Fast Track to Waste-Free Manufacturing Straight Talk from a Plant Manager

Publisher’s Message, Acknowledgments, Preface, Introduction: The Revolution Has Just Begun, Chapter 1: Confronting the Deep Dark Dungeon, World Class Culture Shock, Changing the Lifestyle of a Factory, Where Are Our Manufacturing Leaders?, The Old-Fashioned Production Meeting, What’s Wrong with This Picture?, Chapter 2: The Plant Manager’s Manifesto, The Need to Energize for Change, The Critical Need for Renewed Focus by Today’s Plant Managers, The Challenging Journey from Mass to Waste-Free Manufacturing, Overcoming the Conventional Cost of Doing Business, How Strong Is Your Sense of Urgency?, The Fundamentals of Manufacturing Leadership, Chapter 3: The New Competition and the Old Barriers, Month One, Day One—A New Assignment, Old Barriers to Deploying Waste-Free Manufacturing, The Legend of the Loaves, Finding the Damaging Mental Barriers, Month One, Day Eight—Getting a Clearer Picture, Steps to Overcoming Old Barriers, Who the Heck Is Management?, Chapter 4: Waste-Free Manufacturing—Changing the Rules, Four Key Drivers for Waste-Free Manufacturing, Driver One: Workplace Organization, Driver Two: Uninterrupted Flow, Driver Three: Error-Free Processing, Driver Four: Insignificant Changeover, Some Very Important Differences between WFM and TPS, Tool Boxes to Support the Four Key Drivers, Steps and Levels For 6C, Pull Zones Rather Than Supermarkets, Month Seven—Not So World Class, Where to Begin—Understanding the Hidden Wastes, The Connection between Hidden Wastes and World Class Manufacturing, The Need for Never-Ending Improvement, Becoming Knowledgeable in the Lean Tools and Techniques, The Ultimate Challenge Facing U.S. Manufacturers, Month Nine—The Awakening, Chapter 5: Examining the WFM Drivers, Month Twelve—Learning the Truth, Seeing a Better Way to Apply TPS, Driver One: Workplace Organization (WPO), How to Begin Implementing WPO, Establishing a Disposition Zone, Implementing 6C, Achieving WPO Through Staircasing 6C, An Imaginary Tour of a Fully Deployed WFM, Carrying the Momentum of WPO into the Office Arena, WPO as the Foundation for Continuous Improvement, Linking the Four WFM Drivers, Shock Treatment Is Not Lasting Treatment, There Is No Such Thing as a Perfect Factory, Driver Two: Uninterrupted Flow, The First U-Flow Effort—Pick the Low-Hanging Fruit, How to Implement U-Flow, Aggressive Pursuit of Point-of-Use Manufacturing Applications, How Management Should Deal with Team Recommendations, Driver Three: Error-Free Processing, Driver Four: Insignificant Changeover, When Is Setup and Changeover Deemed Insignificant?, Getting Started with Insignificant Changeover, A Second Look at Pull Zones, Chapter 6: Beginning the WFM Journey, The WFM Journey Is a Never-Ending Process, The Will to Change and the Pain Threshold, Old Habits Don’t Die Easily, Takt Time—Producing to the Beat, Ten-Step Road Map for the Rapid Deployment of WFM, Step One: Educating the Management Staff, Step Two: Implementing Workplace Organization, Step Three: Establishing the Promotion Office, Step Four: Deciding on Your Core Processes, Step Five: Making Decisions Based on WFM Principles, Step Six: Moving Equipment to Point-of-Use, Step Seven: Transferring Inventory to Point-of-Use, Step Eight: Limiting Parts Production, Step Nine: Instituting Product Cell Management, Step Ten: Linking the Four WFM Drivers, Your Greatest Warriors Against Waste—Industrial Engineers, Simulating the Road Map to Deploy WFM, Month Fourteen—The Power of Why, The Why Technique, Chapter 7: Changing the Culture, The Production Worker Is the Center of Value-Added, The Rules of the Game Have Changed for the Professional Ranks, Obsolete Best Business Practices of the Past, Making the Union a Partner in Change, Building an Interface with the Union—Some Words of Advice, Month Fifteen—Storm Cloud Brewing, Work with Rather Than Deal with the Union, Institutionalizing Owner-Operators, Championing a Cause for the People, Month Eighteen—A Heated Issue, Using the Compressed Production System to Rapidly Deploy WFM, The Foundation of the Compressed Production System, Month Nineteen—Revitalizing the Morning Meeting, The One-Level Organization, Chapter 8: Measuring Progress—What to Measure and How, Ten Key Areas of Measurement, Measurement One: Completeness of Production Processes, Measurement Two: Yield That Is Defect and Error Free, Measurement Three: Time Spent on Setup and Changeover, Measurement Four: Skillfulness in the Work Force, Measurement Five: Mistake-Proof Processes, Measurement Six: Mixed-Model Capability, Measurement Seven: Waste Elimination Activities, Measurement Eight: Elimination of Capital Expenditures, Measurement Nine: Part Travel Distance, Measurement Ten: Speed to Market for Product Enhancements, Other Important Measurements, Performance to Takt Time, Inventory Expressed in Pieces Rather Than Dollars, Suppliers Certified for Delivery to Point-of-Use, Number of Value-Added Suggestions and Percent Implemented, Non-Value-Added—Essential Versus Nonessential, Number of Repeat Visits to Equipment or Processing, Extent of Management Team Located on the Shop Floor, Value-Added versus Non-Value-Added Floor Space Utilization, Total Square Footage of Manufacturing Space per Product Family, Knowing What and When to Measure, Employee Reactions to Implementing New Measures, Month Twenty—Making Both Steady Progress and Strong Enemies, Give No Quarter and Take No Prisoners but Defuse Negative Perceptions, Chapter 9: Organizational and Operational Issues to Support WFM, Launching the Compressed Production System, The Traditional Production Control Department, Eliminating the Traditional Quality Control Department, Analyzing Other Support Functions Under WFM, Month Twenty-One—Selecting a Champion for the Process, Establishing New Functions in the Compressed Production System, Applying WFM in the Office Environment, How to Use Displaced Production Employees, Chapter 10: Staying the Course on Your Never-Ending Journey, A Race with No Finish Line, Month Twenty-Two—Gaining National Recognition, The Continuous Improvement Pyramid, Layer One—Establish and Fully Maintain WPO, Layer Two—Study and Analyze the Current Process, Layer Three—Plan and Lay out the New Process, Layer Four—Prove the New Process, Layer Five—Apply Visual Controls, Understanding the Rocks and Boulders to Deployment, Other Potential Boulders, Fifteen-Point Checklist to Determine If You Are Globally Competitive, You Need the Will to Just Do It!, The Formula for Leading Effective Change, Six Common Paradigms in the Professional Ranks That Can Block Change, Month Thirty-Four—New and Grand Opportunities, WFM in the Automotive Industry, A Closing Comment on Your WFM Journey, Bibliography, About the Author, Index

