The turnout was very strong for our Strategic Interest Group event at Composites Atlantic (CAL). It was great to see lots of interest from members and equally as impressive to see the interest from local non-member manufacturers who responded favourably to our invitation.

 Composites Atlantic in Lunenburg

The topic "Continuous improvement (CI) and 5S practices" was one that had everyone talking and it was clear the experience in the room covered the full spectrum from the uninitiated through to those who live this process every day.

Mario and Diana from CAL made a good case for CI and 5S indicating that the facility, which produces critical composite (carbon fibre/ resin) aircraft components for clients such a Boeing, Aerospatiale, Bombardier, etc., needed a change in the culture of the company to improve their efficiency, consistency and quality.

 CAL is heavily involved with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner program

To date this has been accomplished at CAL by first following the initial three steps of the 5S mantra, SORT, SET IN ORDER and SHINE.

Determining what items were not required in a particular area and removing them, putting up shadow boards for required items and implementing cleaning policies for all areas of the facilities they have really made big changes. Other steps included identifying specific parking areas for internal transport racks (when not in use),clearly identifying areas as high traffic zones where zero storage and clutter would be permitted have made the movement of large aircraft components much easier and safer.

An interesting step they made was to eliminate personal tool boxes in areas when common tools are all that are required for work to be completed. These common tools are then shadow boarded for all to use and have ready access to. This step eliminated the delays caused by rummaging through tool boxes stuffed with many items not even needed. Where tool boxes are still in place tray liners are now in place restricting the use to tools whose shapes fit the cut-outs. It was admitted that the initial setup of this was time consuming but the payback was quick and the clients (who tour the facility regularly) were impressed.

In addition, one of the members at the session also added that where they use shadow boards which are repeated in various spots in their plant they colour code the tools to the specific board to avoid confusion and a pile up of tools in one place, great idea!

CAL indicated once the first three parts of 5S were firmly intrenced in the culture they would move on to STANDARDIZE and SUSTAIN...

Of interest to all were the challenges of employee buy in to the changes, it was clear that it was not an easy task and CAL indicated they had to move forward and force the issue in the beginning.

    Our soon to be new members from Louisiana Pacific enjoying their first SIG

Special thanks to our hosts at Composites Atlantic for their hospitality.