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Boeing Supplier Improves On-Time Delivery, Increases Productivity
PHOENIX, AZ - The Cookson Company is a leader in the commercial rolling door industry. For 60 years, they have provided reliable, high-quality, innovative steel doors and grilles to industries all over the United States. As with most companies, the Cookson Company is constantly looking for ways to improve their productivity and speed up delivery time to customers.
This family owned and operated company is also a Boeing supplier, the world's leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined. Recently, Boeing contracted with Time Wise Management Systems (TWMS) and the Arizona Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) to pilot a program for a small number of key suppliers, including the Cookson Company, to partake in a supplier integration process improvement program. This program included a Time Wise Value Stream Management System mapping session to show each factory’s product and process flow. This helps a company determine a more efficient layout. Each company then performed Kaizen events, short bursts of activity to make small improvements with a goal of making large gains in efficiency and productivity.
"Our goal, as part of this program, was to increase our production flow. We knew if we could streamline that process, our delivery times would improve," said Ricardo Newell, operations manager and lean facilitator at Cookson.
To start, Carmine DeSimone of TWMS trained 18 key employees on the Time Wise Principles of Lean Manufacturing. Lean Manufacturing is a technique that uses basic but effective concepts to identify and help reduce waste and increase productivity. They identified four Kaizen opportunities and scheduled two for Kaizen events. They implemented a 5S Kaizen on their curtain line, which is a method of sorting out clutter. The 5S’s stand for sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain.