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Aviation Industry Leader Creates New Production Process, Enhances Performance
Carson, CA - Honeywell Aerospace is a leader in aerospace products and services. aviation manufacturers and operators rely on them to deliver innovative new products and technologies to meet their needs. As with most companies, Honeywell wants to exceed their customer’s expectations when it comes to the systems and services they supply.
Honeywell Aerospace is a supplier to Boeing, the world's leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft. Recently, Boeing contracted with Time Wise Management Systems (TWMS) to pilot a program for a small number of key suppliers, including Honeywell Aerospace, to partake in a supplier integration process improvement program. This program included a Time Wise Value Stream Management System (VSMS) mapping session to show each factory’s product and process flow. This helps a company design a more efficient material flow. Each company then performed Kaizen events, short bursts of activity to make small improvements with the ultimate goal of making large gains in efficiency and productivity.
"As part of this program, we focused on one essential Boeing project: improving the manufacture of detail parts used in our 737 Environmental Control System," said Anita Russell from Honeywell Aerospace. "We knew we wanted to reduce the manufacturing lead time, excess part travel and in-process inventory in our facility, so we were excited to get started on the first cell."
Diane Morrissey of TWMS helped the Honeywell team with a VSMS session on the shop floor, which was followed by a Kaizen event that took three days.
"The Honeywell team knew they needed to shorten lead time in order to meet customer demand. To help them be more responsive to customer demand we instituted a Pull/Kanban system. This simple and flexible method controls the flow and balance of resources," said Morrissey.
With the implementation of the new production system, Honeywell employees reported a lead time reduction of 58% percent. By reducing the time on their longest lead-time item, the company improved their on-time delivery to Boeing.
"We now know the next steps we need to take in order to keep up with our workplace improvements, thanks to Diane Morrissey and TWMS," said Russell. "We will monitor our work-in-progress and lead time closely to ensure proper functioning of this new process, document our achieved improvements, and ensure maintenance of the results." (For more information please contact Anita Russell at 310-512-1193.)