WIW at WERC

Wood based industries are experiencing a significant reduction of their marketshare mainly due to overseas competition

The Wood industry needs to change their business model to remain competitive

Shifting the old way of mass production for the market of customized productsand services is mandatory*

An important philosophy that suits to these accomplishments is Leanmanufacturing

Lean manufacturing requires less resources, labor capital, machinery, time andmanufacturing space

It proposes a simple, feasible, reliable, cost-effective, revolutionary andcomplete philosophy to be implemented in the wood industry

Introduction

* Schuler, A. and U. Buehlmann. 2003. Identifying future competitive business strategies for the U.S. furniture industry: Benchmarking and paradigm shifts.

WIW at WERC

The Wood industry has not adopted these approaches as quickly as it should

Hunter et al. (2004) showed that the flexibility of Lean manufacturing improvesquality and is ergonomically correct for workers in the furniture industry

Some companies in the Wood industry have found a way for improving theircompetitiveness by reducing cost through Lean Manufacturing

While Lean Manufacturing definitively cost money to implement, the savingsusually outweigh the costs many times over (Bridget Testa,2003)

Despite the efforts, additional work needs to be conducted to help the woodindustry to become more competitive

The objective of this project was to analyze the status of the wood industry withrespect to the implementation of Lean Manufacturing

Introduction

WIW at WERC

An extensive research on previous surveys in Lean Manufacturing wasperformed, thus, main questions of interest were selected and discussed

Survey was designed and contained fifteen questions that included single,multiple choices and open questions

A pilot sample was implemented in order to evaluate the robustness of themeasurement instrument

Reviews and modifications were done to the survey after the pilot sample

The Universe of the sample contained, 982 Industries, in which 947 surveyseffectively reached the respondents (24 were sent to different states, and 11 wererejected) and 89 were collected back

Methodology

WIW at WERC

The final survey was sent via regular mail, the collected surveys were receivedthe same way

Two reminders were sent to companies that did not answer the survey

After the closing date, surveys were processed and analyzed based on theanswers received, in addition, the analysis of the open answers was conducted

Statistical software SPSS® was the instrument used for analyzing the responses

Microsoft Excel® was also used as a support software for analysis

Methodology

WIW at WERC

89 surveys were collected back, (9.39% of responses, sample size based on 947surveys effectively sent)

Company’s size were designated as small (<= 80 employees) and large firms (>80 employees)

Categorization for regions was supported by Census Bureau RegionsClassification system, it divides the North Carolina territory in three regions:Coast, Piedmont and Mountains

Analysis

WIW at WERC

Job position of respondents was classified as:

The industries that responded to the survey were classified as follows:

Analysis

Presidents, CEOs, and Managers account for

the 77% of respondents

Industry % respondentsFurniture Residential 24%Others 21%Cabinets 17%Millwork and Moulding 8%Pallets and Containers 8%Engineered Wood Products 7%Furniture Office 6%Dimension Stock 4%Panel boards 3%Doors and Windows 2%

Furniture (Residential) & Cabinets account for the majority of

responses.

Job Classification % RespondentsPresident/CEO/Owner/Director 58.4%Managers( Manufacturing, Operations) 19.1%Support Managers (Sales, Accounting, HR, etc.) 11.2%Others (coordinators, secretaries, maintenance, bookeepers) 9.0%Non respondants 2.2%

WIW at WERC

More than 70% of respondents agreed to be involved in (multiple choice question): Cost reduction (79.8%) Improvement in product quality (79.8%) Improvement in customer satisfaction (71.9%) Improvement in service quality (70.8%)

More than 50% agreed to be involved in: Improvement in on-time delivery performance (67.4%) Reduction in manufacturing lead time/cycle time (62.9%) Improvement in manufacturing flexibility/agility (59.6%) Improvement in product development/time to market (58.4%)

Analysis

From all the respondents, almost 40% of them agreed to be involved at this time in all the activities previously mentioned

WIW at WERC

From this 40% of respondents (33 companies): 12% (4 companies) are not aware of Lean manufacturing 19% (6 companies) are aware of Lean manufacturing, but not

implementing it 19% (6 companies) are aware of lean manufacturing, and planning to

implement it in the future 50% (17 companies) are actually implementing a lean manufacturing

program

Analysis

Around 69% of the companies that are involved in all the activities of process improvement are implementing or are aware of lean, however, 31% claim to be involved in several process improvement activities and

are not aware or not implementing lean

WIW at WERC

AnalysisThe Status of awareness of Lean

37%

25%

12%

26%

Yes, aware and implementing  it

Yes, aware but not implementing  it

Yes aware, and planning to implement it in the future

No, not aware

37%

25%

12%

26%

Yes, aware and implementing  it

Yes, aware but not implementing  it

Yes aware, and planning to implement it in the future

No, not aware

37% of companies are aware and implementing it, while 37% iseither aware but not implementing it, or not aware at all

