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Thread: FastCap factory tour

  1. #1
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    FastCap factory tour

    Just today I responded to threads twice regarding FastCap products. That brought me to their website which enticed me to take the video tour of their facility in Bellingham WA. It must be a left coast thing, but these folks really think outside of the box. Very interesting, it is definitely worth your while to take 13 minutes to view. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time. They seem to specialize in short production runs of many innovative products. There is a "FastCap Factory Tour" click box on the left side of their home page. Click on the Products tab too to see the the array of products they put out. I assumed they were just a facility that processed orders from Chinese made goods, not so. Pleasantly surprised. I have no affiliation with these folks, except that I have a couple of their products, two tape measures and a flush cutter.

    http://www.fastcap.com/
    NOW you tell me...

  2. #2
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    Very innovative approach to just in time manufacturing -- excellent video.
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  3. #3
    Thanks for sharing. Incredibly efficient and clean place to work. They all must wear quality shoes. I didn't see any rubber mats for them to stand on in their work areas.
    I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and I think, "Well, that’s not going to happen."

  4. #4
    Lean is like having a picky condo association for employee's cubicle and desk.

  5. #5
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    Pretty cool! At least you can sit when mother nature calls.

    Nice slider...couldn't tell what kind they had. I do love their efficient use of space.
    Wood: a fickle medium....

    Did you know SMC is user supported? Please help.

  6. #6
    I looked around more of the site during a meal break. Their video section has some great "lean" videos with all sorts of time-saving ideas. It definitely triggered some ideas on how things can be improved around the house, barn and shop to make everyday chores & projects easier. Thanks again for sharing the link!
    I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and I think, "Well, that’s not going to happen."

  7. #7
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    A company that uses lean and kaizen has my vote. I get stressed out when I see a mess. Cool find, Ole. I own a few Fast Cap items as well.
    -Lud

  8. #8
    I may be the only person who says this, but I wouldn't want to work there. Maybe it's a little less rah rah when the boss isn't around, but the processes as they're described would be better suited to a robot mentality than a person.

    I worked at a cabinet factory that went JIT back in the 1990s in the middle of the housing boom, and it didn't cause much in terms of problems. We did it because people were fascinated with japanese companies at the time. There were people working there from 18 to 78 years old and we had a quick meeting every morning to announce the stuff for the day and then everyone did stretches (haha) because the japanese were doing it at the time. Those were a waste of time for the kind of work we were doing on an assembly line, but they wanted to do everything exactly the same way as toyota and others were doing it.

    The only problem with it was that if you had a cabinet that had a face frame problem or something, and no more of that stain, you had no face frames in reserve, or doors, and if the truck with that cabinet was leaving that day, you had to wait for another face frame to come through finish over the next couple of days and then send that cabinet UPS to the distributor.

    I don't own any fast cap stuff, but i don't see any of it that would make a difference in a hand tooler's shop.

  9. #9
    Realizing that my comment above could come across as "too rah rah" or "too robotic compared to what"?

    Lie Nielsen would be one where I saw the factory tour and thought that it looked like a place with a bit more humanity and a bit less cog in the wheel kind of mentality.

    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.

  10. #10
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    The videos were pretty interesting. I don't have any Fastcap products. If I were a business owner producing items, this would be how I approach it. For my hobby work, I prefer to savor the experience. I do like some of the techiques for organization. Having everything on wheels is great for flexibility or customization of a particular workflow. I supect many of us employ some limited dimension of lean thinking (if nothing else, where and how tools are stored).

    I haven't worked in a production environment for years as I am on the knowledge work end of things for the last 20 years or so. For a production shop though, I like what they have done. Personally, I like the standing height format. My office is a standing height and I love it. Actually, I love the standing format period. I would prefer that I had no walls to separate me from my team. My team is responsible for portfolio and workplace design. Were are constantly exploring new environments for work.

    Our company utilizes Lean and OE techniques (one of which is Kaizen) in our production processes as well as some transactional processes. Unfortunately, when one tries to apply this thinking to some types of transactional work or all knowledge work, it becomes the wrong tool for the wrong job. I have had numerous senceless discussions with a colleague who tried to Kaizen a transactional process of lease negotiations. I knew we were never going to get any where when he or she tried to ask what the right length of time was needed for lease negotiations. As the negotiations involve another beyond your control it became a senseless discussion. Another party who is recalcitrant, blows the timing out of the water.

    As to knowledge work, it was very evident that they had their mind made up and and no data to the contrary was going to pursuade them from their viewpoint. They would state, "everything in the world is a process that can be streamlined." When I asked them to describe the process of creating the theory of relativity (as opposed to proving it). They stammered and feel bad. I can create a lean process to paint a wall. I can create a process for painting a copy of the Mona Lisa. But I cannot create a process for creating the next "Mona Lisa like piece of art."

    i see this a the typical gulf of understand between R&D and production organizations. The mindset is completely different. Off of soapbox now.
    Last edited by Shawn Pixley; 10-11-2014 at 12:39 PM.
    Shawn

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  11. #11
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    Yeah, well............

