J R Casey Bralla

Accomplishments

2013 – 2014 Gichner Value Stream Manager

2008 - 2013 Mannington Senior Lean Champion

2007 - 2008 Southco Continuous Improvement Manager

2004 – 2007 Southco Manufacturing Engineering Manager

2000 – 2004 Hedstrom Director of Lean Mfg Engineering

Revised Feb, 2014

J R Casey Bralla

Accomplishments

• Lean Operational Improvements

• Lean Culture

• Traditional Engineering Improvements

• Miscellaneous

Accomplishments

Lean Operational Improvements

Apply Lean & 6-Sigma tools to improve operating performance

• Quick setups

• Poke Yoke-driven quality improvements

• Backlog reductions driven by bottleneck management

• Fixture modifications to improve operations

• Waste Identification to reduce headcount

• Value Stream Mapping to reduce overall process time

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Machine Shop Late Order Reduction

• Reduced backlog of late orders by 75% in 3 months

• Released orders daily based on due dates (stopped releasing orders early)

• Worked selective overtime at bottleneck operations

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Stairtread Backlog Reduction

• Reduced stair tread backlog in rubber molding plant by 50% in 3 weeks.

• Use Day-by-the-Hour board to increase throughput of bottleneck molding operation.

• Revised shipping procedures to reduce waiting time in warehouse.

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Material Usage Reduction

• Developed standard work for handling re-used ink

• Team members intimately involved in documenting old process and developing new process.

• Eliminated $70K/month material losses

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Quality Improvement

• Publicly tracked non-conformance rate

• Pareto’d causes

• Cut defect rate by 60% in 3 months

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Rotogravure Print Setup Reduction

• Reduced vinyl print line 7-cylinder rotogravure changeover time by 26%.

• Assigned formal changeover duties to each member of the crew (pit crew).

• Added large visual count-up timer to record changeover time.

• Posted visual metric with changeover time history

Procedure Change

Procedure Change

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Vinyl Tile Line Setup Reduction

• Reduced vinyl composition tile (VCT) line changeover time by 26%.

• Plotted existing changeover duties on project time line.

• Moved tasks from person to person to eliminate idle time

• Sponsored contest between shifts with small prizes for winning shift.

Procedure Change

Procedure Change

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Rebate Process Backlog Reduction

• Reduced backlog of unpaid rebates by $750K.

• Simplified approval process and reduced approval time from “days” to “hours”.

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Vinyl Trim Line Manpower Reduction

• Reduced labor in vinyl inspection and trim dept by 16%.

• Identified idle labor as part of “Eye for Waste” training program.

• Focused on elimination of idle time.

• Supervision identified associates with idle time and combined duties to more fully load each associate.

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Fork Lift Fleet Reduction

• Conducted work-sampling to determine true number of Fork Lifts needed.

• Eliminated idle and dead-head time for lifts.

• Reduced Fork Lift fleet size by 37%

• Reduced Fork Lift maintenance and lease costs by 42%

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Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Past Due Reduction Team

• Formal CI Process to attack most serious plant problem.

• Focused on “scheduled” delivery, rather than customer request date.

• On-Time delivery improved from 80% to 90+% on time.

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Wood Line Sorting Labor Reduction

• Improved labor productivity of wood flooring sorting line by 15% in 1 week.

• Modified sorting bins to reduce line downtime.

• Marked sorting conveyor to easily identify different length boards.

Build-up of planks forces operator to stop line to catch up

Build-up of planks forces operator to stop line to catch up

Larger, sectioned tray allows operator to catch up without stopping the line.

Larger, sectioned tray allows operator to catch up without stopping the line.

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements – Poke Yoke

Automatic Vision Inspection System

• Corrected a long-standing quality complaint of incorrect recesses found mixed in with an order on captive fasteners.

• The recess of each fastener is inspected as final step in automatic assembly machine. Incorrect recesses are segregated.

• Also caught other cosmetic defects (such as plating errors)

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements – Poke Yoke

• Critical dimension identified. It needed 100% compliance.

• Added fitted slot where operator puts finished part

• Part will not fit through slot if not to correct dimensions.

• Tote of finished parts hidden under tabletop.

Critical Dimension

Completed part put here

Tote of finished parts

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements – Poke Yoke

• Critical orientation of small plastic cam (part 08).

• Machine fixture modified to add sensor to detect cam location.

• Machine will not cycle if cam is in incorrect location.

Critical orientation of small cam

Sensor detects orientation of cam

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

IPAS (Initial Product Approval System)

• Designed to ensure all steps for a New Product launch are followed in a timely manner.

• Each team member’s tasks are clearly identified.

• Automatic reminders and tracking of uncompleted tasks.

• Designed and tested at Concordville, then rolled-out to Southco world-wide.

Accomplishments

Operational Improvements

Process Flow Improvement

• Relocate 60+ machines to improve flow.

