Plastics Pipeline Blog

Team 1 Plastics Teams with Customer on Kaizen Event

Continuous improvement should be a goal of every company and organization. Team 1 Plastics, a plastic injection molding company for the automotive industry, is no exception. The company is so focused on continuous improvement that one of its 2017 Strategic Objectives is to host quality kaizen events during the year.

The term, “kaizen,” is Japanese and literally means to “change” (kai) for the “better” (zen.) And, according to lean.ohio.gov’s Kaizen Event Survival Guide, a kaizen event will help a company or organization “change for the better” by “analyzing every part of a work process – then transforming it to be simpler, faster, better, and less costly.”

A kaizen event involves a cross-functional team and typically lasts three to five days and has two areas of focus:  continuous improvement and waste elimination, according to the article, “How to survive a kaizen event,” by Mike Thelen on reliableplant.com. Thelen then characterized a kaizen event:

• A short burst of intense activity and effort (three to five days only)
• Biased toward action over analysis to achieve improvements in a short time
• Focused on defining activities, improving supplier/customer connections and achieving flow
• Driven to resolving a specific problem or achieving a specific goal
• Committed to a specific area or process (either plant or office)
• Guided with daily reviews of progress
• Managed to resolution

Team 1 Plastics hosted a four-day kaizen event in May 2017 in partnership with its customer MANN+HUMMEL. The event’s focus, according to Dave Sanford, Quality Manager for Team 1, was on Team 1’s “run at rate” process. Sanford described the “run at rate” process as “the last gate Team 1 uses to transfer a new part from New Product Launch to Mass Production.” He said that the process had some flaws and needed improvement.

For the event, Team 1 Plastics had eight team members involved. Representing MANN+HUMMEL were Matt Yoder and Melissa Wiessner. Sanford said that this was the first kaizen event in which Team 1 Plastics and MANN+HUMMEL had partnered, and it provided an outline, structure, and tools for future kaizen events at Team 1. Sanford said, “Matt and Mel were great teachers and leaders during this process. It was beneficial to learn from experienced people.”

“During the event, we reviewed the current ‘run at rate’ process from the beginning to the end, and we started to see where the flaws occur,” Sanford said. “There was open dialogue throughout the whole process, and everyone participated and offered suggestions.” And, Sanford said, the kaizen event wasn’t limited to the conference room. “We assigned tasks, broke out in groups, and went and made the changes right away. We didn’t have to wait days for tasks to be completed. We could get them done immediately which was very beneficial. Then, after the changes were made, we came back and rewrote the flowchart and the ‘run at rate’ process.”

And, Sanford said that the kaizen event was very successful, and results from the new “run at rate” process were realized immediately. “The first three ‘run at rate’ occurrences after the kaizen event all passed!” He added that Team 1 Plastics and its customers will benefit from the more robust process. “It will mean fewer trials, better problem solving, improved part quality, and better communication among our Team Members.”

Sanford said that he appreciated the investment of MANN+HUMMEL in helping Team 1 improve its “run at rate” process. “Their assistance with this kaizen event demonstrates that MANN+HUMMEL doesn’t just talk about wanting to help its suppliers. The company invested the time to come to Team 1 Plastics and help us improve. It was a large investment of both their time and ours, and we’re thankful we could come together to make this happen.”