One of the most recent Operational Transformation initiatives at MFCS Saegertown was to reduce cold-former set-up times, which required a reduction in the amount of time operators spend searching for appropriate tools. This discovery led to a focus on tooling crib reorganization.
In June 2013, a 5S event was conducted in the cold-former tool crib area. The company had outgrown the old tool crib. There were not enough racks to hold all of the equipment, dies and punches.
Additional die racks were fabricated to support tooling needs, existing racks were cleaned and painted, and the layout of the crib was redesigned making it user-friendly. A location in the new crib for all wire line components was designed to eliminate unnecessary clutter. Now, the tool crib area is a “one stop” shop for all cold-former tooling with all equipment organized and clearly labeled for easy use.
During this 5S event, the team physically moved thousands of dies weighing between 70 and 120 lbs. each. Shelving was reorganized to hold tens of thousands of smaller pieces of cold-former tooling. Several new bins were purchased and labeled with the corresponding item number. Thousands of obsolete tooling pieces were removed, which freed up valuable floor space. MFCS Saegertown has now visualized the area, set standards and developed an audit process to sustain it.
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Cold-former tool crib area has organized die racks, shelving and bins, which improve cold-former set-up times.