Factories,
People
& Results
Theory of Constraints, Critical Chain Project Management, Lean : industry consulting & training - Marris Consulting
Transforming a plant with Critical Chain for a new layout of the production
Context
The SAFRAN ELECTRONICS & DEFENSE site in Mantes-La-Ville produces equipment for the aeronautical industry. After having improved its performance by using Theory of Constraints in production and Critical Chain Project Management for the development of new products (find the testimonial here), the site decided to reorganize its flows.
For this, civil engineering work and the move of 45 machines were necessary. The time allotted was very short: two weeks (Christmas holidays).
To ensure the success of this redevelopment, the company decided to implement the Critical Chain on this project.
Approach
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The project to simplify production flows by creating production lines according to the various types of products has led to a new location of the machine shop. The Critical Chain was therefore used on this project.
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Training of the maintenance manager to Project Management the Critical Chain way and on how to use a project plan.
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The first project duration estimates were 8 weeks, but in order not to penalize production by too much machine downtime, the management allocated the 2-week end-of-year vacation for the move.
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Using the Critical Chain, an optimization of the plan could be carried out with the implementation of several key actions:
- Anticipate some work that did not require machines to stop
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Request for additional resources to parallelize more machine moves
Results obtained
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The application of the Critical Chain method on the project to put flows online has made it possible to define the conditions for the success of the project and to meet the ambitious deadline of two weeks allocated to the project.
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The project was completed half a day ahead of schedule and all the machines could be restarted correctly when the operators resumed work after their vacations..
About Marris Consulting
Marris Consulting is an industry consulting and training company specialized in the Theory of Constraints (ToC) and Critical Chain Project Management. We focus on improving the performance of manufacturing and process industries by using Constraints Management combined with Lean and Six Sigma. To boost project performance, we also use Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), which we sometimes combine with Lean Engineering. Our 2-day performance audits, our performance consulting services and our project management, Lean, ToC & CCPM training by our industry consultants offer a wide range of solutions to help our clients around the world reach the highest possible levels of performance.