FastCap factory tour

[Phil Thien]

Yeah - the "everyone stands" schtick is at the edge, I'd agree. But - I strongly recommend it for "meetings". I hate meetings. HATE. MEETINGS. If the players have to stand up, they get to the point quickly, and their group members will cut off the story about the big bass on Saturday.

Not a big fan of meetings either but some of the best planning/solutions I've seen have been the result of long meetings. I'm not saying short meetings aren't helpful. But you can't just insist all meetings are brief and still get the same result. That isn't the real world, it is just a gimmick.

Also - they wouldn't hire you [or me] in the first place, because job requirements include the ability to stand on your feet for the entire workday. We would wash out in the application phase.

The standing thing is just dumb, I would never apply to begin with. And I often stand all day long, even eating lunch standing, because my job demands it quite often.

But when it comes right down to it, if someone can sit on a stool and be just as efficient and more comfortable, they should sit.

On the lanyards - yep, no doubt, on a traditional production line dedicated on one product, or a family of very similar products. You will recall that their situation was precisely the opposite. He did not get into it in detail - I was hoping for more on that bit of their business. But - they were a small-quantity producer of multiple items - trying to get down to the holy grail of one-piece-flow. When you have that situation, as opposed to the dedicated line, you need to be able to access many tools, as needed for the product being produced that minute, and switch tool sets quickly for the next product.

Lanyards is still the way to go, you just change-out the tools, they just clip on and off. They are wasting soooo much time on the foam. I realize he sells the foam and wants to use what he sells. My suggestion: Sell lanyards.

Your approach is exactly on-target given the correct circumstances. Turns out, that is not their business model, so a different solution is needed.

The foam tool boards are applicable in a traditional production line - for setups. You have to move the tools with you to the machine, and there are a lot of tools that may be needed, but won't always be needed, depending on the details of the from-to changes.

Yeah no problem for setups but not for any sort of production. If you need to touch a tool each cycle, get it out of the foam.

[David Weaver]

If everything is miserable, then they were driving a different agenda.

Profit, I'd assume. If I were the owners, I'd have expected the same. I thought what might've been a little more interesting would be if the assembly folks switched jobs every two hours (every two hours there was a break of some type).

There were 13 of us on a line assembling vanities, 9 hour days and we assembled 70-75 an hour on that line (that's the line I worked on the most). I moved around some, because I was there each summer as a floater, but it wasn't out of the question for me to be in a specific department for a couple of weeks and then do the same job every day. That could've been something like putting guides in 640 or 650 cabinets a day, a job anyone on the line could've learned to do at speed in a couple of days.

Same with packing the cabinets, same with putting the doors on them on the assembly line. Some of the folks there liked doing the same thing every single day, but you put the guides in 70-75 cabinets an hour, and assemble them along with that, and it's pretty fast paced and very dull at the same time.

There was a sub assembly area for drawers. They were put together with hot melt and staples IIRC, and those folks rotated but they were the only ones I could think of. Otherwise, in a situation like that place, I think it's difficult to make it interesting. that part of the factory could not have been sped up without automation. You were in a rhythm all day, and with very little movement. The line went a certain speed and you kept up with it because nobody was happy when it stopped.

[Brian Elfert]

But presuming that they're assembling (fast cap) stuff in the united states vs. just sourcing from China, I'd still say good for them.

I was at Menards today and happened to see some screws by FastCap. Because of this thread I checked to see where they are made. They are made in China.

Ever notice that most stuff Made in the USA announces that fact in 40 point type right on the front with an American flag, but Made in China is usually in small type in a hard to find spot?

[Shawn Pixley]

Shawn - the person that wanted a standard time for lease negotiations did not understand that process, and did not understand what Lean/JIT is supposed to do. Your points about the theory of relativity and the Mona Lisa are correct, of course. But I would maintain that there are improvements to be made, but not in the fashion, and not in the scope, of what you are describing. Rather, the approach I would take is this: What are the tasks assigned to the creative talent? Which of those do not involve creativity? How can those tasks be re-engineered to eliminate time wasted by the talent, so they can spend more of their time where we need them? And yes - it gets down to stuff as trivial as where is copier located, where is the copy paper located, etc., etc. But if you were to take a few days, and stand back and objectively analyze where time is spent, I can pretty much assure you you would be surprised. Or - if we think about it, can we cut in half the time it takes to clean the paintbrushes at the end of each day, so he talent can spend more time painting the Sistine Chapel?

