketball products. In 1998, Bowman and his wife Radmila, having outgrown their garage in Sydney, moved their business to a factory in Burleigh, Queensland.

At this time, Oz Ring Pty Limited took on the trading name of Play Hard Sports Equipment, as this better reflected the growing number of products in their manufacturing range. Today, Play Hard Sports Equipment has over 300 durable sporting products ranging from basketball towers to AFL goals to hammer cages.

Tony Fogg, Operations Manager for Play Hard Sports  said "the bulk of our customers operate sporting facilities such schools, local government bodies, sporting clubs and major sporting venues throughout Australia and overseas."

"Our heavy duty, high quality products have the long-lasting lifespan these organisations require.  We are also able to modify or custom design equipment, which gives us a competitive edge in the sports equipment market."

Like many small businesses that evolve over time, Play Hard Sports' production capacity started to lag behind sales volumes, creating long lead times and frustrated customers.

"We knew what our problems were, but we didn't know how to fix them. Resolving problems takes time, and when you are constantly chasing delivery dates it's hard to focus on anything else" Fogg said.

In March 2008, Bowman attended a Lean Manufacturing clinic conducted by QMI Solutions. Following that, the company undertook the Manufacturing Microscope offered by Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI).

Through the Manufacturing Microscope, Play Hard Sports took stock of its position by benchmarking its current practices and performance using self-assessment questionnaires and facilitated discussions. This enabled the business to rank itself against a cross-section of international companies operating in the same industry.

"The Manufacturing Microscope highlighted several areas for improvement, which to a large extent reinforced our existing concerns. DEEDI suggested that QMI Solutions could help with a tailored solution to address many of our constraints and help us to meet our growth targets." Fogg said.

"Although Trevor was excited by the possibilities, it's fair to say the rest of us were not looking forward to it," Fogg said. "We were very sceptical about another expert coming in, but it turned out to be a real boon. The QMI Solutions consultant really knew his stuff and listened and learnt about us and our business."

QMI Solutions proposed an eight-day training and intervention program, spending one day per week over eight weeks. Their recommendations included:

• developing a manufacturing strategy
• designing a production scheduling system
• optimising factory layout and
• implementing 5S

At the initial half day session, QMI Solutions and Play Hard Sports' General Manager Bowman, Fogg and the Production Manager, 'Mac', considered the company's growth aspirations and market requirements, such as lead time and quality. Together, the team produced a strategy and philosophy as a basis to enhance the company's manufacturing processes.

"Our initial problem was that we had too many jobs in progress at any one time but none could be despatched as they were only 95% completed. We identified that our main constraint was that of production capacity and method, which could not keep up with our peak sales volume. Late deliveries were leading to disgruntled customers," Bowman said.

"We agreed that a 25% sales growth should be achievable over the 2008/2009 financial year and that to support this target, manufacturing would need to grow by 32% over the same period," said Fogg.

The rest of the session was dedicated to designing a production schedule. We recognised that the absence of this schedule was one of the major reasons we were struggling with capacity.

"During our initial discussion we examined our entire process from order to delivery, including what we were currently doing with components, inventory, priority orders and customised jobs and how well it was working. Then over the eight weekly visits, the system was monitored and refined and staff members were trained".

The objective of the scheduling system was to implement Lean Manufacturing principles and inform all staff which jobs to work on, how many units to build and when the order needs to be completed for despatch.

QMI Solutions introduced a daily production schedule to be updated by the Operations and Production Managers each afternoon ready for the next day. Under this new system, the number of working hours available for the next day are calculated across each work area. Staff can then be pulled to assist in other areas of higher need. The work schedule is realistic and visually represents what work is achievable within the time available.

"We realised we had been over-scheduling because we didn't know the actual number of working hours available or how long a job would take. Staff had become increasingly frustrated at their inability to meet targets set for them," said Fogg.

The introduction of job cards that move through the factory with each job has made it easier for staff to follow order specifications, from batch number and fabrication dimensions to paint colour and dispatch details. Workers now record the time taken to perform their part of the process, and this data is a valuable input into more accurate scheduling and price structuring.

"We now schedule in a two day buffer for sales orders of customised products or products for which parts are not stocked. This means there is sufficient time to obtain all materials required for the job prior to its commencement. As a result, there is much less work-in-progress clogging up the workshop floor and jobs are flowing through the system and meeting delivery deadlines" said Fogg.

"We have also started keeping stock holdings for the most popular products and components, such as basketball backboards and rings, to enable a quick dispatch.  A Kanban system triggers the need to assemble more of a product or order more of a component with a re-order card positioned to appear when stock levels fall to a certain level. For example, with a stock level of eight, the Kanban card may be placed after the fifth item, allowing for the replacement of those items before the last three run out" he said.

The third element of the project was to improve the factory layout and process flow. The layout of a factory or workshop seriously affects the efficiency and flow of any operation. Dysfunctional layouts become messier and reduce efficiency as well as lowering morale. Achieving the right factory layout helps to keep staff and product movement to a minimum, thereby reducing waste.

Picking components and materials prior to each job has dramatically reduced the amount of time spent retrieving and searching for items during the production process. Fogg said that they've reduced walking time by making a full suite of tools available at each workstation, an initiative that also assisted in increasing daily output.

"Staff morale is much higher now. When QMI first came in, there was a lot of frustration with not being able to complete jobs on time. As staff started to see that these new processes were making their jobs easier, and they actually could achieve their targets, they truly embraced the new system" Fogg said.

Although Play Hard Sports plans to move to a new, larger premises in the future, modifications to existing factory layout have greatly improved process flow and made it easier to manage the limited space available.

The requirements of each workcentre was evaluated by considering material flow, shared labour and sources of contamination and dust. A basic block layout was developed using workcentre drawings and refined using the proximity relationships and input from production staff. "In the original layout, products were moving through the factory in a zigzag, so unnecessary material movement added time to each job. Reconfiguring equipment and workstations into logical production sequence, creating an extended 'J' shape, further reduced waste," said Fogg.

Each sales order now moves from the cutting bay to an allocated fabrication workstation. Previously these workstations were not separated and shared limited bench space and tools.

"The introduction of 5S housekeeping further improved the efficiency of work stations, resulting in a systematised approach and an organised workplace. All tools are now housed in set places on shadow boards. It is easy to identify when a tool is missing and the system visually prompts workers to return tools to their allocated place," Fogg said.

Six months after the start of the QMI Solutions program, Play Hard Sports Equipment is seeing results. Sales, which have increased by 20%, have been supported  by a 30% increase in production capacity. This added capacity has enabled the company to take on larger jobs that were previously not considered.

Twice as many jobs are being delivered in full – on time, that's 80%, up from 40%. This is expected to lead to greater customer retention.

Action Plan:

• move to bigger premises within the next three years
• optimise factory layout in the existing premises
• continue with Lean Manufacturing principles