By any measure, the Blackhawk Automotive Plastics plant in Mason, Ohio was in sorry shape. Among the company's three plastic molding facilities, its operations were the most inefficient and unprofitable. If there wasn't a turnaround soon, the plant would be history.

That was then - as in three years ago. Today, Mason is a stellar performer. A switch to lean manufacturing pushed it to new operating heights by several measures including morale, productivity, safety, and quality. Last year Blackhawk Mason was recognized by General Motors, its largest single customer, for 12 months of 100% on-time deliveries. Within its own company, Mason is now the model for future operations at the other plants that once outperformed it.

The turnaround, explains Greg Rosing, materials manager at the plant, required nothing short of a complete transformation of how work gets done in Mason. Changes affected materials handling, staging areas, scheduling, materials flow and overall floor plans.  (Click here to see a layout of the facility.)

The most visible change in the plant is also the most colorful. 'We had walls and walls of corrugated. It was stacked so high it usually collapsed. It was a mess,' explains Doug Wilkes, scheduler. Now, thousands of bright yellow totes (Buckhorn) neatly stacked five high on conveyors are staged in various areas around the plant, bringing a new order to handling 860,000 molded pieces a month.

In fact, that visual contrast of 'before' and 'after' is much more than just a colorful scene. 'Things have become very visual here and that is reflected in our scheduling system,' explains Rosing. There is now much less scheduling as totes of parts are pulled when needed from dedicated staging areas and moved to assembly. 'Before we weren't really sure of what we had or where it was, and that's not the case anymore,' says Wilkes.

But the improvements at Mason didn't stop there. 'This plant is all about identifying waste and eliminating non-value add activities,' says Rosing. And even though he says that Mason is not yet where it wants to be, the accomplishments are many and varied.

Productivity is up 15%. Overall inventory levels are down 25%. Inventory accuracy for raw materials has gone from 72% to 94%, and from 50% to 82% in finished goods. Physical inventories once done monthly will occur only three times in 2003. The elimination of 90% of the corrugated once used is a major costs saving.

Quality has been significantly improved, says Rosing, as has customer service. Problem resolution has improved 92%. Meanwhile, Mason now enjoys a 40% reduction in OSHA reportable injuries, as its employee turnover rate has been cut in half.

The move to lean manufacturing was brought on by two significant changes at the company. To begin, new ownership came in. Then it was decided to refocus the 30-year old injection molding business and become solely an automotive supplier, resulting in a name change to Blackhawk Automotive Plastics.

To survive in this new space, the owners decided that lean manufacturing was the best path to profitability and improved customer relations. But it would not be an overnight transformation.

The process started when Jeff Kane was hired as vice president of operations at the end of 1999 to head up the project. A few months later, Rosing was hired to run the materials department. Wilkes had been at the plant for some time, and says 'everyone was looking for a change for the better.'

A master plan was put together by the end of 2000. The first step was to launch a program simply to clean the plant and organize what was there.

By mid-year, floor space was starting to open up and injection molding machines could be moved to improve materials flow. Meanwhile, the materials department was focused on the elimination of as much corrugated as possible.

Two major developments during this stage of changes were the introduction of totes, and the creation of work-in-process inventory staging areas known as 'market areas.' Vaughn Solomon, corporate lean change agent, headed up this project.

Previously, parts were placed in corrugated boxes and floor stored wherever there was space. Lean manufacturing requires a more organized and predictable method of handling parts.

Totes were an obvious choice, says Rosing. In the summer of 2001, there was a pilot program to test how well totes handled various work- in-process parts. By the fall, four different sizes of totes, ranging from 48 x 15 x 8 inches to 24 x 22 x 8 inches, were implemented plant wide.

However, totes were only half the answer. Visits to other facilities that summer showed Rosing and others how totes could be staged in a dedicated area closest to where the parts would be used next. At Blackhawk, there are three of these 'inventory market areas' that stage parts on conveyors stacked five high.

As the drawing on page 36 shows, molded work-in-process parts, which have just come from the small injection molding machines, are staged next to the large injection molding machines. As parts come out of the large machines, totes are manually brought to adjacent workstations for final assembly into those large molded parts.

A second inventory market area is for molded parts staged next to the paint lines at the other end of the building. When the time for painting arrives, parts are removed from the totes and run through the line.

A third inventory market area is for painted work-in-process next to a final assembly area. Totes are manually delivered to workstations there as required.

During the transformation, the first market area was set up next to the large injection molding machines. Following success there, the other two market areas were implemented. By the fall of 2001, totes and market areas had replaced the old ways of handling work-in-process.

With such visibility of work-in-process totes adjacent to their final destination, scheduling works best as a pull system, explains Wilkes. Each specific part is assigned a lane in the market area. 'Handlers can easily find what they need and take it as needed,' he adds. Meanwhile, the pulling of totes triggers molding of new parts for replenishment.

Movement of work-in-process between departments also changed. Lift truck traffic had become congested, impeding materials flow.

Now most of the lift trucks have been replaced by tuggers that pull trains of carts with totes between locations.

To complete the plant's transformation, shipping was broken up into two areas to pack an overall average of 68 over-the-road trucks a day. One shipping area is dedicated to General Motors. The other shipping docks are fed by a staging area that receives finished goods from a storage area that holds less than three days of inventory at a time.

'Getting to this point has been a team effort from everyone here in Mason, and we are all proud of our accomplishments,' says Rosing.