We have recently been working together attempting to increase our shots per hour in Die Casting. Following is a major success story from this team effort, written in the T.O.C. format, so that everyone can see exactly how well it works:

1) Identify the Constraint! By studying data from our "shots per hour" report, we determined that 3rd shift start-ups on Mondays was always our lowest shift which made Mondays our lowest day. It's probably no coincidence that Mondays are also our highest scrap days, for the same reasons.

2) Exploit the Constraint: Some of the causes for start-ups being our lowest shots per hour are A) Stuck parts B) Operator absenteeism, with no-one to stay over C) Trim lines full D) Too many machines left down from shut-down. The cures to these problems are A) Have difficult start-up jobs anti-solder waxed at shut-down and have only experienced operators start them up on 3rd shift B) Have some second shift operators call in at start-up to cover for missing 3rd shift operators C) Have the trim lines cleared prior to shut-down so 3rd shift has room on the lines D) Have a rule at shut-down which assures a back-up machine at start-up.

4) Elevate the Constraint: During June, before the T.O.C. project started, 3rd shift had 4056 shots one start-up night. This averages 39 shots per hour. On Monday 7-30- 01, this number leapt to 8002 shots, or 71 shots per hour. This is an 82% improvement on start-ups.

5) Inertia: Congratulations to 3rd shift on this huge improvement and thanks to all employees who are helping Herbie. We can use some of these methods to improve strikes per hour on every shift, if we work together.