Air Plane Game Exercise

- Flow, Line balancing, Kaizen

Inseong Kim
Game
• Exercise objectives and purpose
 Create the Standardized work and understand why the STD work is critical to
Quality, Safety and productivity
 Understand how we can link the STD work with operator balancing and Kaizen
activities
• What
 Paper air plane game
• Where
 In the training room
• How
 4 rounds
 See detailed roles on next page
 Reflections by the teams
• Results
 KPIs evolution from round 1 to 4
Lay out and Preparations
 Lay out
Team
leader

Material
handler

Finished
goods Work station Work station Work station Work station
4 3 2 1

 Preparations
- A4 Paper - White, Yellow - Stop watch
- Label – Buffer, Law material - Scale (30 cm)
- Waste basket (Paper cup) - Marker pens
- Scissors - STD work document templates
- Jigs, Raw material to make jigs - Flip chart (Metrics print)
Roles
 1 Material handler : Trainer can be a material handler
– Responsible to feed the line with raw material from the warehouse.

 4 Operators
– Responsible to assemble according to the assembly instruction on each station
– Responsible to improve SQDC at own work station through Idea suggestion & Kaizen

 1 Team leader / Supervisor

– Responsible to observe any difficulties and problems at the assembly stations
– Responsible to measure the cycle time by element each operator
– Responsible to drive Kaizen activity to improve SQDC

 1 PDI inspector : Trainer can be a material handler

– Responsible for inspect any quality problems before delivering the finished goods to
customer
– Count the # of good parts and defected parts
Folding Process
1 2 3 4 5

10 9 8 7 6

11 12 13 14 Job allocation
-Round1 & Round2
•Operator 1 : ①
•Operator 2 : ②~⑥
•Operator 3 : ⑦~⑩
•Operator 4 : ⑪~⑭
Timings
Time Items Tasks
0:25 Game Introduction
0:10 Build Practice
-Create STD work
0:10 Round 1 - Flow processing with Push
-Measure the cycle time
0:20 Metrics & 1st Kaizen -Introduce pull
0:10 Round 2 - Flow processing with Pull
0:30 Metrics & 2nd Kaizen -Introduce operator balancing
0:15 Coffee
Round 3 - Flow processing with Pull &
0:10
operator balancing
0:40 Metrics & 3rd Kaizen -Introduce/improve tools/jigs
Round 4 - Flow processing with Pull,
0:10
operator balancing and improve tools/jigs
0:30 Metrics & Update STD work -Update STD work
0:30 Reflection by team Total productivity improvement
4:00 Tot End
Inspection specification
• Good visual quality

• Mismatch allowance : ± 2 mm

• Cutting tolerance : ± 2 mm

Width 15 mm ± 3 mm &
Height 15 mm ± 3 mm

20 ± 3 mm
Metrics
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4
No Metrics -Push -Pull -Balancing -Tools/Jigs

1 Delivered Quantity
(Total trucks delivered)

2 Good Parts
(Total parts green OK)

3 % Green OK

4 Work In Process
(Raw material +Buffer + SWIP)

5 Lead Time (Sec)

6 # of operators 4 4 4 4
7 Time (Min) 8 8 8 8

8 Productivity
(Good parts/% of operator/Time)
Round 1 - Flow processing with Push
• 8 Min
Team
• Use Scissors & leader
waste basket

Material
handler

Finished
goods Law
material

Work station 4 Work station 3 Work station 2 Work station 1

Rule
• Material handler
- Feed the raw material (A4 paper-white) : 10 sheets for one delivery
- Feed the yellow A4 paper in 3 minutes to measure manufacturing lead time
• Operator
- Continue to work if there are materials available
- Possible to rest or play with smart phone if there are no WIPs
• Inspector : Check/count defected parts & feedback to team leader/operators
• Team leader
- Measure cycle time and Create Standardized work
- Evaluate team metrics results and communicate with operators
• FIFO : All materials should be kept the FIFO rule between processes
Round 1 - Flow processing with Push
• Problems & Improvement opportunity
 Push system : Supplier push the customer to accept their product
 Inventory is unlimited
 Inventory is increasing
 Manufacturing lead time is too long
 Big bottle neck operation
 Other operator need to wait
 Waiting = Waste
 Unbalanced line between operators = Waste
 Something is not right = Waste
Round 2 - Flow processing with Pull
• 8 Min Team
• Use buffer label leader

