Case Studies

Ross Controls

Ross Controls, founded in 1921 by Charles A. Ross, is an international supplier of premium standard pneumatic and hydraulic controls and systems. Since almost every piece of equipment that moves has a valve on it, Ross is involved in virtually every industry segment. With an extensive product line and a continuous commitment to innovation, the company found it had some issues in manufacturing efficiencies.

It was a couple of years ago that Ross decided to investigate putting some lean tools in place. Through lean consultant Andy Carlino of Achievement Dynamics, the company invested in kaizen workshops at both its Madison Heights, Mich., and Lavonia, Georgia plants. A lean learning laboratory was also started, where they focused on the assembly area of the plants with a specified team assigned to study the process.

Ross agreed to a structure of implementation, designed by Achievement Dynamics, for the lean tools they were learning. They developed a shop floor measurement scoreboard to monitor improvements in the processes and they implemented methods such as 5S (sift, sweep, sort, sanitize and sustain). But, despite their new understanding of lean tools, Ross was struggling to incorporate the tools on a consistent basis. They were soon to discover that true lean incorporates principles, rules and tools.

It was around this time in 2001 when Carlino, along with partners Dennis Pawley and Jamie Flinchbaugh, founded the Lean Learning Center (Novi, Mich.). A provider of lean curriculum, the Center believes that lean -- at its most basic level -- is defined as "a shared way of thinking". Its philosophy is based upon the idea that lean tools are largely ineffective unless they are supported by the proper foundation of lean guiding principles and rules to help an organization understand how things work together and why.

The Center provided Ross the opportunity to train several of its employees to become "lean leaders" responsible for maintaining lean tools across the various manufacturing disciplines at Ross.

With the vision to see how consistent lean implementation could affect Ross' operations, Ross Senior Vice President John Smith was committed to this lean venture. With a base of trust already established via Andy Carlino through Achievement Dynamics, Ross sent five employees from the Michigan plant and five from the Georgia facility to the Lean Learning Center for a five-day Lean Experience course.

This in-depth lean workshop is based upon the premise that lean rules and principles must be internalized by employees in order to maintain success. During the five days, students are exposed to a variety of learning methods including discovery, simulation, case studies, personal planning and journaling.

The Center's methods of teaching represent a distinct departure from the norm. "Adults do not learn best by listening to a series of lectures," says Carlino. "Adults learn though their own discovery, through experience combined with the right questions and through interaction with other adults."

On day two of the session, students were arranged into groups and given an airplane factory simulation exercise. During the allotted time, the Ross team managed to build only one airplane. At the end of the week -- after learning lean methods, tools, and applications -- the group was given the same assignment.

"Under the exact same conditions," says Smith, "our group built nine airplanes. We spent a few hours preparing teams on how to build the plane with the lean tools we acquired from the Lean Learning Center. In addition, this exercise demonstrated to management the pressure hourly employees feel when they don't have the parts they need to do their job."

"It's funny," continues Smith, "at first, much of what we learned seemed like simple common sense. But, after going through the exercises, we realized that implementing common sense approaches company-wide could be quite complicated. We came away with a new sense of what needed to be done in order to carry off this lean transformation successfully."

"Most importantly," says Smith, "is that the Lean Experience opened our eyes to how lean affects the way you think about the things you do. Everyone came away from the week-long session very excited about this unique way of viewing lean."

With this new awareness of lean thinking and processes, the Ross team was committed to implementing lean on a continual basis. This same group of Ross employees was then sent to the two-day Lean Leadership course, designed to teach the principles required to be a lean leader and a driver of lean transformation, at the Lean Learning Center.

"This is where we learned how to pass along what we learned to others" says Sue Reicher, Ross Controls product line manager and acting plant manager. "We learned how to approach and work with people and teach them how lean works, what it is and why we have to have it."

Taking it to the plant

Taking lean back to the plant and incorporating it has been a challenge, but not an insurmountable task.

"The majority of the employees have bought into it," says Reicher. "We've been able to instill the feeling that everyone is empowered to make changes and get things done without incorporating red tape. This is a major change for us. Before, everything required supervisory permission or change was dictated from upstream. Now, we use the 60 percent rule - 'if you're 60 percent confident something will work, try it."

