Herga Introduces TIM WOODS 8 Wastes of Lean

TIM WOODS 8 Wastes of Lean is being used here at Herga to identify non-productive waste in the business.

The model uses 8 different elements and can be adopted in any department, from the efficient purchasing control of goods through the obvious Manufacturing area through to Sales and logistics.

The photo to the right shows Karen Docking presenting TIM WOODS to a group of Herga staff (Kelvin, Colin, Carol, Adam and Val)

Karen Docking – Production Engineer says, “The most important aspect of Lean Manufacturing is the involvement of everyone in the organisation, regardless of position.  We all “live” with the waste that surrounds us currently, because it’s what we are used to & therefore we all have a contribution to make in improving how Herga functions and increasing margin.  We only need to make small changes daily – this will result in huge changes within Herga being achieved within the next 12 months.”

Who or what is TIM WOODS?

TIM WOODS is an acronym for the 8 wastes commonly found within business, it is a widely recognised model used within industry. These 8 wastes are;

Transportation

Inventory

Motion

Waiting

Over Processing

Over Production

Defects

Staff

The whole site has been involved in a training session that explained the principles of TIM WOODS and how it can improve productivity, efficiency and show how simple changes can make working life easier for our staff and to maintain premium customer service.

TIM WOODS training example; Mains Plug.

We used a mains plug as a training example for working with and overcoming the TIM WOODS 8 Wastes of Lean.

The task was to assemble the plug and deliver to the customer, in batches of 5, a minimum order of 10 pcs. This had to be completed in 8 minutes.

The groups managed their own process, making suggestions to change and improve, considering the TIM WOODS approach. Teams went from delivering zero parts in the first attempt to then after only making changes to the way the product was built, managed in most cases over 20 pcs. That is a pure efficiency and productivity change using single piece flow.

Carol Garrod – Production Operator with over 20 years’ experience at Herga says “I attended and participated in the TIMWOODS training and I found it to be an interesting insight into the benefits the company could achieve, with at times only needing to make small changes. It stimulated me into thinking that another TIMWOOD could work alongside to achieve the maximum success in this process. Time – Information – Management – Work – Opportunity – Observation - Discussion”

Edward Charlson – Operations Director summarised the process by saying, “We have now successfully completed the reorganisation and structural change part of our improvement journey. During this year our build performance to increasing targets has significantly improved. We must now continue to question our processes and techniques in order to be as efficient as possible, become one step ahead of our competition and naturally become a future supplier and project partner of choice.

We need to sustain what we have already achieved and use the next 6-8 months to take a journey through development and sustaining processes to increase our margin success. Thought and application must now compliment and support endeavours already made and this is now the time to introduce our TIM WOODS lean programme.

The second we stop adding value to a component it becomes a cost to the company, the more a product travels the more it costs our company, if we make excess it costs our company, if we don’t make enough product it costs our company, if we have to wait for any reason it costs our company, remember the customers are paying us for getting everything right first time and delivering each order on time and in full without the need or any premium costing activity. Our practical activity based TIM WOOD workshop for all site employees’ will support the next stage of our journey towards best in class status. ”

Once the site is trained then the real fun can begin.

By the end of the year we hope to start this change with a Supermarket sweep style of Lean Cleansing before really getting into permanent changes to the layouts and equipment.

We will let you know how that goes!