Industrial layout change with the Critical Chain approach

Context

A French aerospace industrial site, producing hydraulic and pneumatic servovalves, wanted to reorganize its factory layout. The existing configuration of job clusters, by specialties, made it complex for manufacturing orders to traverse the factory, and priorities were constantly changing from one sector to another. To return to more Lean practices, our client redesigned the factory layout to create production lines. The goal was to break down the silos within the factory while improving operational performance, managerial alignment, and creating production lines that best meet the needs of the assembly lines.

To ensure this reorganization was completed on time, the company decided to implement Critical Chain Project Management to manage the project.

Objectives

• Complete the relocation on time,
• Identify work that can be anticipated,

• Move production means without compromising the factory's operation.

Approach

• Training the team in Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM).
• Identifying the sequence of moves to be made: the spatial constraint in the relocation.
• Creating a detailed schedule of the sequence of activities to be completed. The relocation was carried out in three phases:
  
  • The first relocation of a production line during the annual Christmas shutdown,
  • Civil engineering work, including the installation of air conditioning for the workshop, in the spring,
  • The second relocation of the remaining means during the annual summer shutdown.
• Identifying the resources necessary for the successful completion of the project. This work highlighted a constraint in the project: the number of surveyors available to ensure the industrial means restart on time.

• Managing both relocations using Critical Chain Project Management.