This was a great event; Good Year openly discussed the issues that affect their manufacturing facility.  They talked about what worked and what did not work.  They also provided a plant tour of the facility where it was evident the pride and craftsmanship that the shop floor workers took in what they were doing.  The employees were very informative and helpful in describing the activities that took place in their area.  On several occasions during the tour I was approached by the workers and asked if I had any questions.  They were very proud and very knowledgeable in what was happening on the shop floor.

Good Year Retreading Facility history:

• Situated in mining country,   250 miles north of US border
•  Manufacturer of OTR retreads, for distribution across Canada: - Vancouver Island  to Newfoundland
• 43 union-free associates
•  Retread "really big" tires
•  Outside storage for new OTR tires (only official Canadian distribution center)
•  Certified to ISO 9001
• North Bay OTR retread plant is mostly a 'build to order' manufacturing facility (job shop). Carries little to no finished inventory.
• Organization is recognized as setting the industry standard in Canada (service, product quality and performance)
• Associates are well-educated, with a strong work ethic and commitment to the team concept
• Intro to Lean has been embraced

The focus on this session was Value Stream mapping. 

The Good Year Retreading Facility's lease was up and they had to look for a new location, they used value stream mapping to map out their new location.  You can see their whole presentation at:

http://www.emccanada.org/membersonl/ontario/northbay/northbayvsmpresentationfeb182010ppt

Please review some of the highlights from the presentation that can be found on the North Bay Consortium page at:

• Lease set to expire at 600 Gormanville Road in June 2007
• Started working on design for new facility in 2005

First step: created a Current State Value Stream Map

• Specifies value from the standpoint of end customer - Quality, cost & delivery
• Inefficiencies in the ways that we handle material movement within our manufacturing plants leads to a variety of waste:
• Transportation
• Motion
• Waiting
• WIP (Work In Process = "inventory")
• Material handling adds no value to our products (our customers certainly wouldn't pay for it!), and it is very expensive (labor, trucks, and maintenance).
• Identifies the value stream for each product family - Mold cure; cut tread; repair only; solid tire
• Data that is collected provides a foundation on which to plan future improvements
  - what is the waste to be eliminated? (e.g. motion, inventory, etc.)  
• Rather than begin with a FS VSM, it was decided to begin using the FS layout as the brainstorm tool.

Criteria

• Look for Lean opportunities:
• Combine work steps
• Nest related operations to reduce travel distance, and improve support & communication
• Reduce requirements to sort & count
• Support future 5S efforts - location of tool & inventory stores; design for housekeeping

Each step of the process was reviewed by all operators: included up-stream & down-stream travel, and location of tools, material and computer terminals (2 weeks)

One of the neatest comments I have heard in a long time was from Glenn Bennett.  Because they had improved the efficiency of the movement in the plant, their propane supplier called them and asked them if they had gotten rid of half their towmoters!  That is a huge improvement in the flow of information, material, components and processes!  Congratulations on a job well done at Good Year.