Did you know, one of the leading producers of sheet metal stamping, forming and painting was able to attain ~100% on-time delivery by implementing lean and Kanban techniques?

The organization was facing pressure from its clients to reduce the lead time and improve on-time delivery. This led to serious problems like losing some big clients. These clients were demanding the shipment very next day and the organization was failing to fulfill the same. The organization had spent months trying to make the change on their own, with minimal success. But the lead times were still too high and delivery performance was not at all good or acceptable.

Later, the organization decided to adopt lean, Kanban and continuous improvement techniques to upgrade their practices towards adapting change and improving their services. Everyone in the organization was briefed about the need for change and an absolute schedule.

They explained to their employees the importance of the commitment they give to their clients while making an order. They explained that a commitment is a promise and when it is broken, it doesn’t feel good. This is why the organization adopted a policy that the day ends when the work ends not the other way around which used to happen before. Overtime was authorized and was basically automatic if they had the need to achieve the daily schedule.

The other issue the organization was facing was creating a flexible team. As the majority of the organizations, the workforce of this organization was also on the first shift. This was a problem since many orders were received later at night and had to give for shipment on the next day itself. Hence, the organization needed to change the balance of the shifts. Targets were set to progressively move toward the balance of the day and night shifts. This was later accomplished via various other ways.

Weeks after implementing these tools on-time delivery reached almost 100%. The average lead times were reduced from 2 weeks to 3 days. Set-up times and lot sizes were reduced by 75%. Total inventory was reduced by 50%, and much more. These tools have helped the organization to regenerate its place in the market and regenerate its prestige in the mind of its customers. So, have you started implementing such tools and techniques?