Assembly Planbook - July 2008 - (Page 42)

Medical Device Assembly the process being ‘blitzed’ and process outsiders who don’t know much about the process. Our certified DJO kaizen blitz facilitators then take the team through the improvement event with only three limitations: no safety is compromised, no negative quality or regulatory impacts, work must be completed in the blitz timeframe. When the people who do the work every day see that they can change how they do it, the skepticism is gone. And, of course, they tell others about it immediately. Quite soon, you have other people asking for a kaizen blitz in their area!” Finally, closely linked to the question of productivity is the issue of worker retention. Few things have as direct an impact on a production process as absenteeism and high employee turnover. Many employers also worry that by training their workers they make it that much easier for them to leave for another company. However, the experience at DJO and Aspect Medical has been that the more empowered workers become, the more that they want to stick around. “Our employee satisfaction survey results consistently exceed benchmarks by over 10 percent to 20 percent across the board,” Coolidge says. “[Since receiving the Shingo Prize] we’ve had a lot of companies come in for a tour. Initially, I had this fear that they were going to poach some of our great people. We let it all out there and explain what we’re going. There’s lots of interaction on the shop floor. But we haven’t lost anybody yet…. In the end, the openness and trust that you build pays you back.” A Aspect Medical’s continuous improvement program enables operators to fine-tune their own workstations. Photo courtesy Aspect Medical Systems example, rarely do you get it 100 percent right the first time. That’s where continuous improvement comes in…. If an individual in production who’s doing the job day in and day out recognizes a better way of doing it, they have a vehicle where they can get that idea implemented. They put it in place so it isn’t just going off to some kind of project list for someone else to do.” Not surprisingly, Wright also cites continuous improvement activities as being a big part of DJO’s success. In fact, the company has completed over 300 formal kaizen blitzes in the past seven years with results that have been nothing short of ”amazing.” That having been said, Wright emphasizes the transition to this way of thinking didn’t just happen overnight, but took a lot of time and effort. “As with any change, there are always those who ‘wait and see,’ and even some who are openly resistant,” Wright says. “The key we have used to make sure that everyone is onboard is the kaizen blitz approach. We create a cross-functional team that includes process experts, the process owner from ASSEMBLY ONLINE For more on medical device assembly, visit www.assemblymag.com to read these articles: Plastic Rules: By 2010, worldwide demand for medical plastic will exceed 8 billion pounds Medical Device Compliance: Although rigorous, the FDA rules governing medical device manufacture are there for a reason DJO’s workforce needs to be both flexible and innovative to assemble products like its CMF line of bone growth stimulation devices. Photo courtesy DJO Inc. 42 ASSEMBLY / July 2008 www.assemblymag.com http://www.assemblymag.com http://www.assemblymag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Assembly Planbook - July 2008

Assembly Planbook - July 2008 Contents Editorial Quality in Assembly Station to Station Assembly Lines Assembly in Action Surviving the Roller Coaster The Human Side of Manufacturing Do Your Fasteners Need a Preapplied Thread-Locker? Manufacturing Innovation A Century of Progress Trendsetting Plants Pulse Tools Get Smart Plastics: Design for X Product Reviews Products Advertisers Index Classified Leading Lean

Assembly Planbook - July 2008

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