Excursions were reduced by approximately
80%.
Description of Problem
A 10,000 employee-manufacturing site was suffering from major production excursions. This systemic issue incurs major process flow interruptions, extremely expensive costs attributable to downtime and inventory and ordering adjustments as well as delivery problems and lost business. Excursions for this firm were averaging 5 to 6 per year costing approximately $25,000,000 per excursion.
Approach
A technique referred to as excursion analysis was conducted for this situation. A process reliability specialist from Luftig & Warren, International evaluated the systems at this facility with respect to a number of components. These include the production of products with defects that are not being noticed, management of the system at inappropriate settings and initial design that may have been for specific conditions or products. The probability of excursions was calculated and the system faults evaluated against the duration and frequency of occurrence.
Results
Excursions were reduced by approximately 80% (from about 5 to 1 per year).Cost avoidance was calculated to be approximately $90–100,000,000 per year.
Submitted by LWI
Consultant
Bob Pahlkotter