1. WGEP – Case Study
Western Geophysical Exploration Products (WGEP) was barely seen by the customers, once they had a lot of problems, like marginal product quality, poor on-time delivery, long manufacturing lead times, inconsistent product reliability, and high product costs. With this presentation, the improvements will be elucidated showing what changes that they made and the way that they conducted the company to become lean and well seen by its customers.
Albert Sykes
Aline Jácome
Anderson Lima
Matheus Souza

2. Product Flow Scenario Effect/Result Process divided into departments;
Poor communication between sections;
Large amount of space dedicated to cable storage.
Bay cable movement was reduced;
Reported accidents and lose time accidents dropped;
Communication and overall visibility increased.
Improvement Step
Designing cells with a product oriented flow;
Required equipment only for each cell;
Additional aisles added for safety.
Jácome, Lima, Souza, Sykes - Spring 2015

3. Product Quality/Employee Skills Training
Scenario
Effect/Result
Employees worked on any type of cable at any point in time:
Did not discover quality problems from previous operations;
Very little understanding of the entire manufacturing process;
Did not inspect or check their own work;
There was excessive WIP.
Smaller WIP;
Improved communication;
Better problem solving;
Everybody learned new techniques and taught each other;
More teamwork;
Employees more connected and involved.
Improvement Step
Redesign the shop floor into cells
Jácome, Lima, Souza, Sykes - Spring 2015

4. Material Waste Reduction
Scenario
Effect/Result
Since a short cable was useless, manufacturers produced extra length to be cut to size which cost more
4% reduction in cable cost;
Annual savings of $320,000.
Improvement Step
Final cable length was reduced so there was less waste;
Two elements of the cable were purchased in shorter lengths.
Jácome, Lima, Souza, Sykes - Spring 2015

5. Visual Controls Scenario Poor layout of the plant; Effect/Result
Workers felt disconnected from the product and the process;
They had little understanding of the status of orders, product quality, product cost, or manufacturing lead time;
Visual controls and communication were very limited.
Effect/Result
Material control became very visible;
Employees could understand current conditions and take corrective actions.
Improvement Step
Use of Kanban cards
Jácome, Lima, Souza, Sykes - Spring 2015

6. Materials Management Effect/Result Scenario
Purchase price of material decreased;
End of cycles of shortages followed by excess of inventory;
Workload became predictable and repeatable.
Frequent materials shortage coupled with high inventory;
Erratic demand pattern;
Quality problems.
Improvement Step
Creation of a master production schedule for requirements (MRP);
Use of Kanban cards.
Jácome, Lima, Souza, Sykes - Spring 2015

7. Performance Measurement
Scenario
Effect/Result
Little information on plant performance;
Poor communication/ reaction to information;
Managers spent time researching/explaining negative variances on untrustworthy report;
Material and labor costs moved around to hide problems.
Kanban signal problems immediately;
Management receives weekly reports;
It is now easy to see if a cell is profitable or not for management and employees.
Improvement Step
New performance measurement system focusing on quality, on-time delivery, productivity, cost, and safety;
Job cost tracking system simplified by reducing number of jobs from 75/cable to one per week.
Jácome, Lima, Souza, Sykes - Spring 2015