Coping with exponential growth

Client context

The customer had a rather artisan organization, and had to cope with an exponential growth in demand, with problems linked to electrical components: supply disruptions.

Support put into place

The first step was to collect the incoming customer orders, then translate them into a stable production schedule. 

From there, we organized the procurement of components, so that they could be delivered to site on time and available for production.

Once the production schedule had been established and supply sorted, we defined, built and iterated the production lines with the operators and managers in the shop floor. 

The fourth step was to review the entire factory layout, in order to integrate simple flows for components, work-in-progress, and finished product outflows. Global internal logistics were thus defined and implemented. 

Finally, the entire human organization - role and function, supervision, visual management, managerial routines, routines with support functions, etc. - was reviewed and implemented in the fifth stage; the challenge was to ensure that the women and men in the organization knew how to sustain it.

Results

• Safety: separation of walkways from Forklift zones
• 5-fold increase in capacity
• 40% increase in productivity
• On Time Delivery 100%
• Elimination of an external warehouse