Johnson Matthey
The Power of Empowerment
- Reduced inventory variation to mid-single digit levels from mid-teen levels.
- Reduced WIP by nearly 50% through analysis and applying standard work to the storage and material flow of materials across the site.
- Significantly improved the order process system in excess of 20% order to cash.
Background
For over 10 years, DVIRC and Johnson Matthey have been working together on multiple efforts to realize the corporation’s company-wide focus on operational excellence. This initiative is so important that the company has a corporate-wide position focused on Lean implementation, and is well aware that the soft skills, such as communication and working in teams, are just as important as the technical tools. Beginning in 2007, Johnson Matthey established several corporate sustainability goals, including reducing energy usage per unit of output by 50 percent by 2017. The company as a whole is now very close to achieving the goal, but the Devon site has already achieved it. During the past year, the Devon site has continued its Continuous Improvement thrust with the empowerment of site-wide problem solving teams to address other major business opportunities.
The Solution
Continuous improvement and sustainability go hand-in-hand. Whatever your improvement is has to be business sustainable.
Bob Stajnrajh,
Johnson Matthey has shareholders and is in business to make a profit.
A 30-year Johnson Matthey veteran, Bob Stajnrajh, Kaizen and Sustainability Director at the Emission Control Technologies plant in Devon, came to DVIRC’s Director of Advanced Manufacturing Jeff Kopenitz and said “Jeff, we need to train our people to be good independent problem solvers. There is so much untapped potential in the organization for doing this. We want, however, good problem solving that addresses root cause and eliminates the culture of “jump-to-solution” which in turn only band-aids issues.”
Johnson Matthey understands the power of investing in the professional development of its people and has made ongoing investments to support a continuous improvement culture.
We’re making this investment because it’s the right thing to do for the company and the right thing to do for our people.
Bob Stajnrajh,
The company has embraced Lean Thinking and is starting to put Lean tools and team-based problem solving to work. Leaders have accepted coaching and mentoring as key parts of effective implementation, and want the entire plant trained in Root Cause Analysis and the use of these tools and processes within a cross functional team environment.
We are working toward giving our people a chance to identify problems, solve them, and present their solutions to management.
Bob Stajnrajh,
The company is committed to empowering its people and understands the importance of employee engagement at all levels of the firm. It’s been a real pleasure working with the folks at Devon. This is one of the smartest, most committed companies I’ve ever worked with.
Jeff Kopenitz, Director of Advanced Manufacturing, DVIRC
Our partnership with DVIRC will continue to pay dividends.
Bob Stajnrajh, Kaizen and Sustainability Director, Emission Control Technologies plant in Devon
Results
So far, over 150 people have been trained in various aspects of Continuous Improvement. Eventually, all of the over 500 employees at the Devon site will have had Lean training, pushing leadership and problem-solving down to the shop floor.
Devon has been an example of the success that can be obtained with Lean tools.
But, even though we’ve seen some initial success, we’re still in the early stages of full implementation. Doing it right takes time and our entire team is working to do it right.
Bob Stajnrajh,
Over the last two years, the Devon problem solving teams have successfully addressed significant business improvement opportunities. Examples of the outstanding results the continuous improvement problem teams have accomplished include:
- Reduced inventory variation to mid-single digit levels from mid-teen levels.
- Reduced WIP by nearly 50% through analysis and applying standard work to the storage and material flow of materials across the site.
- Significantly improved the order process system in excess of 20% order to cash.
- Improved a site-wide space constraint through adherence to standard work and the elimination of non-value material handling practices.
DVIRC and Johnson Matthey continue to have a sound and productive business relationship and our recent discussions with Bob Stajnrajh indicate the team-based problem solving processes have become the standard way identify and monetize opportunities and to identify and resolve problems.
Our partnership with DVIRC will continue to pay dividends.
Bob Stajnrajh,
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