Last week, the Leaders in Continuous Improvement organization of Michigan Tech hosted an industrial visit to Milwaukee Tools Subsidiaries on Friday, March 23. The organization, commonly known as LCI, is a service-oriented student organization that uses continuous improvement and Lean principles to make the daily lives of regular people and organizations better and more efficient without adding any costs. The aim of this organization is spreading awareness of the principles of maximization through the use of continuous improvement techniques for everyday tasks and lengthy, multi-step processes in non-profits, industrial factories, government and elsewhere in the community.
The organization selected a group of 27 people from its members for this trip. Interested students signed up and arrived at the Memorial Union Building on Thursday evening after the end of their classes where three vehicles were boarded as the group set off to La Quinta in Appleton, Wisconsin where they spent the night after the long journey from Tech.
The next day began early, with the group setting off before half past seven in the morning. The first company visited was Empire Level. We were welcomed by Carrie Struss, the continuous improvement manager. She introduced us to Rick Gray, the senior vice president and general manager at Empire Level and Steve Lallensack, the vice president of operations.
After a quick presentation, we were led into the plant itself, where the entire range of products and the processes associated with them were explained to the group. The most eye-catching part implemented by the company was a board where any employee could put up continuous improvement ideas anonymously, and anyone could work on achieving those goals regardless of their positions.
Rick Gray mentioned the efforts he and his team has taken to revitalize the previously privately owned company and had to begin building to what it is currently, brick by brick. His talk was frequently punctuated with his appreciation of his hard-working team. He said, “In the beginning, there was no trace of any Lean management principles. Everything was haphazard. The team began with physically moving equipment to better accessible places and implementing Kaizen. And the reasons can be seen now after about seven years of constant positive change.” Kaizen is another word for continuous improvement. The company aims at introducing atomization in a step-by-step process, prioritizing by calculating the cost versus profit analysis at every step.
The group then set off to Galland Henning Nopak. Tom Dillemuth, the director of operations, presented the working of his company, which has been owned by the same family for four generations. He showed us the legacy on which the company was built and the immense pride with which each of the employees worked at their tasks. The company, which crafts equipment on an on-demand basis, is unique as it manufactures items based on the demands of the customers and suits their needs perfectly. Due to the manufacturing of customized equipment, the employees have applied Lean management to the entire set of tools, making the process standardized.
The third company visited was Charter Steel. Lunch was provided by the company with a quick presentation of the three pillars of the growth in the company. Jon Vrzal, the manager of continuous improvement introduced the three Ps: People, Products and Processes. The students were then divided into three teams and each team was led by two employees and were given an extensive tour of two plants. Charter Steel, one of the biggest steel manufacturing companies in Wisconsin, is also the biggest energy consumer of the state. The company has thrived due to the use of Lean management and six sigma tools including 5S, just in time, Kanban, Kaizen and root cause analysis since its establishment. Vrzal explained how the current owners are actively contributing to the betterment of their employees and are at the forefront of investing in new techniques. The company has a well-established plan for coaching and testing its employees for different continuous improvement tools, and it organizes frequent camps for spreading the awareness and contribution of these maximization techniques in everyday processes. Initially, a majority of workers undergo what is called orange belt training, which includes about 300 workers. Out of these, 10 percent of the interested staff is assigned to the green belt and a further 1 percent are encouraged to take the black belt training of six sigma principles and its applications.
Charter Steel has introduced another ‘S’ in their 5S concept which stands for safety. They believe that, in any process, safety is an integral part and must be placed as the epitome of necessary values. The tour through the process plant proved that the employees were aware of Andon (a visual feedback system), Autonomation, PDCA and DMAIC and considered utilizing these practices wherever possible. Similarly, the results could be seen through the company being visibly the cleanest in its operation. The group of students consisted of different streams of engineering as well as management studies and innumerable questions were asked and suggestions were made to the delight of the people receiving them. Many of the students were interested with the processes and were fascinated as a block of hot steel, traveling at about 1 mile per hour in the beginning, ended up burrowed in about 220 types of rods of steel with a variety of diameters and types depending on the chemistry of manufacturing.
After the tour with each company, adequate time was spent answering the questions of the students and group photos were taken. The organization’s advisor, Ruth Archer, played an important part in planning the entire trip as well as working on improving the bonds with the possible future employers of Michigan Tech students. The leaders of the organization, Rachel Chard, the current president, and Aniket Samel, the secretary, couldn’t be appreciated enough for their efforts in making this trip such an enormous success.
After taking leave of the last company, the group went for a collective dinner and returned to Tech late at night with more knowledge of the processes and some important contacts with the right people in the industry. Dilip Singh, one of the members and the future secretary of LCI, expressed his gratitude in simple words, “I am glad I could be a part of this trip. We have seen the actual implementation of what we learn in the classes all the time in the industry, and this will make us even more broad-minded and let us take the necessary risks when we begin working as full-time employees.”
