Haynes International

The lean boost┬áHigh-performance alloy manufacturer Haynes International has been using lean principles not only to improve manufacturing efficiency but also to boost energy efficiency and safety. Scott Pinkham tells Gay Sutton how.  Flying the globe on business or simply just taking a break, you may be travelling in a plane that is constructed and powered using high-performance alloys from Haynes International, Inc.  These nickel and cobalt-based alloys have been developed for a wide variety of applications where corrosion resistance and high performance at extremely high temperatures are essential. Thus, HaynesÔÇÖ products can be found in the aerospace, chemical processing and pharmaceutical industries, oil and gas, environmental, ceramics, metalworking, automotive, electronicsÔÇöthe applications are numerous and growing.The bulk of HaynesÔÇÖ products are manufactured in Kokomo, Indiana, at an extensive one-million-square-foot facility spread over 247 acres. But for many years the plant has been struggling to improve its delivery performance record. When Scott Pinkham was appointed vice president-operations in March 2008, he set about making it happen.┬á ÔÇ£We didnÔÇÖt start out aiming to do lean manufacturing,ÔÇØ Pinkham explains. ÔÇ£With our type of operationÔÇöwe donÔÇÖt have work cells, and materials travel miles around the facilityÔÇöI really wasnÔÇÖt sure what would fit.ÔÇØ In fact, Pinkham discovered from old records that lean consultants had been brought in 15 years earlier and had suggested changing the layout of the facility to achieve productivity gains. ÔÇ£They calculated that our material literally travels miles from the time we melt it to the time we ship it. But our equipment is large, installed on huge foundations and large pits. ThereÔÇÖs just no way that we can move or rearrange it.ÔÇØ Instead, Pinkham set out to develop a new set of metrics that would help him identify areas that needed improvement and would also focus the staff on delivering products on time. For many years the company had been working to monthly targets, which required the manufacturing staff to complete orders by the end of the month and not by the date the customer required, ÔÇ£which led to some very bad behaviors and a poor delivery record,ÔÇØ Pinkham says. So the first major change he made, with the help of Implementation Services, was to abandon the monthly targets and replace them with metrics that measured delivery performance on a weekly basis and shop-floor compliance to the schedule throughout the day.┬áTargets were set up for on-time delivery, off-quality costs, safety, compliance to schedule, efficiency, work in process and semi-finished inventory. And the real-time results were displayed on what the company calls its digital cockpitÔÇöan intranet-based program developed by the in-house IT department that displays all the metrics in an easy-to-understand real-time format.ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve also set up individual metrics for key operations,ÔÇØ he continues, ÔÇ£areas that might have the largest queue or carry the largest amount of work and process inventory behind them, areas that could end up being bottlenecks. We measure compliance to the schedule, efficiency in the operation and work in process, so we can look at the digital cockpit charts and see weÔÇÖre in control.ÔÇØIf the operation is under control, the chart border is green; if itÔÇÖs out of control, it turns red, which then initiates an operational review meeting, where the staff members get together to analyze the cause of the failure and find solutions to the problem.Along with these new metrics, some of the more appropriate lean tools have been introduced. Elements of 5SÔÇöwhich helps cut waste by maintaining a clean and ordered environment with the necessary tools at handÔÇöwere introduced to some of the operational areas, and the kaizen blitz has also become an essential part of the company culture. Drawing together operational staff from the shop floor and management levels, the kaizen blitz is a single improvement initiative focused on a specific area of production.ÔÇ£The really nice thing about the kaizen blitz is that weÔÇÖve pulled the production employees into this, and theyÔÇÖre generating some great ideas for improving their areas of operation. They felt good, too, because finally someone is asking them some questions and listening to them, and their suggestions are being implemented.ÔÇØThe changes at Kokomo have been significant and cultural, and it has taken time and effort to create buy-in from the staff. ÔÇ£At first it was probably just tenacity at my end, constantly chasing them, supportive of good behavior and then very upset over a recurrence of the old behavior. But once they started to see results, the enthusiasm began to grow. ThatÔÇÖs when they started to realize this was making us a better company.ÔÇØThe results speak for themselves. In just four months, on-time delivery has increased by 25 percent, and work-in-process inventory has been reduced. ÔÇ£Now weÔÇÖre actually following the schedule and trying to deliver all the orders on time,ÔÇØ Pinkham says. An interesting spin-off from the lean program is that it has been boosting other company improvement initiatives. A major energy user, Haynes has been working on ways to reduce its energy consumption and cut the amount of the waste going to landfill. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve learned about the four RsÔÇörefuse, reduce, reuse and recycleÔÇöbut now weÔÇÖre incorporating these in the kaizen blitz,ÔÇØ Pinkham says. The same has been happening with the safety program.Haynes has always been safety-conscious and has made enormous strides in the last ten years. ÔÇ£But over the last three to four years our improvements have plateaued. So weÔÇÖre going to try a different approach.ÔÇØ With training provided by the company that handles HaynesÔÇÖ compensation claims, the new focus will be on identifying and removing hazards before they cause an incident rather than after. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre also going to incorporate this into our kaizen blitz events. So when we tackle issues on a specific manufacturing line, weÔÇÖll also identify potential hazards that we can address, and weÔÇÖll look for environmental and energy improvements.ÔÇØ The next step may be to flow some of these lean concepts out to the service centers around the globe. Meanwhile, PinkhamÔÇÖs attention is firmly on the Kokomo plant, and he plans to work on areas that he believes may reach overload as the economic recovery starts and work begins to build up again.ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs been a great time for us,ÔÇØ he concludes. ÔÇ£I guess what I like about the lean concept is that itÔÇÖs taking us in all these different directions,ÔÇØ Pinkham says. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre becoming more efficient in production, but at the same time weÔÇÖre focusing on the quality, the environment and safety. So weÔÇÖre improving all aspects of the business.ÔÇØ ÔÇô Editorial research by Kristina Perley┬á