Lean Principles’ Value Stream Mapping Methodology
Assists
Award-Winning FALA Technologies
"When HVTDC came in and guided us through the Value Stream Mapping process they dispelled the fears and our staff began to come up with great ideas. It’s been a very productive gain for our company. "
On November 16, 2005, New York State’s Lieutenant Governor Mary Donohue presented Frank Falatyn, president and CEO of FALA Technologies in Kingston, with the 2005 New York State Small Business Person of the Year Award. Frank Falatyn heads this semiconductor and nanotechnology equipment manufacturing company that his parents founded nearly six decades ago. As Donohue commented, the award demonstrates how “small town values can lead to big successes.”
FALA’s noted success however met with frustration in early 2005 when the 59 year-old company’s top-level executives worked to streamline the day-to-day operations. Falatyn explains, “We needed an objective review of how we were operating because my parents founded this company as Ulster Tool & Die in 1946. For five decades we operated as a family-run machine shop. Ten years ago we shifted to the design and precision manufacturing of semiconductor and nanotechnology products. We transformed from what was originally a domestic IBM-centric supplier to a manufacturer of next-generation tools serving a global marketplace.”
FALA Technologies Inc.’s VP of Manufacturing, Frank Buffa, states, “We recognized that we needed to apply Lean Principles of Manufacturing to our operations but we never had anyone come in to facilitate and guide us through the Value Stream Mapping process to get ideas about how we needed to streamline our operations.” The Hudson Valley Technology Development Center (HVTDC) visited FALA Technologies periodically to discuss the company’s needs.
“Our objectives during these visits to a company,” states HVTDC Field Services Director Robert Winrow, “is always to understand how a business operates, then create and suggest activities specifically designed to improve that business’ performance. When we observed FALA’s operations, we quickly realized by applying our Value Stream Mapping (VSM), which falls under the umbrella of our award-winning Lean Principles of Manufacturing, it would help them obtain greater profitability and streamline their operations.”
FALA’s Chorvas states, “HVTDC spearheaded the initiatives for our company to apply for an Industrial Effectiveness Program (IEP) grant from New York State to assist and to defray some of the expense to implement the identified project activities. The whole process of lean manufacturing and reviewing our operations began when the grant was awarded in April 2005.”
Value Stream Analysis focuses on a specific process of a business and ‘maps’ out the steps of how something is currently getting done. It identifies “Value Added” aspects of a business operation that equate to steps required to put actual value into producing a product. “Non Value Added Time” is the time devoted to activities that diminish the operations of the business and production of a product. In most businesses, the Value Added activities are actually a small percentage of the process time.
“With HVTDC’s guidance and direction,” states Chorvas, ”employee teams mapped out the current process, or ‘current’ value stream, and then we mapped out what the ‘future’ process should look like. Simply put, we analyzed and recorded our process and how long each process step takes. From this analysis, we determined where the most time, or non-value added resources, are currently being applied. From the future state map we planned out our lean journey, where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.”
Chorvas explains that HVTDC met with the staff every week to ensure that the company stayed on course. “They helped us work through the VSM process and allowed us to take everyone’s ideas and implement them, which added real value to the company as well as to our staff. The output of this analysis is a list of prioritized recommendations for implementation consideration.”
To assist in the development and implementation of the recommendations, and to move towards the future state Value Stream, HVTDC is helping the company conduct Kaizens which are intensive and focused approaches to Process Improvement. Kaizen means “continuous improvement” and the results can often be realized with real time implementation of new methodologies occurring within one week’s time.
According to HVTDC’s Winrow, “The results during the past eight months have been very positive because these principles help a company meet the daily operational demands of their business while increasing their productivity, capacity and profitability. These are principles we believe can be applied to benefit many business entities including hospitals, doctor’s offices and schools.”
Winrow points out that to examine the operations of an entire company, however, it may take several months or more to complete all the Value Stream Maps while independent Kaizen teams within a company are focusing on implementation of identified improvements. The Value Stream Mapping and Kaizen teams are comprised of a Team Leader, a Champion, and people from the process function and outside the process. “By dividing responsibilities and observations, people are developing their own methods for doing their jobs smarter and better, and they get the added advantage of an outside perspective. “
With guidance from HVTDC, the FALA Technologies’ Team Leader coordinates and keeps the meetings on track. The objective of the Champion’s position is to break down any barriers encountered during the process. If the team encounters any informational barrier, the Champion works to break down that barrier toward accomplishing the team’s goal. “The overriding objective of all of this,” explains Frank Buffa, “is to reduce waste in the production process and make production more efficient and our company better able to respond to our customers’ demands. The process brings people’s ideas out to allow us to be more efficient. Before changes to the process are made, the ideas and changes must be justified and supported to show how they will produce results and improve the process.”
To date, FALA Technologies has applied HVTDC’s Value Stream Mapping and Kaizen method to several areas of their business to get everyone involved in the process. Chorvas elaborates, “We wanted everyone to be exposed to the Kaizen Method and aware of how we are looking at how the business operates. We wanted everyone involved because every area of the operations can expose different facets of waste and bring productivity gains. We cannot see where all the waste is, that’s why we wanted our entire staff involved. The only area we have not applied the Value Stream Mapping process fully is in administration. We have applied some principles from the process, but we have not devoted the entire process to that specific department. Our objective is to have our staff understand that the Kaizen Method can be applied to all areas of our business.”
”Several years ago,” Chorvas continues, ”we tried to apply the principles of Lean Manufacturing on our own. We failed because our staff did not understand the process well enough and were not confident with their abilities to implement the changes and contribute ideas for change. Many people were afraid that their thoughts were not valuable enough to actually initiate change. When HVTDC came in and guided us through the Value Stream Mapping process they dispelled the fears and our staff began to come up with great ideas. It’s been a very productive gain for our company.
I don’t believe we would have accomplished what we have without the assistance and guidance provided by HVTDC and the New York State IEP Grant. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to go through this process, but the improvements, benefits and everyone’s participation in molding our future state are well worth the effort.“
For additional information, call 845-896-6934.