Master Class Case Study : Labone Precision


	Please enter keywords and click search

The Company
Labone is a privately owned company manufacturing precision components including mouldings, insert mouldings, presswork and various types of assembly. The company supplies a number of industries, including automotive, electronic/electrical and telecommunications.

The Issue

Production of one particular component at Labone was causing a problem and the company was selling the component at less than the manufacturing cost. 'Approaching the customer with the intent of negotiating a price increase was not a solution,' observed Chris Young Managing Director of Labone. The company asked for an Industry Forum MasterClass to help reduce the cost of manufacturing the component.

The Solution
'Early on it became clear that avoidable down-time on machines was slowing production and raising costs. Further investigation showed that this was caused by unnecessary waiting for materials to arrive, so the team made a detailed examination of lead time and the flow of material within the work area.

' The MasterClass showed us how to identify the root cause of delays and collected the right information for creating an improved set of conditions for producing the component,' said the Managing Director.

The key to better production was to improve the flow of materials through the insert moulding machine. In Labone's existing procedure, pre-assembly, moulding and assembly were carried out at separate locations. By experimenting, the MasterClass was able to see that it would be better if all processes were performed in the same area under a single overall production procedure.

This naturally gave them far greater control over the availability of materials for insert moulding. Cardboard models were used to arrive at the optimum layout of the combined working area.

As part of the overall procedure, the class also instigated smaller batch sizes for producing the component. ' This meant that any batch errors could be discovered earlier and corrected more quickly,' noted the Managing Director. ' Just as importantly, it ensured that parts moved through the area more quickly, saving on cost.'

Benefits
By the end of the MasterClass, productivity had improved by 60%. Not only was Labone now able to manufacture the component within budget, it could actually consider offering a price reduction to its customer.

' The Job had been causing problems in terms of quality and output. As a result of the activity, output levels were increased significantly and quality performance improved.'


Home \| Contact \| Sitemap \| Search \| Glossary of Terms \| © 2003-2007 SMMT - Designed and hosted by The Strategies Group Plc