Global Competition

Situation

The US division of this global industrial coatings manufacturer was the poster child of why US manufacturing jobs were moving oversees. They had the highest manufacturing costs of all their global facilities and would eventually be closed if they could not significantly change their cost base. The US executive team invited Stroud to help them understand the opportunities for improvement.

Complication

The majority of the coatings that they produced were "made to order." Tints, hues, and viscosities had to meet the customers' ever changing, unique requirements, within very tight specifications. One of the biggest opportunities identified was the expense of remaking product that did not meet quality specifications - 25% of all batches were failing quality control. The mindset within the facility was focused on getting the customer to be less demanding rather than making their process more predictable.

"There are over a thousand variables playing into the right first time problem. It is impossible to fix this problem."
QC Department Head

Results

In 3 months the team was able to make dramatic improvements in Right First Time (RFT) from 75% to 89%. The RFT improvement reduced "non-value added" QC work and increased productivity of the assets. Having resolved the near term issues, the engagement went on to implement an enduring framework for improvement that resulted in increasing throughput by 50%. The reduction in manufacturing costs brought this plant in line with other facilities securing its future in the global marketplace.