Mark Albert,
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Sometime in your career, you probably had (or maybe still have) a toolbox and found that inside the lid was a great place for pictures of the family, your Harley, bass boat or hunting dog. But other things can be posted there, too.

Tell us about the most unusual or significant thing you’ve ever posted there, or that you have seen in a coworker’s toolbox, and what it meant to you.

If we publish your response, you’ll receive your choice of one free title from the Hanser Gardner bookstore (www.hansergardner.com).

To respond, send your e-mail to Mark Albert (malbert@mmsonline.com)

A recent issue asked subscribers to describe their next steps in the lean manufacturing journey after first implementing 5S workplace organization concepts (see http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/010401.html for more about 5S)

John W. Hill at Atlantic Turbines in Prince Edward Island, Canada, wisely noted that it takes only two or three of the 5S’s to get a workplace tidied up and organized, but “Sustaining” the accomplishments and benefits is an on-going effort. He points out that “Standard Work” is the step that establishes the long-lasting, sustained habits that allow lean implementation to go forward. “From standard work is created the Best Way Now,” he wrote.  The ‘Now’ means that it is only the best way at this moment in time. At any moment, someone in the team could make a suggestion, and consensus could be reached to make a change in the way things are done.” He goes on to say, “There is a common misconception that standard work is boring and leads to standard or little thinking. People that have been empowered will think of how they can change things for the better so the standard is always changing.  Lean is about respect for people and continuous improvement, and both of these are derived from standard work.”

Mark Tomlin of CNC Custom Services in Amherst, Virginia, observed that 5S may organize a workplace, but getting management thinking organized around lean is even more important. He wrote, “I would highly recommend the next step in the process to be intensive management training if not total immersion. In fact, I would recommend intensive management training to be the first step to a lean journey.” He adds, “If the leadership of a company is not prepared to lead by example, to expect and seek that every single process within their organization is subject to change, how can they expect the mass of the company to follow? And what exactly would they be following?”

Jim Joyner, director of lean/quality at Card-Monroe Corp. in Chattanooga, Tennessee, offered strong testimony to the power of lean manufacturing: “Not only did 5S change the face of the operation, it improved workflow, enhanced maintenance, reduced motion, and made us hungry for more improvement.” Then they took the plunge.“We decided to focus on setup/changeover time reduction because this directly affects machine utilization and facilitates lot size reduction and throughput,” Jim wrote. “Improvement was immediate. Setup time (defined as the time between the last good piece of one run to the first good piece of the next) dropped by about 30 percent within the first few weeks, mostly due to the machinists’ ideas. We also identified tooling, fixtures, instructions, and programming opportunities. As we implemented these changes, setup times dropped by as much as 70 percent, machine utilization jumped by 40 percent, and we identified opportunities to run lights-out on some applications. Since the implementation of these lean techniques, output has grown by 80 percent while headcount in the shops has remained constant. As the plant manager commented during the midst of these activities, This stuff really works!”