"However, productivity is the measurement. If someone wants to paint the floor pink, he can go ahead and do it, but if it does nothing to help morale or increase productivity, then what's the point"?

Initially, there was a lot of hesitancy on the plant floor, primarily because of lack of past management support. But, with lean, Ross management is the primary driver. Says Smith "Lean is not an option . . . it's a culture, it's here to stay, and it will be taught to everyone in the Ross Controls organization."

"Education is the key," Smith continues, "but, it's difficult to accomplish. Every activity has to be structured and measurable. We institutionalize the thoughts of lean and record every procedure in every workstation so anyone could step in and do the job. We're cross-training employees and providing skills and education for promotion."

One of the moves Reicher made was to move the weekly meetings from a conference room out to the "learning lab" on the shop floor. "This opened up the lines of communication," says Reicher. "We used a section of the shop to teach lean, its tools, rules and principles. We applied them to that area and then moved onto others. The ideas began to flow. Everyone started to look at waste and find ways to become more efficient and productive. We welcome all ideas, but there has to be a high percentage of agreement."

Says Smith, "What's really key is to improve all activities at every possible level and to measure how we're doing. It's systematic problem solving; making everything structured and measurable. Now we can see how the rules and principles of lean are tied with the tools."

Tangible results

"The first impulse when implementing lean is to translate results into head count reduction," says Smith. "This is a big mistake." In actuality, lean offers an opportunity for more productivity. We've cross-trained employees to do things that were not previously getting done, or we've improved the process.

"If it weren't for lean, we would have been in terrible shape today. Since January 2001, we've reduced our inventory by 22 percent. This was then turned into cash, which has helped to maintain Ross over the past year and a half."

Since lean, savings throughout the plant have included:

Test area: parts from vendors tested for tolerance levels have been reduced by 50 percent;
Assembly: over 20 percent reduction in floor space due to reduction in inventory;
Double-valve assembly area: Assembler Bill Brown eliminated all 65 baskets in his area; rearranged and opened up pass-through shelving to create more space and efficiency;
Finished goods: reduced inventory by 80 percent
Work in process: reduced by 30 percent

Ross Controls continues to hold kaizens, led by Achievement Dynamics, at their Madison Heights facility. For example, before lean, 90 days of valve repairs filled an entire area. After holding a kaizen workshop, it was suggested this department change to "doing it like cell phone repairs," where they give out rebuilt phones rather than waiting to get a phone back. The repair area was changed to rebuild, the turnaround to the customer is 30 days or less, and total product sits on one shelf rather than filling an entire area.

The company's shipping department was also directly and positively affected by lean. Ross opened this department -- which had history of a high degree of shipping errors due to mis-labeling -- for scrutiny to a Lean Learning Center Kaizen Boot Camp class, led by Carlino. After studying the process of kaizen back at the Lean Learning Center, the group returned to Ross. In less than seven hours, everything in the department was moved, re-labeled and color-coded. The result has been a 60 - 80 percent reduction in errors.

Steve Littleton, Ross Controls' chief steward at the time of lean implementation and the first union member to attend the Lean Experience, is a big proponent of lean. "It made a big difference to realize that management wants to know what we know on the floor," says Littleton. "It's great to see all these continuous improvements. We've moved areas for accessibility, eliminated waste, and lean has saved some jobs here. And, since lean, we've added two new product lines. So, we've saved 20 percent of space and added 20 percent work to the product line. That's significant."

What's next?

"Lean is a journey, not an end," says Smith. "We've accomplished a lot through lean, but we've discovered that, because everything and everyone is connected, one action precipitates another. We've increased morale tremendously and opened the lines of communication. But there's always room for improvement."

"And we owe it all to Achievement Dynamics and The Lean Learning Center. I think we've become a showcase for other companies. The Center has sent several companies here to see what we've done and how we've accomplished it. The benefit to this is it improves morale because people see and appreciate the hard work that's gone into it. I'm sold on lean&obviously."