Lantech Case Study

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Lantech Case Study
Presented by Ray Essig Natalie
Lavergne Karine Lavoie-Tremblay
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Background Information

• Lantech is a Kentucky based wrapping machine
  manufacturer
• saved from the brink of bankruptcy by multiple
  Kaizen events
• Kaizens have resulted in increased productivity
  and profitability
• went from 50 employees turning out 8 machines/day
  to 20 people turning out 14 machines/day
• order processing time went from 5 wks to 14 hrs
• sales increased by 3 1/2 times

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Abstract
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The Kaizen Process

• Kaizen means continuous, incremental
  improvement in an activity, to create more value
  with less waste.
• A Kaizen Event is a process that a company
  orchestrates to try to improve their specific
  manufacturing operations.
• Carried out in a real time enviroment
• Held towards end of improvement process

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• Team should include
• workers who work in current system
• workers who will work in new system
• experienced kaizen facilitators
• management who can implement changes
• Steps
• problem identification
• gather information
• analyze information
• determine root cause
• generate ideas to solve problems
• utilize simulation software
• implement agreed upon solutions
• check results

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Assumptions

• In order to be able to perform an analysis of the
  Lantech systems, some assumptions had to be made
  where actual data was not available
• the same assumptions were used in all 4 analysis
  techniques

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Queuing Theory

• Utilized following equations to improve
  throughput time
• P(0) Probability system is empty 1- ?
• Wq expected time in line ?/?(1-?)
• L time in system ?/(1-?)
• W Total time in system 1/?(1-?)
• Where ? ?/c? , ? average arrival rate, c
  number of servers, and ? average service rate.
• Current Gear drive assembly takes 6 hours
• 1 machine, 6 hours, 1.5 machine, 9 hours.
• Current Demand is 1.5 / 8 hour day
• Using queuing theory, reduced throughput time to
  1 machine, 5 hours

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Queuing Theory Results, before Kaizen
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Queuing Theory Results, after Kaizen
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Flow shop sequencing

• Created a precedence structure and sequence the
  departments accordingly 38 gain in efficiency
  from original case
• Multi-task resources in addition to the
  precedence structure 69 gain in efficiency from
  original case

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Facility Layout

• Built a REL chart
• TCR based on new layout 33 savings on total
  flow cost

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ProModel Analysis

• Several analyses were run using ProModel
• limiting factor on analysis was model size
• ProModel helped identify areas of bottleneck
  where re-allocation of resources could improve
  throughput - specifically areas with high cycle
  time

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Discussion

• 4 different tools Queuing Theory, Flow shop
  sequencing, Facility Layout and Pro-Model.
• Each tool improves a different element of the
  Lantech manufacturing system
• total flow cost
• resources
• throughput time
• layout
• sequencing
• efficiency/profitability

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Conclusion

• A company initially needs to identify which
  elements of their system they would like to
  optimize.
• The company should then proceed to use a
  combination of the different tools in order to
  maximize their respective strengths and provide
  an overall system benefit.