From the companies aware and implementing Lean, 62.5% have anextensive (50%) or advanced (12.5%) implementation

WIW at WERC

•Companies involved in activities such as cost reduction, improvement in product,service, etc; did not answer the question about the ideas, techniques and tools thathave been useful for their business (almost 40% of them did not answer)

Analysis

Companies might not be really aware of the philosophy of Lean Manufacturing, or they might not be implementing Lean Manufacturing tools to improve

Question regarding activities involved

Question regarding useful tools and techniques used

goals and desired achievements that can be

made with Lean manufacturing

real field tools and methods that can be used to achieve

those desired goals

Gap between desired goals, and ways to achieve them

WIW at WERC

•Tools used by companies that have an early and extensive lean implementation

Analysis

Early implementers focus on changeover, process mapping and TPM

1.9%

15.4%

9.6%

7.7%

9.6%

9.6%

1.9%

9.6%

1.9%

11.5%

1.9%

1.9%

7.7%

9.6%

0.0%

6.5%

9.7%

6.5%

16.1%

12.9%

1.6%

9.7%

6.5%

9.7%

0.0%

6.5%

6.5%

8.1%

0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0%

Automatic line stop

Changeover reduction

Cellular Manufacturing

Error-proofing

Kaizen Events

Material Pull systems

Multi Process handling

Overall Equipment Effectiveness

Policy deployment

Process mapping

Quality Function Deployment

Single piece flow

Takt time

Total Productive Maintenance

Extensive

Early

Extensive implementers focus on Kaizen events, pull systems and single piece flow

WIW at WERC

•Tools used by companies implementing or planning to implement leanAnalysis

5’s, Waste identification/elimination, Work standardization and Visual management were the most important tools

2.4%4.8%4.8%

11.9%16.7%19.0%19.0%

28.6%31.0%31.0%31.0%31.0%

35.7%35.7%35.7%

42.9%42.9%

69.0%69.0%

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0%

Quality Function DeploymentAutomatic line stop

Multi Process handlingSingle piece flow

Policy deploymentError‐proofing

Takt timeCellular ManufacturingChangeover reduction

Process mappingTotal Productive Maintenance

VSMKaizen Events

Material Pull systemsOverall Equipment Effectiveness

Visual ManagementWork standardization

Waste identification and eliminationWorkplace Organization 5'S

WIW at WERC

Can Lean Manufacturing help the wood industry to become more competitive?

63 % of the companies totally agreed 14% believe that lean manufacturing may help the wood industry (combined

with other philosophies customized to the companies) 17% do not know if Lean Manufacturing can help the wood industry 6% states that it will not make the difference at all in the wood industry

Analysis

Despite 77% of the companies believe that some Lean implementation will help the wood industry, many industries are not implementing or

thinking about implementing it (63%)

An important number of respondents are not sure about the benefits of Lean (23%)

WIW at WERC

Analysis

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0%

No benefitsLow employee turnoverImprov. In market share

Customer loyaltyTeam work spiritResource savings

Avoid reworkRevenue growth

Smooth operation processesReduction in lead timeCustomer satisfaction

Enhance competitivenessCost savings

Main benefits of a Lean Manufacturing implementation

WIW at WERC

Main barriers to implement Lean ManufacturingAnalysis

2.8%9.9%9.9%

14.1%15.5%15.5%16.9%18.3%21.1%22.5%

26.8%31.0%

35.2%47.9%

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0%

Failure of past  lean projectsLean is viewed as a "flavor of the month"

Lack of idea generation/innovationLack of labor resources

Lack of crisisOther

Financial value of lean methods not …Middle Management  resitance

Lack of capital fundLack of time

Employee resistanceNot easy to  implement

Lack of implementation  Know‐howBacksliding to old ways

WIW at WERC

The four main trigger(s) that led companies to embark on lean manufacturing were:

