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(+)+(+) The Lean Changeover e-letter
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(+)+(+) Published monthly by Changeover.com
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(+)+(+) Written by John R Henry, CPP
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(+)+(+) APRIL 2009
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SOME THOUGHTS ON…
THINK OF IT AS MONEY

Not long ago I was helping a client reduce
changeover times on their tablet presses. These
machines are used to compress a granulated powder
into pharmaceutical tablets. Changeover involves
significant cleanup, change of tooling and then
calibration. Changeover times will vary between
plants and with different styles of machine but
can run from 10-12 hours to 40-48 hours. My
belief is that, properly organized and performed,
it should take in the 8-16 hour range, no longer.

An issue that I have long had with changeover is
getting the people on the floor, the ones
actually doing the work, to get excited about it.
Absent an understanding of the value, many of
them do not overly care whether they are running
product or not. The product is often just an abstraction.

I've written elsewhere about how to calculate the
tangible and intangible costs of changeover so
will not go into hit here. I've written and
spoken on numerous occasions of the critical need
to calculate costs and disseminate them widely
across the workforce. This goes a long way in
explaining changeover's importance but is still
something of an abstraction to many.

It occurred to me that the problem is that people
are not seeing the money coming out of the
machine. One way I hit on recently is to express
the cost of each product instead of cost per
hour. In the case of the tablet press, the
production rate was 3,500 tablets per minute
(TPM) (Some run 4-5 times as fast) I asked the
operators to close their eyes and envision,
instead of tablets, pennies coming out of the machine into a bucket.

By itself, a penny isn't much to look at. A
quantity of pennies can add up to a goodly sum.
If there were 3,500 pennies per minute coming off
the press, that would represent $35/minute,
$2,100/hour or almost $17,000 per shift. If the
tablets are worth more than a penny, as most
pharmaceutical tablets are, those dollar amounts
will increase correspondingly.

Another example would be a packaging line. If
each bottle coming off the line contributes 25
cents, it can be viewed as a torrent of quarters.
If the line speed is 250BPM, it is the equivalent
of over $63/minute, $3,750/hour or $30,000/shift.

If you had a stream of quarters falling into your
pockets like that, you would do as much as
possible to prevent interruptions to the flow.

It is true that the quarters are falling into the
company's, rather than the employee's pockets.
Some employees may take this to mean that they
have no stake in keeping that flow going. They
are looking at it and wondering "WIIFM?" ("What's in it for me?")

What's in it is not always obvious and may need
to be explained. What's in it for them is that
the company which does not make a profit is a
company that will be closing. What's in it is
that the more profit a company makes, the more
they have to share with the employees. This is
directly, via a profit sharing program, in some
cases. It can also be indirectly in the form of
better compensation and more opportunities for
advancement and growth. Sometimes it may be even
more indirect in the form of capital spending on
better plant and equipment. In all cases, there
is benefit to the individual employee. Management
must always be answering that question.

I have read that the phrase "making money" is
unique to the US. Some other languages and
cultures speak of "winning" or "earning" money. I
prefer the phase "making money" because that is
really what a production process does. It makes/creates/produces money.

And when it is stopped, it does not.

So, think of your product as money because it is.


TIP OF THE MONTH…
SEALED CABINETS

Tablet presses are, by their nature, dusty. This
dust gets everywhere and must be cleaned at
changeover. What always catches my eye is how
many areas need to be cleaned that should not be.

The typical tablet press has a lower compartment
where the motor, drive and other components are
located. This is a nuisance to clean as there are
so many places for the dust to collect.

The solution seems fairly simple. Gasket the
doors to the cabinet and add latches so that it
can be sealed. Ideally, it would be nice to have
it comply with the NEMA 4 (dust tight) rating but
this may not be possible. It may always be
necessary to clean inside the cabinet but the
less dust that can get in, the less cleaning will
be required. More importantly, the less downtime
for cleaning will be required.

In addition to sealing the cabinet, you may want
to consider bringing outside ventilation air in.
One way to do this is to take a small flexible
duct off the room A/C system. This not only
provides cooling, which may be restricted by
sealing the cabinet, it also provides a slight
positive pressure to further reduce the dust infiltration.

I gave as an example a tablet press. However, the
above applies to any machine with an enclosed
base or cabinet. It also applies to control
cabinets, light fixtures and equipment chases.

I should not need to say this but experience
shows that I do. Keep the cabinet doors closed
and latched. All the gasketing in the world will
do no good if the doors are left ajar.


Best,

John R Henry CPP

"All progress is made by a lazy person looking
for an easier way." - Lazarus Long

www.changeover.com www.smedblog.com

Twitter johnrhenry 787-550-9650