Identify - It was taking too long to close books at the end of the month (5 days) . Labor allocations were inaccurate. Overtime was being worked on this effort monthly.

Exploit - Resources were studied and were found to be misused as follows:
a) running two accounting systems (B&L, IBM)
b) lot’s of manual worksheets
c) bookkeeper overloaded (closing and invoicing)
d) B&L was improperly allocating labor

Subordinate - Team work accomplished the following:
a) improved B&L financial statement and stopped running IBM
b) manual worksheets were made electronic
c) some closing activities absorbed by controller, and B&L system improved invoicing (Nan)
d) changed labor allocation method

Elevate - The new methods resulted in:
a) 12 hours saved
b) 17 hours saved
c) bookkeeper could focus on closing, no overtime
d) receiving proper labor figures for improvement and closing now takes three days versus five (40% saved)

Create Inertia - Celebrate success: September closing was improved to only two days. New goal is to include furnishing budget number in the same time frame.

Identify - Customer needed packing slip and invoice number to match. In other words, for customers to pay us quicker the invoice number and packing slip number needed to be the same.

Exploit - Researched the computer program options for generating and tracking packing slip numbers and invoice numbers. Contacted Software Support at B&L for additional data.

Subordinate - Held meeting with accounting, shipping and management team to outline transition to one number. Conducted training with shipping, accounting, and production scheduling.

Elevate - We have eliminated over 40% waste! The accounting department was typing packing slip numbers on each invoice which was eliminated. Production Scheduling was filing an extra copy which was eliminated. We consolidated the information on each packing slip which reduced the total number of packing slips, handling, filing, etc.

Inertia - Customer is satisfied, fewer people doing more work through wasted time reduction.

Identify - No ownership in machining. Danny Fulton left and Finishing was attempting~to “Absorb” the position.

Exploit - Needed schedules improved, cleanliness was a problem, needed more technical expertise, resource was not employee driven.

Subordinate - Involved Frank, Mike, Toolroom and Production Scheduling. Defined what was wrong and where we needed to go.

Elevate - Production Scheduling furnishes a list for machining. Frank oversees schedule through to shipment. Mike and Frank accountable for cleanliness and ownership. Toolroom assists in set-ups and trouble shooting.

Inertia - Saved $25,000.00/year in labor, and resource is now employee owned and operated.

Identify - Moving parts to a final inspection area after the last operation was found to be a waste of space and motion. Final inspection time was stealing from in-process.

Exploit - Parts moved to final inspection would be improved if already bought off, then moved to shipping (save time involved). The vibratory generated parts too fast to keep up with final inspection. The RS carousel seemed like a hard place to conduct final inspections.

Subordinate - Inspectors were trained to final inspect at the last operation, material handlers to move parts to a “shipping staging area”. Vibratory operators were trained to conduct their own final inspection. The carousel turned out to be a non-issue.

Elevate - During September, 75% of the final inspections were done at the last operation, saving space and motion.

Inertia - Keep working through constraint to accomplish 100% compliance, with no extra conveyance or space.

Identify - Tool drawings unorganized, incomplete, and not current.

Exploit - Had to devise storage system which identified which drawings we had. Locating and assuring drawings reflect current tooling was also needed. Current print storage cabinets would need to be utilized.

Subordinate - Tooling manager and Tool Room personnel sorted, logged, and organized prints and created a revision history form. Toolmakers will be involved in “Change Notice Verifications” and furnishing complete die drawings.

Elevate - Drawings have been labeled, organized and logged with revision sheet added. Current file cabinets have been utilized properly; poor storage eliminated.

Inertia - This resource improvement helps Texas Die Casting achieve ISO and has fueled encouragement to establish systems to ensure quality tooling.