So guys - I agree with your observations on why it has not worked in your situations. However, it ain't the system or concept that is flawed in your examples, it is the knuckleheads driving it.

Kent, thanks. I can see how you might construe my post as opposition to the tenets of Operational Excellence (OE) and Lean. Actually, that is far from the truth (unfortunately not in my post). We use Lean And OE extensively in our group for repeatable processes such as data gathering, sorting & filtering, and data array for analysis. We often use reasonably large data sets (750K to 112M Data elements) in our work. It works exactly as you describe; we can use our time in analysis, interpretation and presentation. We use this the to propose our next series of actions and opportunities.

What I do mind is a dogmatic viewpoint of people who have preconceptions about the work or what is possible within a set of responsibilities. The nature of others who make pronouncements without seeking to understand first is intellectually disingenuous. We are a science based company, and they are violating one of the central tenets of science by arguing the data instead of the interpretation.

I do see the gulf between production thinking and research thinking. If we consider lab work, the the production group would measure the productivity of the lab by counting the throughput of the assays conducted. The methods would have all been developed and it is more or less rote work.

The R&D lab example might involve a scientist spending a fair amount of time thinking about how he or she might run an experiment to determine whether a particular molecule would ultimately succeed or fail (that quiet time can be misconstrued as waste). There is a strategic advantage of identifying molecules that would ultimately fail as early as possible. They also may be using very creative approaches to determine unique avenues of exploration. To R&D every experiment succeeding or failing adds to the understanding. Unfortunately, from the production side or the OE side, that failure looks like waste. Admittedly, my bias is to the R&D side of the house.

Lean thinking has a value which I certainly support. However it is not the savior to all problems. When applied blindly by people who do not seek to understand first, it adds to the waste itself. In many ways, I think you and I are in passionate agreement.

If you fancy a discussion on productivity among knowledge workers, I would love your perspective. We have been exploring proxy metrics (such as collaboration linkages) as the analog for knowledge or creative work. PM me if you are interested.

Unrelated to the central point, we are paperless. What is this thing you refer to as a "copier"?

[Kent A Bathurst]

What I do mind is a dogmatic viewpoint of people who have preconceptions about the work or what is possible within a set of responsibilities. The nature of others who make pronouncements without seeking to understand first is intellectually disingenuous.

Agreed.

Lean thinking has a value which I certainly support. However it is not the savior to all problems. When applied blindly by people who do not seek to understand first, it adds to the waste itself. In many ways, I think you and I are in passionate agreement.

We are.

What is this thing you refer to as a "copier"?

Man...I KNEW that was coming.

I left it there as a tangible example for others who may be bored to tears and are following the discussion. An then - I ran to your more amorphous example, and tried the Sistine Chapel on for size. Figgered if I could cut 5% out of Michelangelo's 50 +/- months, he would have had time to knock out an extra small statue, or summit.

[David Weaver]

I was at Menards today and happened to see some screws by FastCap. Because of this thread I checked to see where they are made. They are made in China.

Ever notice that most stuff Made in the USA announces that fact in 40 point type right on the front with an American flag, but Made in China is usually in small type in a hard to find spot?

i hardly know what made in the USA means, anyway. I had a plumbing problem this past week and had to order an entire set of stem and barrel assemblies and knobs for a three faucet renu system, most of the places said US made, and the only one that was in stock was silent about it. When I got it, I was disappointed to find that it is made in china at made in usa price by a company called lasco. It works OK, but not as well as the original american standard handles and internal parts did (all of the handles turn with different tension, markedly so).

