Not Beginner's Luck How Six Sigma made Foxboro a two-time Best-Plants winner.
ByMichael A. Verespej No wasted space. No wasted motion. Inventories at the production line that seem to blend into the workspace. Streamlined processes that are linked through an extensive in-plant computer network that's user friendly and accessible to all. A quiet determination on the part of employees to make what looks simple today even simpler tomorrow. That's what you see when you walk through the Systems Manufacturing plant in Foxboro, Mass., a facility that tests all the components and then assembles -- per each customer's custom order -- each Foxboro Co. Intelligent Automation process-control system for shipment. Also apparent is that everything runs smoothly because of the diligence of the 175 people at Foxboro's Systems Manufacturing plant in applying Six Sigma principles to nearly every aspect of the business. That's why the 13-year-old plant has the distinction of being the first repeat winner in the
IndustryWeek Best Plants competition (its first award was in 1992). "Simplicity is the guideline for everything we do," says general manager Dan Carrie. "We use Six Sigma,
kaizen, and lean manufacturing to drive the company to that focus. If it is not needed, if it is not customer-driven, we don't do it." Indeed, since Foxboro first achieved
IW Best Plants status, orders per month have more than doubled, the number of shippable products has more than quadrupled, and there are twice as many purchased parts. Yet Foxboro -- which builds only to order -- assembles that increased volume of high-mix, low-volume products with 33% fewer workers and in 20% less square feet than it had in 1992. Overhead now represents just 16% of Foxboro's costs compared with 27% in 1992. Labor costs are 2% -- down from 3% in 1992, and materials represent 82% of costs, up from 70% in 1992. What has reduced overhead costs? First, 95% of the parts Foxboro needs are shipped-to-stock, much of it on consignment from suppliers and often delivered in one day to the point-of-use within the plant. Second, a new order-entry system fully implemented in February integrates orders into the factory and has reduced order leadtime from three months to 24 hours. Third, with the completion in March of a three-year upgrading of the in-plant computer network, anyone can easily access the information needed to build to order. "Every PC can log into the schedules and see the day-to-day demand for each day of the week," says Raj Patel, who does programming and material planning. The data can be sorted by customer, a specific order, part numbers, and other criteria and will reveal, at a glance, the leadtime needed for each step of the process to get an order shipped on time. Foxboro can electronically transmit data to its suppliers and readily view suppliers' on-time performance. Suppliers can do their own expediting and enter their own orders. In addition, suppliers receive 26-week rolling forecasts that are updated weekly and sometimes daily, if necessary. Those computer improvements and supplier partnerships have increased efficiency and reduced costs. There also have been numerous improvements at Foxboro -- now part of the Invensys Intelligent Automation Div. of Invensys PLC (a British company created by the merger this spring of Siebe and BTR) -- because of Six Sigma projects.
- In-circuit-test false failures have declined by 95%, providing an annual savings in excess of $800,000.
- Rolled throughput yield on its control processor module is up from 26% to 95%.
- The current first-pass yield on its processor modules is 95.4% compared with 60% five years ago. For printed wiring assemblies, it is 96% compared with 80% five years ago.
- A recent redesign of field-bus-module connectors will save a projected $110,000 a year.
- Foxboro has undertaken a $360,000 project, says Carrie, to make it unnecessary to use the in-line, closed-loop, semiaqueous cleaning system for printed circuit boards that was added five and a half years ago to reduce water discharges to zero and eliminate the use of freon.
- Foxboro also is working to improve its new factory-management system so that there will be automatic information upgrades when bar codes of parts and products are fed into the system.
- First-place winner of the Invensys lean-manufacturing award this year
- Factory is paperless
- Customer-service level greater than 99% the last six years
- A 40% reduction in plant space in the last five years, while doubling plant output
- A 75% reduction in the last five years in the amount of scrap/rework -- as a percentage of sales -- to 0.24%
- Reduction in rejection rate the last five years -- 76%
- Reduction in the in-plant defect rate the last five years -- 61%
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