Analysis

WIW at WERC

Summary

947 surveys, 89 were collected back, it represents 9,4% of responses

More than 2/3 of the respondents had high positions in the companies

More than 58% of companies are actually involved in process improvement

40% stated that they are currently involved in several improvement activities

1/3 of them stated that are not aware of Lean or are aware but not implementing

37% of the surveyed companies stated their awareness and Lean implementation

62.5% of them stated that their level of implementation is either extensive (50%)

or advanced (12.5%)

WIW at WERC

Many companies are not really aware of Lean comprehensive implementation

Companies want to achieve improvement goals, but are not aware Lean

12% of the surveyed companies are planning to implement Lean Manufacturing,and a high percentage are not aware at all of lean Manufacturing (26%)

Some tools implemented are: In a early stage, the focus is changeover reduction, process mapping and

total productive maintenance In a extensive level, the focus is on kaizen events, materials pull systems

and single piece flow Some common tools for both levels were: overall equipment effectiveness

and cellular manufacturing

Summary

WIW at WERC

The most convincing arguments that lead companies to adopt Lean are: Corporate or group initiative Customer pressure Examples & case studies

Most common tools implemented or planning to implement (42 companies) are: Workplace organization (5’s) Waste Identification and elimination Work standardization and Visual Management

VSM is a powerful tool, yet surveyed companies only ranked it on a 7th place

Most important improvement that can be achieved with Lean are: Cost savings and Enhance competitiveness Customer satisfaction and Lead time reduction

Summary

WIW at WERC

WIW at WERC

Additional Work

WIW at WERC

•Survey was designed and contained fifteen questions that included single, multiplechoices and open questions

The recipients of this survey were companies within the Wood & Wood Productsmagazine database. The database for this study contained 2295 wood relatedsecondary companies from the South Atlantic Region

Methodology

36%

16%12%

5% 3% 3% 3% 2% 1% 1% 1%

17%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

WIW at WERC

•A pilot sample was implemented in order to prove the robustness of themeasurement instrument

•Reviews and modifications were done to the survey after the pilot sample

•Based on the results from the pre-test, the final questions were modified and sentelectronically through emails using Survey Monkey® as the survey tool

• Two reminders were sent to companies that did not answer the survey

• After the closing date, surveys were processed and analyzed based on the answersreceived, in addition, the analysis of the open answers was conducted

• Statistical software SPSS® was the instrument used for analyzing the responses

• Microsoft Excel® was also used as a support software for analysis

Methodology

WIW at WERC

Analysis

Comparison between Data Base and Results

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Data base Survey

WIW at WERC

Analysis

Triggers for Lean Manufacturing implementation

26%

20%

9%7%

6%5%

3% 3%2% 2% 2%

0%

13%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

WIW at WERC

Analysis

Starting Point for Lean Manufacturing by level of implementation

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Extensive Advanced Early Planning

Process improvement Employees TrainingWorkspace optimization Investment in more efficient technologyOther

WIW at WERC

Analysis

Lean Manufacturing Tool Importance

13%10%10%

7%7%

6%6%5%

5%5%4%

4%3%3%3%3%3%

2%1%

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16%

Workplace organization (5’S)Waste identification & elimination

Work standardizationMaterial ‘pull’ systems (Kanban)

Process mappingCellular manufacturing

Visual managementChangeover reduction (SMED, OTED, etc.)

Overall Equipment Effectiveness  (OEE)Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

Total Productive Maintenance  (TPM)Kaizen ‘Blitz’ EventsPolicy deploymentSingle piece flow

Error‐proofing  (Poka yoke)Multi‐process handling

Takt timeAutomatic line stop whit defective parts

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

WIW at WERC

Analysis

Benefits of implementing Lean Manufacturing

14%

11% 11%10% 10%

9% 8%7%

6%5% 4%

4%

1% 1%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

WIW at WERC

Analysis

Barriers for the implementation of Lean Manufacturing

21%

13%

10%

7% 6% 6% 6% 5% 5% 5% 4%3% 3%

5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

WIW at WERC

Analysis

Lean Manufacturing seen as a tool to enhance competitiveness

78%

16%

6%

Yes Don't Know No

WIW at WERC

Final Thoughts•Main benefits from Lean Manufacturing:

•Cost Savings•Enhance competitiveness•Smooth operation process•Growth revenue•Reduction in lead time

•Main barriers of Lean Manufacturing implementation are:•Backsliding to old ways of working•Lack of implementation know-how•Employee resistance

•VSM is a powerful tool, yet surveyed companies only ranked it on a 10th place

•The grand majority of the companies seen Lean Manufacturing as a tool toenhance their competitiveness

WIW at WERC