I guess when I said that fast cap was manufacturing some stuff in the US, they may be, I already can't remember what I saw in that video because I was put off a little bit by the standing and other such semi religious things in it (that's my term, no religious in the sense of banned terms on here). But made in the USA doesn't seem to amount to too much, anyway, it's more like assembled.

I've worked in several manufacturers, and none of them were spotless during the work day (even if they were cleaned at the end of a shift). So if they're assembing bits and pieces from china that would make more sense.

(I did find when I opened my faucet package that a bunch of the parts were stamped taiwan, anyway).

[Mel Fulks]

Mike Angelo didn't want to finish any faster. That job of painting while lying down ,was the inspiration for Lil' Abner's job
as a "mattress tester".

[Kent A Bathurst]

i hardly know what made in the USA means, anyway.

Global economy. You hear that so often, it seems like a throw-away buzzword. But - it is accurate.

Cars.com ranks vehicles in terms of US content - considering parts and assembly.

Top of the list - F-150.
#6 - Stingray
#10 - Viper

All the others in the Top Ten are either Toyota or Honda.

So - let's assume I need a new vehicle, and a pick-up is not appropriate for my needs. I need a car-car.

And - I want Made in the USA. So - I gotta go Japanese.

Go figger. It is a global economy.

http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story....op&subject=ami

[Bert Kemp]

I use to work in a factory, I setup metal stamping press's anything from a 5 ton to a 200 ton press. There were literally 100's of dies that went into these press's to stamp parts. These dies weighed anywhere from 75# to several tons and when a job was finished they would take out the dies and put them anywhere, on a rack behind the press, on the floor in a warehouse anywhere they felt like dropping them. Then come time to set that job up again you could spend hours walking around looking for that die, this is no BS I've search as much a 3 hours looking for dies thats almost half a shift of no production.Sure the managers would say they were going to develop a system but it never happened in 30s odd years i know of. How stupid is that. How many hours of lost time per day that place went thru is beyond imagination. This was not a small company has thousands of employees.

[Scott Shepherd]

I use to work in a factory, I setup metal stamping press's anything from a 5 ton to a 200 ton press. There were literally 100's of dies that went into these press's to stamp parts. These dies weighed anywhere from 75# to several tons and when a job was finished they would take out the dies and put them anywhere, on a rack behind the press, on the floor in a warehouse anywhere they felt like dropping them. Then come time to set that job up again you could spend hours walking around looking for that die, this is no BS I've search as much a 3 hours looking for dies thats almost half a shift of no production.Sure the managers would say they were going to develop a system but it never happened in 30s odd years i know of. How stupid is that. How many hours of lost time per day that place went thru is beyond imagination. This was not a small company has thousands of employees.

I bet you didn't have a chair to sit in all day either, did you Bert? As my days as a machinist for 25 years, I don't recall too many positions on the shop floor that has chairs either. I don't think that's as abnormal as one might think. I've never seen a mechanic that didn't stand up all day, a machinist, a grocery store clerk, etc. Lot's of people stand up all day at work.

[Bert Kemp]

I think the only chairs in the whole place were in the offices and the cafe. It was a concrete floor thru out and my bodies payed the price. I had my back done in "89" L4-L5-S1, Lifting 75 to 150 lb steel dies by hand, after that we got a cart or a fork lift, I tore my wrist apart in 02 yanking on 20lb wrench's to tie the dies down its held together with 6 SS pins now and very limited movement, I had a hip replacement in 2008 and both my knee's are gone now. All I would imagine do to all the heavy lifting and walking on concrete floors for all those years. Hey I'm sitting now with a soft rug and foam padding under my feet

[David Weaver]

It was a concrete floor thru out and my bodies payed the price.

My point exactly. If you're walking on concrete all day (as we did at the cabinet factor), and especially if you have a steel toe requirement, it would be great to sit when you can sit. It should make no difference to the owner of a business whether people sit or stand, as long as the volume of work is the same. For a machinist, or for someone like I was running up an down an assembly line, there are no sitting jobs because there's no time that you just sit for long periods of time. But standing on a concrete floor and running around on it is hard on you and I never had shoes or boots that didn't leave my feet aching.