Aro Fluid Gets Operations In Synch

Aro Fluid Products (Bryan, Ohio), a manufacturer of pneumatic handtools, pumps and valves, had a problem at its Angola, Ind., manufacturing plant: customer service levels were unsatisfactory and inventories were out of control. The company's goal was to achieve a 24-hour product turnaround; instead, best-case scenarios still took anywhere from 10 to 15 days.

That's when Dennis Weaver, Aro's vice president, decided to try the reengineering concept known as synchronous manufacturing. Pioneered in the 1980s at General Motors, the original synchronous manufacturing concept focused only on the shop floor. Al Podzunas, a one-time GM manager who's now with The MPI Group (Wallingford, Conn.), has coined a new philosophy he calls Synchronous Manufacturing 2, which extends the scope to include the web around the manufacturing floor and incorporate the complete manufacturing process, including R&D;, product conceptualization, design, order entry, purchasing, manufacturing, and shipping.

The overall objective is to bring the entire organization together to serve one goal - customer satisfaction. This is accomplished by changing the measures, methods and mindset of a company. A company focuses its energies on increasing throughput (the revenue generated by sales), while decreasing inventory and operating expenses.

Part of the reason manufacturers get into trouble, according to Podzunas, is that they focus on labor, rather than the rest of the picture. Materials, overhead and burden account for about 90% of the cost of a product. Labor is only 10%, but oftentimes a company will justify everything on labor.

"Synchronous manufacturing really challenges what has become accepted as the traditional approach to manufacturing and manufacturing measurements," Weaver said. "What we were measuring was not driving us to be better suppliers to our customers. We had a lot of people working really hard, but we were not making improvements. Our customer satisfaction records were getting worse and our inventories were growing dramatically. Employees were frustrated and tired."

One of the first things Aro did was to drastically cut back the manufacturing batch sizes it was running in the shop. Queue time was analyzed and cut back dramatically. Moving parts quickly from operation to operation became a key focal point.

"We had been building to a forecast that was in most cases greater than, or in some cases, not even what the customer wanted," Weaver explained. "We were trying to anticipate spikes in incoming orders. We literally went in and overrode the system and began to manually release orders rather than waiting until the order was finished."

One major accomplishment, said Weaver, was to identify "where the true bottlenecks were versus the perceived ones. We had never been able to do that before. We were able to find the true bottlenecks by manually doing a process map, which allowed us to predict what our capacity was and then determine what parts we really wanted to run across these control points. With this information, buffer stock and batch sizes were determined."

In order to increase the capacity, Aro personnel videotaped set-ups, which allowed them insight on increasing efficiency through workstation improvements, operator training and streamlining set-up points. "You could clearly see where the fumbles were," Weaver said.

In one instance, videotaping revealed how awkward it was for operators to retrieve tooling in the head and cap cell set-up, adding several hours to the operation. Tool racks were built to incorporate tooling right at the work site. Blueprints were laminated when it showed how cumbersome it was to work with them.

"We created a focus factory, where the order comes in and we machine and assemble the complete part," Weaver explained. From this evolved a self-directed work force, where workers are cross-trained. A hard look was taken at the manufacturing areas, as well as the cell layout. For instance, the old work benches were rectangular and very difficult to walk around. Parts were not easily retrieved, even in the work area, and there was more inventory there than required. A new horseshoe-shaped workbench was designed, with an early parts retrieval system.

To control inventory, Aro implemented a pull system, which utilizes cards to notify someone when a carton is depleted. "Now, the system replenishes as products are needed, not based on a prediction," Weaver observed.

Within four months of the launch of the reengineering project, turnarounds had decreased from 10 days to two days in the critical cylinder area. Aro has also experienced a significant reduction in inventory. "A plant-wide house cleaning was held to get rid of what we didn't need," Weaver said. "We were physically able to take parts out of the factory by the thousands. We also freed up 20% of our floor space that can be used as we pursue additional products."

The bottom line is that Aro Fluid Products is so pleased with the improvement that it is incorporating synchronous manufacturing techniques into its largest facility, located in Bryan, Ohio, which comprises more than 400,000 square feet.

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