    The reason it works so well at this operation is the all-consuming focus on the part of the top guy. You have to have long-term, 100% commitment at the very top. At one point he made the comment about a simple face-palm improvement "We have been doing this 12 years, and we never thought of that before".

    It takes time and dedication. Most organizations that go into this fail, because the don't understand what it really means, are not willing or able to make the organizational/cultural changes necessary to succeed, and don't understand what it really is going to take to succeed. And - most important of all - they do not have a good understanding of how to go about making the changes in a way that will let them succeed.

    David's observation on "...if you had a cabinet that had a face frame problem..." is a perfect example. He makes an excellent point. The problem, however, was not with the concept of JIT or Lean, the problem is that company dod a lousy job of analyzing, planning, and implementing. And, from his first 2 paragraphs, they clearly did not take the correct approach toward changing an age-old culture. David - a classic example of mgmt failure, which poisoned the well for most of eternity.

    Some bits and pieces are always applicable to any particular operation. For one example - the hand tooler's shop - tell me if the tools all have an exact home, and are always in that home? If not, how much time is spent digging through the tools on the bench to find that frog adjustment screwdriver? I alsays know exactly where mine is - and the punch-line is that it is not used very frequently, so I have to know where to find it when I eventually need it. At the same time, I use my 3/8" bench chisel frequently, so I have to know​ where it is.

    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.

    I have been involved in many, many lean/JIT projects. On the shop floor. In R&D. In the Accts Payable department. You name it - I've been there. When I had the buy-in from top-level mgmt, we succeeded. When the top-level mgmt viewed it as just another corporate edict requiring just enough lip service to make them go away, it failed - in fact - I would walk away from participating in those.
    When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.

  12. #12
    I'm not working anyplace where the only time I can sit down is lunch and the restroom. My knees are okay now but I'm not ruining them because the guy at the top is OC. Give those people ergonomic stools for God's sake. Especially the ones that stand at the pallet racking all day long.

    And the foam is ridiculous. The tools should be on retractable lanyards. They're wasting sooooo much time on the foam. Foam is fine for longer-term storage, not for production.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Kent A Bathurst View Post

    David's observation on "...if you had a cabinet that had a face frame problem..." is a perfect example. He makes an excellent point. The problem, however, was not with the concept of JIT or Lean, the problem is that company dod a lousy job of analyzing, planning, and implementing. And, from his first 2 paragraphs, they clearly did not take the correct approach toward changing an age-old culture. David - a classic example of mgmt failure, which poisoned the well for most of eternity.
    I wouldn't say it failed. I'm sure it saved money, and it was generally made possible in the environment due to computers and a scan system that could put every single production item in order at every step of the way. If you were running the "clamp" in assembly, your cabinet sides and backs were stacked in order due to the computerized tickets. Same with the face frames.

    Doors came on carts in order of production (though they did have door inventory where they were pulled from, it's too hard to do JIT with every part, because doors often don't quite match face frames and you need to try another door).

    At any rate, it worked. The cabinets that got stuck waiting for parts fit between the assembly lines without issue, and I don't know what percent didn't leave on their trucks, but it was a fraction of a percent. Maybe one in 250 or one in 500.

    We made 3350 cabinets a week while I was there. We had about $750 a week of waste (broken panels, doors that had bad color and got WB sanded too many times to use), and when it would get to $1000, it would cause a big ruckus. Everyone there got paid peanuts (including most of the office people), and when the credit crisis hit in 2008, the factory was closed. that was 10 years after I last worked there, though.

    Anyway, the JIT worked fine there, it just wouldn't have been a very nice place to work in the long term for both physical reasons and because being in production in a place that is lean everything is pretty miserable.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by David Weaver View Post
    I wouldn't say it failed...........

    Anyway, the JIT worked fine there, it just wouldn't have been a very nice place to work in the long term for both physical reasons and because being in production in a place that is lean everything is pretty miserable.
    With that as the final evaluation, I would say it did fail. When done right, the results are exactly the opposite. Employee well-being, commitment, and job satisfaction are the prime drivers of "the big picture". I have seen the situation you describe on more than one occasion. If everything is miserable, then they were driving a different agenda.

    You and I don't have an argument here. You and I have had different experiences, coming from different angles.
    When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Phil Thien View Post
    I'm not working anyplace where the only time I can sit down is lunch and the restroom. My knees are okay now but I'm not ruining them because the guy at the top is OC. Give those people ergonomic stools for God's sake. Especially the ones that stand at the pallet racking all day long.

    And the foam is ridiculous. The tools should be on retractable lanyards. They're wasting sooooo much time on the foam. Foam is fine for longer-term storage, not for production.
    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.
    When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.

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