Timken’s Asheboro Plant Tackles a Lean Transformation

A sluggish economy provided the opportunity for The Timken Company in Asheboro to move faster to tackle the complicated task of integrating lean thinking into every aspect of the business.

“When the economy recovers, the efficiencies we’ve gained will make our plant even more competitive,” said Regis Eger, manager of operations.

In the cells where lean was implemented, within the first few months the Asheboro plant improved existing capacity by 25 percent, reduced manufacturing lead-time by 83 percent and reported inventory savings of almost $900,000 – a conservative figure, since Eger said only about 15 percent of the plant’s processes have been “leaned.” Another improvement can be seen in the new attitudes of the workforce and how work is done.

Recently visitors from four other Randolph County manufacturers toured the plant to see for themselves what Timken has accomplished. During the presentation by Timken’s lean transformation leaders and later while walking through the plant floor, the Timken employees emphasized repeatedly: the credit for change begins at the top.

Lean Leaders

When Bob Bauman became plant manager in 2007, he made it clear that he wanted the plant to adopt the Toyota Production System (TPS), the gold lean standard. The company turned to extension specialist Barrett Walker with the NC State University Industrial Extension Service for help.

And in the spring of 2008, experienced lean transformation sensei (the Japanese word for teacher), Sam McPherson, was selected to guide the Asheboro plant through the transformation process. The current plant manager, Bob Hart, has continued to support and drive this process.

The Timken Company began an effort in 2008 to implement lean across their enterprise. This effort also includes developing processes to improve the connectivity and information flow across the company globally. McPherson supported this effort by improving the lean efforts within the Asheboro plant.

McPherson immediately recognized and appreciated the support of top leadership at the site. For TPS to succeed requires “intense leadership and commitment.” He found that at Timken.

Tapered Bearings

The Timken plant in Asheboro makes tapered roller bearings for more than 800 customers that are 8 inches to 24 inches in diameter. This low volume, high mix output created uncontrolled inventory in work in progress. More than 250 employees work in the 210,000 square foot facility an average of six days a week for two shifts, generally making 17,000 pieces each month.

In June, McPherson led the plant’s top leadership through a lean leadership training session. The group decided they could best meet customer demand – the ultimate goal of lean transformation – by tackling four major challenges:

1. Reduce manufacturing lead-time and improve responsiveness to the customer
2. Correct and complete delivery to the customer on time
3. Reduce inventory to reduce lead-time and improve operating capital
4. Build an engaged lean culture of all of the plant’s managers and team members

They approached these issues in a learn-and-do process. McPherson would introduce a lean concept in the conference room and the leaders would then go to the factory floor to implement it. The leaders selected weren’t just the management team, but included both engineers and frontline leaders. The work of the initial management team and lean leaders freed up other managers, engineers, and frontline leaders to participate in the second generation of lean training and engage in the transformation.

Reduced Lead Time

For example, Tracey Bruce isn’t a manager, but he was a team leader for one of the lines where large batches of product were pushed from operation to operation, causing excess work in progress. His team reduced lead time from 2 or 3 weeks to 40 hours. A new pull system was created that pulled product from one process to another by sharing assets on a line.

Each pallet now carries enough product for two hours of work at the production cell. Hourly, an additional one hour of material is “pulled” to the production cell. A system of large colorful cards (called Kanban) placed on boards at the start of each line tells everyone at a glance where the process stands and controls the production and movement of material.

Three months of trial-and-error went into developing Timken’s customized card system. Now, material handlers quickly know when they need to move product from one point to another. Empty shelves nearby give a clue to how much inventory has been reduced.

Demand Driven

This new demand-driven process requires a flexible workforce. Cross-training becomes mandatory. When one line is down, an employee can move easily to another and perform their new duties quickly, safely, correctly and conscientiously. The process, which requires the product on that pallet to be done next, has eliminated cherry-picking of jobs, Bruce said.

The plant has been divided into “zones” and each zone encompasses several inter-related processes, because a problem in one process often leads to problems in another. Each zone has team leaders on each crew and a zone leader. These positions are part of a chain of command setup to solve problems. Frontline workers know to go to these leaders with any problem. By solving problems sooner in the process, the number of products needing rework has been reduced, on some lines by as much two-thirds.

“I thought our biggest problem in lean transformation,” Eger said, “would be to get people to support growth and sustain the changes. But the acceptance on the shop floor has been excellent. They’ve seen us do a lot of trial and error and have helped with the process by providing their input. We’re still working on the systems. Maybe most important, they know we’ve got to continue to do better.”

McPherson agreed. “Remember, lean tools and techniques do not solve problems, they only surface them very effectively,” he said. “The solutions come from the creative thinking of our people, and true transformational lean leaders accept giving up control to allow anyone to improve the process and better meet customer demand.” The Timken Asheboro Plant, he noted, is well on the way.