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Nishikawa Standard Company, Three goes into two

Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer US
Published : July 2007

Nishikawa Standard Company is successfully demonstrating that kaizen is one key to consolidating its facilities, Gary Toushek learns

Tough competition in the global automotive industry is forcing some drastic moves, and continuous improvement programs that focus on cutting costs while producing better efficiencies and maintaining quality have become essential for serious players.

Nishikawa Standard Company (NISCO) was established in 1986 as a joint venture between Cooper Standard Automotive (CSA) and Nishikawa Rubber Company (NRC). The relationship had begun in 1970 as a technology exchange agreement between the two companies. CSA, with headquarters in Novi, MI, is one of the world’s largest automotive OEM suppliers of sealing fluids and NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) control systems. NRC, with headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan, is the only fully independent dynamic seal supplier (in that country) whose customer base includes all Japanese automotive companies.

Today, NISCO is a full-service (Tiers One and Two) supplier of automotive OEM dynamic sealing systems. Currently under way is a consolidation of its manufacturing facilities from three plants to two, all in Indiana; all are certified TS 16949, ISO 14001, and Ford Q1. Its New Haven plant is closing, and the 135,000 square feet of space will be condensed to 65,000, which will be integrated into its main plant at Topeka (used for producing primaries—extrusion and mixing mold material—and for finishing) and its other plant at Bremen (finishing), resulting in a total of 425,000 square feet between the two.

Director of Continuous Improvement Bill Paolucci says the consolidation is on track for completion by September 2007. “It was announced in April last year, and in order to accommodate it we’ve had to implement some lean activities to both free up 65,000 square feet of space at Topeka and Bremen and to condense the operations at New Haven in preparation to close.”

Fortunately, NISCO had a head start with lean several years ago that resulted in a change from conveyor line to cellular assembly, and at the end of 2004 a continuous improvement team was assembled at the corporate level, called IMPACT (Improving Methods, Processes, Activities, Culture, and Tools). Its goal was to work toward efficiency improvements, primarily related to labor and processes, with a decided emphasis on kaizen events. IMPACT began by asking managers at each of the three facilities what they thought their biggest problem areas were, and kaizen events were planned in order to solve them.

“We had free reign,” says Paolucci, “as opposed to being dedicated to one facility.” The duration for each event was four to six weeks and began with a three- to five-day workshop including engineers, quality control, and maintenance staff. “We started with process mapping, using a graphic layout of the work cell to examine the workflow using a spaghetti diagram, then followed a part through it to see where the lines crossed and where the turbulence was. We also did a time study to see how the actual work was balanced between the cell operators.”

The cell workers listed all the waste they found in their work area then discussed it in a classroom. “Most people think waste is primarily scrap material, but it also involves movement, especially travel [number of footsteps in an operation] and part travel [path of a part].” If change involved realigning the cell by repositioning equipment, the floor was marked to show maintenance people where to move the equipment.

While the machinery was moved, the next step required the cell group to write new instructions and visuals for the realigned cell and set up the cell according to the new plan.

“Beginning from the first day of the new setup,” Paolucci says, “the employees monitor the progress of their work. If all is well, IMPACT follows up 30 and 60 days later. Cells can differ because of their function and volume of materials, but we apply what we’ve learned in one kaizen event to another, then refine it, then apply it to the next event, and so on, and adapt it to other problem areas to achieve better efficiencies. We also work on ergonomic design, and we have some job rotation so that employees don’t fall prey to repetition. We’ve had to do some work on redesigning how we stage product and operate equipment.” He continues to monitor all work cells in NISCO’s facilities for weekly performance updates.

So far the improvements have resulted in the targeted goals: from January 2006 through April 2007, NISCO accomplished a 10 percent improvement in productivity, and some of the work cells had a 40–50 percent improvement, with one cell improving by 54 percent after only two kaizens.

Now the target is the extrusion process, and Paolucci notes, “We’re finding that we need to add some Six Sigma tools to our toolbox in order to get the extrusion area up to speed.” IMPACT is also looking for efficiency opportunities throughout the company; for example, procurement cards were implemented in administrative areas, which greatly reduced administrative purchase orders, eliminated a long approval process, and minimized stock quantities. “Now requesters can get product without delays, which in turn eliminates the tendency to stockpile. And it frees up accounts payable personnel for other duties.”

Going forward, Paolucci says that NISCO’s challenges include maintaining its commendable safety record (a 60 percent reduction in recordable injuries in 2005–06) and competing against low labor costs overseas. “We want to stay in Indiana, and we don’t want to outsource, so we have to continue to lower costs to be as efficient and productive as possible.”

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