Case study of IPCO: Comprehensive improvement at Sanvik Shanghai factory (Part 2)

The first step that IPCO experts aim to implement the innovative solution at Sanvik Shanghai is to build a value chain diagram at each stage. Not only the manufacturing process, other business activities such as advertising, product design, ordering and selling, etc. are also analyzed in depth to determine the priority order for improvement.

Based on the principles of the Pareto chart, early resolution causes the most waste will be more practical than trying to solve all problems at once. Therefore, management has been identified as a key issue to improve the efficiency of the entire process.

According to the instructions, the production management team at Sanvik Shanghai has collaborated with other units to create a visual management board for each project milestone with detailed checklists for each stage and make sure that All work is completed and distributed to all areas.

Magnets of different colors are attached directly to the progress sheet to allow all parties involved in the project, including project supervision, design, production, sales, finance, and housing. The warehouse and quality departments can quickly know the progress of the project, what happens and how to deal with them every day.

For production process, IPCO identifies “3 big wastes” in the process including: Depreciation of raw materials due to the manipulation of workers; wasting time due to unplanned shutdowns; High equipment costs due to regular repair and replacement.

To solve this problem, IPCO used the “Seven Steps to the Future” method to reorient factory operations, standardize workers’ operations as well as build a new statutory system. to promote comprehensive improvement.

This method has brought Sanvik Shanghai many remarkable results:

• Employees are aware that their actions can greatly affect the financial situation of the company. From there, the responsibilities of each department become clearer throughout the overall improvement of the project, providing an effective communication platform and initially forming an improved culture.
• A standardized framework is widely available in all processes, from design, maintenance to production operations.
• The transparency of project issues is greatly improved through simple and direct communication, so issues can be found and resolved quickly. The introduction of an intuitive management panel helps project members be more active, including many employees and different departments in adjusting the project schedule and leads to a major promotion of the project progress.

Productivity and Quality Office