Biography

John W. Davis describes himself as a “selfmade man ” After high school and four years in the United States Air Force, a family situation made it impossible for him to attend college on a full-time basis. He therefore began his career on the shop floor with Virco Manufacturing (school and office furniture) while attending tech school at night, and over a period of years worked his way up to the position of time study analyst in the industrial engineering department. After eight years at Virco, Davis accepted a position as industrial engineer for a sporting goods firm (Shakespeare Manufacturing) where he says he received a “practical education” in both manufacturing and industrial engineering. It was at Shakespeare that he successfully assumed responsibility for a major product transfer of the firm’s trolling motor operation from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Fayetteville, Arkansas and, in addition, was responsible for engineering a 100 percent gain in warehouse space, without brick and mortar, working with Towmotor Inc. in a LIFO warehousing approach. In 1974 Davis joined Carrier Corporation, a subsidiary of United Technologies, and over the years took on increasingly responsible positions, including the successful management of a number of industrial engineering departments within both the residential and commercial sectors of the business. In 1987 he assumed the position of manufacturing strategic planner which eventually led to being appointed plant manager of an operation in Indianapolis, Indiana. After making a most impressive turnaround in the manufacturing sector of this operation, Mr. Davis worked as a corporate consultant and team leader from 1993 to 1995 for a special corporate group that was assigned the task of traveling the world and teaching the principles, concepts, and techniques of world class manufacturing. It was during this period that Mr. Davis successfully developed his philosophy on waste-free manufacturing which he aggressively applied from 1995 until his retirement in 1998, while holding the position of Director of Operations over two manufacturing facilities within the Automotive Group of United Technologies. Mr. Davis has a degree in mechanical drafting, is a certified applicator in MTM, Work Factor and Univel, and a certified instructor in UTC flexible manufacturing. He was past president of the central Arkansas chapter of NMA (National Management Association), was a board member of Columbus Mississippi, Lowndes County Economic Development Association (CLEDA), and a member of Columbus, Mississippi, Lowndes County Association of Manufacturers (CLAM). Today John resides with his wife, Kathy, in Fairfield Bay, Arkansas and is involved in manufacturing consulting activities.