You know the old saying: Go lean and watch your company
grow by 18 percent a year. What, you’ve never heard anyone say
that? At Cleveland-based Swiger Coil Systems LLC, which is a
manufacturer of electric motor coils, transit motors and a remanufacturer of transit motors, the idea to go with a lean implementation system has changed the daily production for the 160
employees at the company.
The process began in 2007 when Swiger CEO Brad Roller and his
other senior leaders undertook an initiative to identify and prioritize the application of lean tools and understand the savings potential. Once they were able to do that, Swiger implemented the practices at the employee level by working through a series of changes
and underlining the importance of each one so that the new focus
would be recognized. Then Swiger followed up on the plan with a
checks-and-balances system to make sure things were running
neatly.
All told, Swiger was able to eliminate waste, reduce cost and
become more competitive by simply changing the layout of the
warehouse work flow, moving items needed at different
machines closer to where those machines were, removing
unnecessary machines and furniture, and clearing up congestion to more directly let employees walk where they needed to
go. Other machines were also made mobile so that they could
be brought to different workstations as needed. As a result, on-site production travel was reduced by more than 80 percent.
The time employees didn’t waste moving from one place to
another was instead spent working. Products and tools in the
office were labeled more clearly so that they were not misplaced and to ensure that no extra time would have to be spent
looking for them. The end result was a 12.5 percent reduction in
labor hours per coil and a reduction in set-up time by 50 percent.
Further proclaiming the success of the project was its return
on investment: The total cost was just $9,000, but the yearly
savings and increased profits for the company was more than
$230,000. The company itself has been able to continue its
growth, with revenue of more than $23 million in 2006, an 18.3
percent increase from 2005.
HOW TO REACH: Swiger Coil Systems LLC, (216) 362-7500 or www.swigercoil.com