Material
handler
Mat’l
Buffer Buffer Buffer
Finished Bin 1
goods Mat’l
Bin 2

Work station 4 Work station 3 Work station 2 Work station 1

Rule
• Material handler
- Feed the raw material (A4 paper-white) with 2-bin concept
- Feed the yellow A4 paper in 3 minutes to measure manufacturing lead time
• Operator
- Work only if there is no WIP in buffer
- Possible to rest or play with smart phone if there are no WIPs
• Inspector : Check/count defected parts & feedback to team leader/operators
• Team leader
- Evaluate team metrics results and communicate with operators
Round 2 - Flow processing with Pull
• Improvements
 Pull system : Customer pull the product from supplier when needed
 More control of inventory
 More organized work place

• Further Improvement opportunity

 But there is still lot to improve
 The product does not met the demand. Now where is the problem?
 The line is not balanced.
- Operator 2 and 4 are doing a lot more work than others
 But this time, the problem is because the line is not balanced. By balancing
it, it can solve the problem!
Operator Balance Chart / Yamazumi chart
30

25

20

15

10

0
1st Op 2nd Op 3rd Op 4th Op 1st Op 2nd Op 3rd Op 4th Op
Round 3 - Flow processing with Pull & Operator balancing
8 Min Team
leader

Material
handler
Mat’l
Buffer Buffer Buffer
Finished Bin 1
goods Mat’l
Bin 2

Work station 4 Work station 3 Work station 2 Work station 1

Rule – Same as Round 2

• But the workload is properly balanced / divided to stabilize process with balancing
• Material handler
- Feed the raw material (A4 paper-white) with 2-bin concept
- Feed the yellow A4 paper in 3 minutes to measure manufacturing lead time
• Operator
- Work only if there is no WIP in buffer
- Possible to rest or play with smart phone if there are no WIPs
• Inspector : Check/count defected parts & feedback to team leader/operators
• Team leader
- Evaluate team metrics results and communicate with operators
Round 3 - Flow processing with Pull & Operator balancing
• Improvements
 Operator balancing
- The workload is properly balanced and divided to stabilize process
 Shorter lead time with “QRPS” problem solving

• Further Improvement opportunity

 But there is still lot to improve
- need to improved the quality
- need to reduce the cycle time
Round 4
-Flow processing with Pull, operator balancing & tools/jigs
8 Min Team
leader

Material
handler
Mat’l
Buffer Buffer Buffer
Finished Bin 1
goods Mat’l
Bin 2

Work station 4 Work station 3 Work station 2 Work station 1

Rule – Same as Round 3

• But new tools & jigs are used to improve quality & reduce cycle time
• Material handler
- Feed the raw material (A4 paper-white) with 2-bin concept
- Feed the yellow A4 paper in 3 minutes to measure manufacturing lead time
• Operator
- Work only if there is no WIP in buffer
- Possible to rest or play with smart phone if there are no WIPs
• Inspector : Check/count defected parts & feedback to team leader/operators
• Team leader
- Evaluate team metrics results and communicate with operators
Operator Balance Chart
30

25

20

15

10

0
1st Op 2nd Op 3rd Op 4th Op 1st Op 2nd Op 3rd Op 4th Op
 Reference

Jigs
• Half folding jigs • Wing folding jigs

• Cutting jigs…
Metrics
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4
No Metrics -Push -Pull -Balancing -Tools/Jigs

1 Delivered Quantity 10 12 14 15
(Total trucks delivered)

2 Good Parts 7 9 11 15
(Total parts green OK)

3 % Green OK 70% 75% 79% 100%

4 Work In Process 57 9 9 9
(Raw material +Buffer + SWIP)

5 Lead Time (Sec) 75 65 62 56

6 # of operators 4 4 4 4
7 Time (Sec) 8 8 8 8

8 Productivity
(Good parts/% of operator/Time)