To better meet our customers needs and the demands of a competitive market MSI initiated the lean manufacturing process in our facility. “The first event”, notes Steve Kimm MSI Operations manager, “involved a couple of hours of employee education followed by many hours of hands-on work, such as rearranging the floor of the 35,000-sq-ft facility to begin accommodating lean principles. MSI also got rid of some older equipment that wasn't being used to free up floor space. This meant equipment could be placed in a manner conducive to continuous flow production.”

MSI also relocated a central tool crib that had been positioned away from the moldmakers' work area. "We found that the toolmakers were making a 20-minute trip to the tool crib several times a day, so we decentralized the tool crib and put things closer to the moldmakers," explains Kimm. "The parts the guys use on an everyday basis went to the moldmakers, rather than them going to the parts."

Every machine's placement was examined and the question was asked, "Why is this here?" Since implementing its lean principles, MSI is getting more "departmentalized," notes Kimm. "Everything has a purpose and place. We opened up at least 10 percent of our plant space right away. Before, we thought we had to put an addition on the building. Lean principles helped us discover space we didn't know we had. That was the immediate result we saw."

Concentrating on ridding the production floor of waste has helped MSI reduce its lead times for molds even more. Recently, one customer needed two molds that required 450 hours each to build, and it needed them in 16 working days. "We took on the project because we were confident that we could meet that schedule," Kimm says. He notes that as soon as MSI gets the lean process defined at its Iowa facility, it plans to implement lean at its other plants in Arkansas and South Carolina, where another 45 are employed.

Kimm comments that it doesn't take long to realize the benefits of lean manufacturing, but the effort to maintain it is continuous. "Once you get people [to accept lean], you can't let them let down," says Kimm. "The guys are seeing results, and are now saying their jobs are easier. But this is just our initial start on the journey."

To read the complete story, follow this link to Injection Molding Magazine’s website.

In July of 2001 MSI launched a new business system that has enabled tracking of a job from the initial customer quote, the mold build process and the final shipment and billing of the completed mold. Previously, separate systems have been used to provide quoting, job tracking, financial reporting and shop floor scheduling.

Pulling all the data together into one system has helped us streamline our business process by eliminating duplicated efforts required when running separate systems. Improved access to the data has also enabled more efficient tracking of every project that comes through our plant. Job details are posted on our Intranet so that every employee can know the intimate details of each job as they occur in real-time by simply visiting our internal website.

Plans are in place to bring this system live in our South and Southeast facilities this fiscal year. This will further enhance our capabilities and reduce the amount of time using duplicate systems, enabling us to serve our customers better.