Deluxe Corporation, the leading provider of checks and related products in the United States, has operated Deluxe Financial Services, Inc. in Lenexa since 1945. The facility produces documents for financial institutions nationwide and currently employs 258 people.
Deluxe began working with MAMTC in 2001 to implement Lean Manufacturing, a systematic approach to improve overall efficiency. The objective is to streamline the flow of material throughout the value stream (i.e. any process that adds value to the product, for which the customer is willing to pay) to help provide increased flexibility and responsiveness to changing customer demands. The goal is to respond to actual customer demand rather than producing to an often unreliable forecast.
MAMTC trained the Deluxe managers and supervisors on Lean Manufacturing principles including visual inventory systems. MAMTC also worked with them to complete a Value Stream Map (VSM). During a VSM, a current state map is compared to a future state map to identify areas of improvement. Deluxe, with assistance from MAMTC then formulated an action plan to reduce waste and improve its efficiency.
After completing the training, the managers began training all the employees in Lean Manufacturing concepts. Within a year, Deluxe could see significant results:
- Increased production by 16%
- Reduced cycle time by 12%
- Reduced defects per million by 129%
- 46,500 fewer hours needed to produce the same amount of product
- Travel through the front-end production process was reduced from 194 feet to 23 feet
“Lean Manufacturing has helped us to cut costly transport and delay by the elimination of non-value added steps from the manufacturing process. It shortens our production lead time, which serves the customer needs and gives an earlier return on the company’s investment in the product,” attested Moffatt. By 2003, Deluxe Corporation hopes to have all its facilities converted to cellular manufacturing.
|
