October 2014 • The PCB Magazine 71
Step 4: Create and Execute an
Action Plan
An action plan is the method for trans-
forming the process from its current state to
the future state. The action plan for this pro-
cess resulted in dramatic improvement, ulti-
mately reducing the lead time to the customer
from eight weeks to five days. This was accom-
plished in a number of ways, beginning with
the implementation of a Kanban system at the
raw material sub-supplier. Waste was mini-
mized in the manufacturing process in three
ways:
1. Elimination of inspection by placing
quality responsibility at the source
2. Removing queue time by changing the
flow from a push, to a pull process, and
3. Reducing the number of steps in each
process.
All the results can be found in Figure 4. As
the cycle repeats, further improvement could be
achieved by implementing a Kanban system at
the other end of the process—delivery of prod-
uct to the customer.
This action plan was accomplished by using
a combination of the best practices method-
ology that will be presented in my November
column, Best Practices 101: Part 4.
PCB
steve williams is the president
of steve williams Consulting
llC and the former strategic
sourcing manager for Plexus
Corp. he is the author of the
books, Quality 101 handbook
and survival is not mandato-
ry: 10 things every Ceo should Know about
lean. to read past columns, or to contact
williams, click here.
BEST PRACTICES 101, PART 3 continues
figure 3: Future state value stream map.
figure 4: waste reduction results.
