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96 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2022 together to accomplish these much-needed tasks. We have hired a few plumbers, electri- cians, and carpenters. As you may know, these folks are hard to come by, so these specialists have requested some help from us to do the work. I plan to be on the cleaning and paint- ing crew." As pointed to John, Maggie said, "My fiancé John will work with the plumber, as he worked as a plumber's assistant while in college." John then spoke up: "ere is coffee and donuts in the break room for all. We will be there to answer questions." Everyone proceeded to the break room, many still stunned by the good news. Expected questions were asked and answered. It was shared with the employees that Ivy Benson Electronics would be offering training for their employees, and even tuition assistance at the local colleges. Maggie and John introduced Chuck Tower as the general manager, and Tanya Brooks as a lead engineer, who would be sharing these duties with Phil Consol. It took three weeks to prepare Ivy Benson Electronics to be reborn. e new restrooms were immaculate with completely new fixtures and repaired plumbing (Figure 1). e break room was remodeled beautifully. It included vending machines that sold food and drinks at cost, Wi-Fi for smartphones, and two com- puters for email and web surfing during breaks (Figure 2). e workers pitched in to create these new changes. When the shop was back up and run- ning, 5S had been implemented at all repair work stations and in the two manufactur- ing lines. e manufacturing processes were streamlined to eliminate any of the 8 Mudas, and spaghetti diagrams 1 were used to mini- mize wasted motion. From lessons learned in improving productivity and quality at Ben- son Electronics, the uptime and first pass yield were at 30% and 95%, respectively, soon aer production began anew. To support these improvements, Pareto charts were used to track defects and assembly line uptime was measured continuously. About three months later, things were hum- ming at Ivy Benson Electronics. So many new orders were coming in that Maggie and John had to hire new workers. Employee morale was terrific because of the improvements in the facility, training, and aer-work reimbursed education at the local colleges. Maggie was working in her office when she was startled by the phone ringing. "Hello, this is Maggie at Benson Electronics. How many I help?" Mag- gie cheerfully answered. "is is Ned Price. I wondered if I could meet with you and John and get a tour of what you have done to my factory and the workers?" Ned asked gruffly. Maggie agreed and suggested they meet at Ivy Benson and then "do lunch." A few days later, on the appointed day and time, Ned showed up at Ivy Benson. He seemed angry. "Why don't you just give me a tour, and I won't say anything," Ned began. Maggie and John were a bit sur- prised by Ned's approach but wel- comed him into the factory. Figure 1: The restrooms at Ivy Benson Electronics after the improvements.