H&T Waterbury reduced micro stoppages by 71% and drove continuous improvement projects, all based on data collected from the floor.
At Issue:
Shortstops are common in high volume, high-speed facilities as operators make small adjustments to keep the production line moving. Quantifying how much each microstop was adding up in unplanned downtime was impossible to measure using pencil and paper.
“Smart Factory helped us realize that our small micro stoppage problem was actually a bigger problem than we anticipated.”
Finding and Solving Problems Through Automatic Data Collection
Before working with Smart Factory, H&T was manually entering data, and there was a lot of opportunity for mistakes. It didn’t provide the ability to find and solve problems, quickly and efficiently.
By automating data collection, setting up timely reports, and more time for value-added tasks, the team at H&T Battery Components is able to find, diagnose, and solve problems quickly.
“What we used before was essentially an Excel sheet. You might miss a problem, and what you absolutely missed was all of the micro stoppages.”
-Matt Hill, Operations Improvement Coordinator, H&T Battery Components
Outcomes:
Smart Factory Provides Visibility to Everyone in the Company
With Nulogy Smart Factory software, management receives daily production reports at the end of every day as well as a weekly report at the close of the Saturday shift.
The transparency and effectiveness of keeping everyone in the loop have created a culture of communication and teamwork.
