Lean drives enterprise-wide improvement

In 1999, the ZF Sales and Service Organization (ZF SSO), which provides technical support and service for ZF products in North America including spare part sales, repair, remanufacturing and warranty administration, began a search for an improvement initiative. A ZF SSO customer suggested lean and trained the group on using a few lean tools. The initiative was well received, but according to Tim Corcoran, vice president, “Nothing sank in.”

Here, ZF SSO employees run an “airplane factory” in a lean manufacturing simulation. Learning the hows and whys of lean processes and having solid management backing revitalized ZF’s stalled lean program and generated company-wide process improvements and waste reductions.

In 2002, Corcoran attended a two-day Lean Leadership program at the Lean Learning Center in Novi, Michigan. This led to some successes, but something was still missing — an integrated approach and the leadership to direct it.

ZF’s building management team became “the leadership team,” which identified opportunities, prioritized projects and goals and set up yearly implementation plans. The results began to pile up. After a 2004 waste walk, the leadership team and workers reconfigured the plant and warehouse to a lean layout in just three months.

In 2005, ZF formalized its Vernon Hills Business Management System, which contains the Vernon Hills Operating Process (VHOP). The VHOP details activities performed on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and is available to employees online in an easy-to-use spreadsheet format with activities color-coded and grouped by like needs. This structure has allowed ZF to better connect with customers and suppliers and simplify flows to the point that it has been able to cut 1,000 different processes to 300. Item 128

This article appeared in the June/July 2007 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright 2007.

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