Circuits Assembly - November 2008 - (Page 37)

Milwaukee Electronics large scheduling board located on the factory floor identifies, by color, What makes Screaming Circuits interesting is it carries its own the status of WIP (Figure 2). Unlike many firms, MEC technicians and brand, apart from the MEC label. The idea behind that unit, says Stoehr, operators are encouraged to speak with their counterparts at customers. is not about establishing a separate identity, however. Instead, he asserts, “Our techs talk to theirs,” says operations manager Bob Schultz. “We conducting quickturn efficiently mandates an operational model that always want to grow the number of touches (with customers),” adds focuses on it to the exclusion of everything else. Moreover, he notes, Sivilotti. many engineers directly handle procurement for such jobs, rather than Likewise, Lean manager Martin maintains a Lean Level Training shuttling them to purchasing. “We wanted to set Screaming Circuits Matrix on which he posts schedules and tracks Kaizen events. The staapart from volume EMS companies that try to do prototypes,” Stoehr tus board is color-coded. The company holds book clubs to emphasize said. worker training. Program management takes a hybrid form, with PMs generally tied Interestingly, Malek points out, the company actually called a temto specific customers and also in regular contact with the company’s 12 porary timeout on Kaizen events after it noticed returns were slowing; it reps. Plant loading is performed in concert with customers. is using the time invest in team building, and when it returns to Kaizen Beyond noting the dedicated quickturn operations, CirCuits next year, the firm hopes to have better team and communications tools Assembly came away with three distinct impressions during our visit in place. It then tried to revamp its approach to generate more velocin late September: one, the extreme use of Lean at all points within the ity (a term heard often at the company). Employees undergo regular facilities (not just the factory floor); two, the depth of consideration to training workshops and are encouraged to supply feedback. “We won’t the roadblocks, not just to process flow but to customer deliverables; survive the way we want to survive if we don’t do that,” Malek says. and three, a startling emphasis on understanding the role marketing In a room that once housed high-speed lines, the company now plays in customers’ strategies. performs panel wiring and testing in six cells. The space became availMarketing matters. Marketing of the end-product is an after-thought able following several Kaizen events, and the service has become a “very at most EMS companies – particularly the smaller ones. In perhaps as large activity for us,” Sivilotti says. much as 25% of SKUs, the EMS provider may not even be informed NPI is visual, too, with a large board showas to what end-product the assembly is earing all the steps. Each customer is asked for marked. Yet, it clearly weighs on the minds at feedback by means of a launch release form. MEC. Explains MEC Innovation vice presiNever stop moving. MEC operates under the dent of technology James Scholler, “Many thinking that it doesn’t know what it will take industries are myopic in how they solve probto complete a project until the customer says lems. We like to be involved with customers’ “It’s done.” Most manufacturers – electronics marketing people so we can help generate new or otherwise – go through “stage gates” to ideas. It’s difficult to get there; you’d think it get from design to manufacturing, without would be black and white. But why shouldn’t giving deep consideration to the deliverable, we go about extracting from the customers which MEC defines as “what the customer what metrics they would consider to be a sucvalues.” cess? I think I should be in with my customer’s “Our goal,” says Scholler, revealing a series marketing team 80% of my time.” of process flows and sounding more like an Adds Terry Martin, the company's Lean Figure 1. MEC stores raw material in small industrial engineer than his electrical backand Culture Leader in Milwaukee, “We want quantities at point-of-use. ground would suggest, “is to keep the project to eliminate the filters of design. We can do this moving at all costs. We want to make the ‘gates’ flexible and embed if we ask the five ‘whys’ at the front end of the relationship.” This goes the critical paths.” Gates – hard steps in each process – are necessary to beyond Scholler’s boundlessly enthusiastic and analytical obsession control risk. Unfreezing them implies greater cost and time. Yet MEC with knowing what his customers are trying to accomplish. Indeed, in proposes to do exactly that. The program, which MEC calls FreezeGate, some cases, MEC also puts its designers into the design centers of major pushes documentation to the team level, out of management’s hands, customers. which speeds decision-making. Explains Scholler, “We said, ‘Let’s not Infected by Lean. A Lean culture infects the entire Milwaukee facility. freeze documents; let’s freeze features’ ” of the end-product. Now five years into its Lean initiatives, MEC has conducted roughly Some of the biggest hurdles MEC sees lie outside the facility doors: 120 Kaizen events. The factory is laid out in several cells. (While MEC finding engineering talent and the right customers (and having the Northwest has a traditional layout, MEC Midwest is designed to facilicourage to pass on the wrong ones); and the frenetic pace of electronics tate customer interaction with team leaders.) Setup times are tracked today, which makes it exceedingly difficult for customers and supplier with a digital timer mounted high on the wall. All materials are stored to find time to talk. at point-of-use. Raw material is received and dispersed to stocking areas Still, while 50 years in electronics assembly suggests a track record of immediately, explains Sivilotti, with no kitting or transferring. So-called success, Terry Martin sounds uneasy. “Are we giving our employees the “in-house supermarkets” maintain standard release quantities (Figure environment to step forward and be creative?” he asks. It’s precisely that 1), with a pull system that operates under a rule that if nothing is pulled type of self-awareness and pragmatism that will keep MEC around for out, nothing goes in. Parts are bar-coded for traceability. High changeanother 50. over counts are the ideal, and lot sizes kept low to maintain velocity. A n circuitsassembly.com Circuits Assembly NOVEMBER 2008 37 http://www.circuitsassembly.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Circuits Assembly - November 2008

Circuits Assembly - November 2008 Contents Caveat Lector Industry News Market Watch Talking Heads Focus on Business On the Forefront Screen Printing Better Manufacturing RoHS Conversion for Medical Devices Supporting Full-Service Customer Requirements at the Regional EMS Level Speed Thrills Tech Tips Wave Soldering Process Doctor Pb-Free Lessons Learned The Defects Database Getting Lean Materials World Product Spotlight Ad Index Assembly Insider Technical Abstracts

Circuits Assembly - November 2008

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