| The Company
Brenco, Inc., is a leading producer of tapered roller bearings for
the railroad industry located in Petersburg, VA, and a division
of Amsted Industries. Brenco's campus also includes a rolled ring
forging plant and a seal manufacturing plant. Though founded in
1949 to manufacture bronze journal bearings for railroad freight
cars – a product it no longer makes – Brenco's present
day product line maintains a 60% market share of bearings for new
railcar builds in the U.S. Brenco currently employs 450 workers
at their Petersburg plant.
The Situation
Committed to continuous improvement, Brenco experienced greater
overall productivity after beginning a Lean initiative in 2002.
Paul A. Hubbard, Brenco's Director of Continuous Improvement/Manufacturing
Engineering, saw that the next step would be to reduce the set-up
time of a machine that fabricates cones (bearing inner races). Hubbard
believed that taking a lean approach to the 2.5 man hours of set-up
could remove some of the waste involved when the machine was changed
over to produce cones of varying sizes. He contacted GENEDGE ALLIANCE
to assist with the training and implementation of set-up reduction.
The Response
GENEDGE ALLIANCE Project Managers Mark Oakes and Ken Martin videotaped a
changeover in order to identify opportunities for reducing the set-up
time. Brenco established a cross-functional team that received classroom
instruction provided by Oakes and Martin (which included a simulation)
on techniques that facilitate faster changeovers. Following the
training, the GENEDGE ALLIANCE project managers and the Brenco team analyzed
the videotapes and applied set-up reduction techniques to identify
and eliminate all non-value added actions while streamlining required
activities.
The Results
The analysis and plans to implement the reduction techniques support
a sales increase of $38,000 for Brenco. The hands-on training created
a greater awareness of waste among the staff. Estimates place a
reduction in labor costs at $7,000 annually.
Management's Comments
"Mark and Ken (GENEDGE ALLIANCE) came to Brenco and gave us all a fresh
perspective on changeovers of our cone forging line. We saw many
things in the changeover that were obviously wasteful once we viewed
the videotape. These opportunities are otherwise difficult to see
during changeover. There was a cross-functional team assigned to
this training including operators, maintenance, and engineering.
This team has been effective in implementing the changes recommended
by GENEDGE ALLIANCE," says Hubbard.
"The exercise was fun for the team, because everyone was able
to poke fun at one another in a good natured way. We are still in
the process of replacing several pieces of redesigned tooling that
will ultimately save approximately 17 minutes on changeover. We
will then videotape the process again to look for further opportunities
with this team. Thanks to GENEDGE ALLIANCE for your help!"
View their site! http://www.brencoqbs.com/index.asp
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