Excellence In Action plant tours, 2010

The engineering lab was among tour stops on the Reliable Automatic Sprinkler tour. Engineers in attendance welcomed questions and demonstrated several products.

Here is an example of shadow boards in use at Reliable Automatic Sprinkler. They are one component of a rigorous 5S program.

Reliable Automatic Sprinkler produces fire sprinklers using both automated and manual methods.

A circular material presentation conveyor system enables single-piece flow at Philips Respironics' Sleep Therapy facility in New Kensington, Pa. The high-volume, low-mix plant makes Philips Respironics’ System One therapy device for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea, among other health care products. Philips commissioned the 172,000-square-foot facility in August 2009.

Visual displays called glass houses show how various areas of Philips Respironics' New Kensington, Pa., plant are performing against its key metrics of quality, cost, safety, deliver and morale.

Philips Respironics' Jim Lander (middle) discusses some of the continuous-improvement concepts employed at the New Kensington, Pa., manufacturing facility.

A literature collator has reduced the number of workers needed to assemble information packets for the medical devices produced at Philips Respironics' Sleep Therapy facility in New Kensington, Pa.

La-Z-Boy's Dayton, Tenn. facility features 30 cells in total. Its report-out board details for its cell members production, safety, continuous improvement and quality metrics, updated daily.

La-Z-Boy's polyfiber cell is one of the cleanest rooms in the facility, with 450 bins of various sizes, shapes and forms of material that goes into cushioning a chair. Despite the sheer size of the system, the entire department can be inventoried in just under two hours using just four team members.

La-Z-Boy's fiber blowing machine stuffs material into 6,000 cushions each day, which then have to be sewn shut. Nearly 96% of the material is yielded from each trailer. What isn't is later sold back to the contractor and recycled.

La-Z-Boy's swivel base assembly cell removed three steps out of an older process, along with extra WIP and clutter. The cell today features an ergonomic lift and press that is adaptable to different heights, along with a mobile stocking cart. The cell currently has a production target of 27 pieces per hour.

La-Z-Boy's metal supply center features a mechanical assembly cell for one of the mechanisms that goes into the arm of the chair. The process allows for a one-piece flow without WIP between operations. A recent Kaizen focused on stocking these mechanisms allowed for a 20% throughput increase.

Construction of custom seats and cushions in Nautique's Orlando, Florida facility.

Bill Waits provides an in-depth look at Nautique's fiberglass molding process

A partially-completed custom boat deck awaits the final assembly process

Lou James, Quality Inspector, demonstrates the Nautique Quality Information System system to a group of tour participants.

Chris Hanigosky provides tour attendees with an overview of Nautique's Value Stream Mapping process.

Organizing tasks into standardized work is the latest step in the lean journey for the New Balance Plant located in Lawrence, Mass.

As a result of moving the factory floor into cells, via lean philosophy, New Balance reduced lead time from 8 days in 2005 to 3 hours in 2010.

An entire room, the Hall of Fame, is dedicated to the ideas generated by employees. As part of New Balance's continuous improvement process every employee must contribute at least one idea per year on how to eliminate waste or improve processes.