• Previous flow was invisible, and made identifying bottlenecks difficult.

• Plan 25% complete

• Project on hold due to plant closure announcement

Assemble

Head Blanks

Tumble Wash

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Accomplishments

Lean & 6-Sigma Culture

Establish Lean & 6-Sigma methodologies as the normal “culture”

• 5S

• Lean implementation scorecards

• Formalized Black Belt & Green Belt training programs

• Formal reviews for Lean & 6-Sigma projects

• Visual Metrics and Gemba Walks

• FIFO Flow Improvements

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

5S

• Critical to Lean

• 1st step in improving performance.

• Forces standardization.

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

Lean Assessment System

• Established objective evaluation standard for Lean implementation.

• Evaluated 13 areas of Lean implementation.

• Conducted surveys of 7 manufacturing plants.

• Published results for each department of each plant.

• Rolled up all scores to a composite enterprise score.

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

Gemba Walk & Visual Metrics

• Established daily Visual Metrics in each department in each facility.

• Established Gemba Walk procedure for Operations Managers at each facility

• Drove major improvements in productivity and quality.

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

FIFO Flow Improvement

• Instituted FIFO system to improve product flow.

• Operators did not need schedule to know what to run next.

• Established Max WIP levels, and standard method to shut down process and transfer labor when FIFO lane was full.

• Involved operators in FIFO system design.

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

Lean / Sigma Black Belt Training

• Created 40-hour training class, which was added to existing 160-hour Black Belt class.

• Taught 61 associates to Green Belt or Black Belt levels.

• Also taught basic Lean to several suppliers at their facilities.

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

Enterprise Monthly “Top 5” Project Reviews

• Monthly status report of Top 5 projects for each facility

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

Green Belt and Black Belt Projects

• Formalized tracking of Green Belt and Black Belt projects.

• Ensured each graduate continued to do projects on an on-going basis.

• Followed-up with each Belt on a regular basis, and kept their immediate supervisor appraised of their status.

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

Web-based Project Reporting System

• Created web-based project reporting system.

• Provided automatic reminders of upcoming tasks.

• Provided real-time status reports.

• Very simple to set up with minimal IT support (runs on Linux virtual machine).

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

Visual Scheduling

• Production Schedule and Schedule Attainment

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

War Room

• Created to promote Lean Manufacturing.

• Focal point for all Lean activities in the plant.

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

Continuous Improvement Team Process

• Formal CI Process.

• Fosters true problem solving methodology.

• Clear definition of the problem and “What Does Good Look Like”.

• 8-week process, with follow-up audits.

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

TPM

• Daily TPM activities are visual and obvious.

• Locations on the machines are clearly identified.

• Maintenance Logs kept on machine.

Accomplishments

Lean Culture

Lean Website

• Created for fun, and to promote Lean Manufacturing.

• Includes short descriptions and examples of lean concepts.

• Lot’s of photos to demonstrate lean concepts.

Accomplishments

Traditional Engineering Improvements

Apply traditional Manufacturing Engineering and Project Management techniques to improve operating performance or launch new products

• Equipment design and build

• Capital project management

• Facility setup

Accomplishments

New Businesses Transferred into Concordville, PA

Dzus Fasteners - $12 Million additional sales

• Cleared 8K ft2 floor space

• Installed 13 Injection Molding Machines with:

• 30-ton overhead crane

• Central coolant system

• Mold Maintenance facility

• Installed Bench assembly operations

• Rebuilt equipment to match current safety standards

Accomplishments

New Businesses Transferred into Concordville, PA

CEMA Friction Hinges - $15 Million additional sales

• Cleared 10K ft2 floor space

• Rebuilt 16 machines to match current safety standards

• New PLC Controls

• New Guards

Accomplishments

New Businesses Launched in Korea

Samsung Hi-Def TV Swivel Mount - $1.5 Million additional sales

• In production within 16 weeks

• Converted warehouse to manufacturing plant.

• Built & installed assembly equipment.

• Trained management and operators in Korea.

Accomplishments

Technology Transfer to Shanghai

Apple Computer Friction Hinge - $5.7 Million additional sales

• Designed and built assembly equipment in-house

• Shipped equipment to Southco Shanghai

• Mfg Engineer spent 6 weeks in Shanghai installing equipment and training associates.

• Currently running well in Shanghai.

Accomplishments

Equipment Design Process

Skunk Works

• Dedicated team created to design and build an improved friction hinge assembly process/machine.

• Modeled after Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works at Lockheed.

• The team developed an excellent machine, but was not worth the high cost of reassigning costly resources.

Accomplishments

Productivity Improvements

Automatic Friction Hinge Shaft Machine

• Eliminates 14 direct labor heads.

• Automatic torque testing integral to the machine.

• Extremely flexible capability can run 90+% of all shafts.