Use Cases

80

%

reduction in critical defect

2

%

Increase in overall process yield

Background

The customer produces a high-value medical device for its customers in a range of sizes. They were having difficulty getting access to accurate scrap data consistently across all shifts. Before Kt-Pulse, performance data was being gathered from a combination of hand-written check sheets, shift reports, notes on whiteboards and the ERP system. The information was incomplete and lacking in accuracy for proper problem solving.

How Kt-Pulse helped

The Kt-Pulse system was introduced at critical process steps on the manufacturing line to track scrap accurately in real-time. This gave the team much deeper insights into how defects were occurring by part number, location, shift and time of day. This was critical information for finding the root cause of the highest running defect type. The data, along with effective problem solving, led to the identification of the root cause and the implementation of a robust solution. This reduced the occurrence of this defect type by 80%. Kt-Pulse is continuing to be used for tracking productivity, downtime and scrap.

Results

The Kt-Pulse system continued to monitor the critical processes. In the 2 months following the implementation of the solutions, they were found to be effective in reducing this defect type by 80%, which translates into an overall process yield improvement of 2% and annualized savings of €500k.

15

%

Increase in output per shift

50

%

reduction in shift startup times

Background

The customer was struggling to hit their shift output targets. As a result, they relied heavily on overtime at weekends to recover the losses. This had become ‘the norm’ and as well as the extra unnecessary cost, it was impacting on team morale. They knew that they had a bunch of downtime issues but relied on a clunky paper-based system for tracking it, which lacked accuracy and consistency.

How Kt-Pulse helped

The Kt-Pulse system was introduced on each of the manual packaging. This allowed the packaging operators to quantify all of the stoppages that were impacting them throughout their shift.
A trend began to develop with a number of repeat issues occurring during the shift startup process. This information facilitated impactful problem solving across all of the shifts. A series of small but significant procedural and organizational changes were made resulting in a dramatic reduction in shift startup times.
The added benefit of tracking output in real-time through the data collector app helped the production operators to stay on track becoming much more consistent in meeting the hourly output targets.

Results

The Kt-Pulse system has been instrumental in transforming how the packaging lines run. Reducing the shift startup times by 50% and increasing productivity by 15% per shift has resulted in a dramatic reduction in overtime of 75%. Kt-Pulse continues to monitor the packaging lines and is identifying further opportunities for improvement

99

.5%

on time in full

20

%

productivity improvement

Background

The MedTech customer was unable to meet customer demand on a regular basis. Despite running extra shifts and adding resources, it was a constant battle to get enough product out the door. There was a general understanding that small issues were building up to cause a lot of downtime, which was preventing the production operators from getting any real momentum on the manufacturing floor.
Each line was using Adhoc check sheets or spreadsheets to capture data but nothing was being done with it. Also, the information was only partially filled out meaning it was difficult to understand what was going on.

How Kt-Pulse helped

The Kt-Pulse system was introduced across a number of cells and assembly lines to create a consistent method of data capture. This built up a picture quickly of how stop-start the production areas were.
Over a period of 2 months, Kt-Pulse built up an accurate picture of how much downtime was occurring and also how sporadic the hourly output figures were achieved.
The breakthrough insight for the production management team was that many of the smaller (supposedly insignificant) stoppages were having a far more significant impact on productivity than the sporadic, big ticket issues. Also, giving the production teams a clearly visible hourly output target, that was flexible to part number changes, ensured they were far more focused on what they had to achieve.

Results

The Kt-Pulse system shone a light on what was going on under the bonnet so that the production teams could make meaningful improvements. In under 3 months, productivity increased by 20% and shipments on time and in full to customers rose by almost 10%.

90

%

reduction in paperwork

5-10

%

productivity improvement

Background

A cosmetics manufacturer was looking for opportunities to reduce the amount of paperwork and time that was going into tracking production performance.
Before Kt-Pulse, production operators were tracking performance using check sheets. Data was then transferred to lineside boards at the end of every hour. At the end of each shift Team Leaders and Supervisors would collate the information using excel spreadsheets. Each month, the data was further compiled to create reports for the operations meeting.
According to the customer, there was lots of time spent generating data and not enough time acting on it.

How Kt-Pulse helped

The first objective was to eliminate the use of checksheets so a Kt-Pulse data collector was introduced across a number of constraint and end-of-line process steps. Three digital monitors were also set up to display the analytics in real-time, which eliminated the need for whiteboards. The management reports were also simplified as the majority of information that they required was automatically generated by the Kt-Pulse system.

The second objective was to teach the teams to act on the data. This came in a variety of ways

• using the live analytics to escalate issues more quickly and efficiently to the right people
• using the summary dashboards for running more effective team meetings
• using the trend analytics for identifying improvement projects

Results

The Kt-Pulse system has eliminated approximately 90% of the effort required to summarize production performance to the management team. It has also freed up 20-30% of the team lead and supervisors’ time to work on fixing issues. This has resulted in productivity improvements of 5-10% across each line.