1. Western Geophysical Exploration Products - Case Study
Esteban Boyer Paula Martins Josh Crawford
IDM Dr. Burtner - Crawford, Boyer, Martins febuary 5th, 2015

2. INTRODUCTION Background Overview Questions
Designing cells with product oriented flow
Using Kanban
Product quality/employee skills training
Material Waste reduction
Visual controls
Performance Measurement
Questions
IDM Dr. Burtner - Crawford, Boyer, Martins febuary 5th, 2015

3. Designing cells with product oriented flow
Improvement
Results
Designing cells with a product oriented flow. (pg.395)
Increased visibility
Improve communication
Reduce cycle times
Decreased cable movement by 50%
Reduced floor space by 30%
IDM Dr. Burtner - Crawford, Boyer, Martins febuary 5th, 2015

4. USING KANBAN Improvement Results
They started to use the Kanban methodology to make easier the communication.(pg. 396)
Decrease WIP from 60 cables to 12 cables
The lead time was reduced from over 30 days to less than 5 days
And material short ages became almost nonexistent.
IDM Dr. Burtner - Crawford, Boyer, Martins febuary 5th, 2015

5. Product quality/employee skills training
Improvement
Results
The bay cable cell design moved WIP next to the first step of the process(pg. 397)
improved communication
Cross training( being trained in more than one department )
Each employee learned the exact requirements for quality
A collective effort to stop bad products from coming down line
Group responsibility for the product
IDM Dr. Burtner - Crawford, Boyer, Martins febuary 5th, 2015

6. Material Waste reduction
Improvement
Results
WGEP stopped cutting cable an extra few feet “just to be safe” and started adjusting the length appropriately. (pg )
4% reduction in cable cost
Decrease in wasted cable
A more efficient operation
Annual savings of this one process amounting to more than $320,000
IDM Dr. Burtner - Crawford, Boyer, Martins febuary 5th, 2015

7. Visual controls Improvement Results
They developed a system that allowed all employees to understanding current and future demand, quality improvements, cost reductions and others issues relating to a particular manufacturing (pg. 399)
Improve the understanding of the status of the orders
Easy way to take a corrective action.
Visibility brings the cell together and everyone in the process can help and improve the process because now they know what was going on.
IDM Dr. Burtner - Crawford, Boyer, Martins febuary 5th, 2015

8. Performance Measurement
Improvement
Results
Little information was kept of plant production, due to a lack of communication between departments.
The supervisors began playing a sort of shell game to hide costs from one job to another.
Management created a new system of performance measurement, reducing the number of transactions done( pg )
A reduction in the bill of materials
Saw a reduction in the number of jobs
Reports were written each week detailing the number of completed cables and their cost
IDM Dr. Burtner - Crawford, Boyer, Martins febuary 5th, 2015

9. Questions
IDM Dr. Burtner - Crawford, Boyer, Martins febuary 5th, 2015