A shop’s lean manufacturing journey often begins by implementing 5S workplace organization concepts (sort, shine, simplify, standardize and sustain). If that was the case for your shop, what were your next steps in adopting a lean manufacturing mindset?

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A recent issue asked readers to describe changes in their shop that have significantly affected shopfloor efficiency or overall company success.

Carl Jessome, sales engineer for Magna Powertrain (www.magnapowertrain.com) offered this response.

We are employing a re-vamped 5S strategy throughout our shop and it is making a huge impact. Also making a huge impact is our new Visual Mangement system whereby we have a place for everything and everything in its place, as the adage goes.

It works! When an operator needs a tool, he goes to the board where it is hanging. If a tool is missing, it is VISUALLY obvious and the operator knows it is missing.

We have also aligned all our equipment to process parts in a logical order. Before, operators literally had to go from one end of the shop to the other to process parts. This could lead to operations being missed and parts getting “lost.” This re-alignment of machines and inspection greatly simplified things.

Also, we installed vending machines that generate daily consumption reports that we review -- you guessed it -- daily. This enables us to notice spikes in tool usage daily and it helps point our resources in the right direction for problem solving.

Overall, it is like working in a different shop. We went from a huge deficit of deliverable parts to a part bank all in a matter of a few months.

Successful shops often offer customers more than what they expect to receive. Here are a few examples of how both parties benefit when a shop goes the extra mile.

Provide higher quality. Eastern Science, a Massachusetts shop that specializes in prototype work, often machines parts to dimensional tolerances or surfaces finishes much better than the customer’s specifications. Thus, its customer receives a higher quality part. And by demonstrating its precise machining capabilities in such a way, the shop positions itself to win additional tight-tolerance work.

Consider non-machining work. A customer of Florida’s R&D Manufacturing Industries was looking to outsource the rebuilding of used assemblies. The shop, which was already machining components for new assemblies, took on that rebuilding work. In addition to helping its customer, the shop made money on the work by having machine operators rebuild assemblies during moments of idle time.

Speed prototype to production. Metal Craft Machine & Engineering, located in Minnesota, typically runs prototype work through its production machines. Its customers benefit because a machining process is ready to roll whenever the trigger is pulled to start production. In turn, the shop is more likely to win that production work because all aspects of the production machining process -- tooling, workholding, cutting data, CAD/CAM programming -- are in the can. It has also has the chance to work through issues that reveal themselves only during the production run.