Annual Meeting / President s Council

Transcription

1 ACM UPDATE M a y 3 1,, AA SS Aerospace Components Manufacturers, Inc. P.O. Box 736, 1090 Elm Street Rocky Hill, CT (860) FAX (860) alsamuel@acm-ct.org The ACM Update & Calendar (and previous issues) are also available for viewing on the ACM website. Annual Meeting / President s Council The ACM Annual Meeting took place on May 11 th at the CBIA Conference Center in Hartford. The meeting s formal business elected the following to open seats on our Board of Directors. Tony Cacace, GKN Structures Roger Fabian, Bodycote Clifford Lawton, CBS Mfg Randy Plis, Metals Testing Co Scott Summers, Fenn Technologies who will be joining these Directors whose seats remain current: Colin Cooper, Whitcraft John Kornegay, Kamatics Paul Murphy, Sterling Machine Michael Polo, Adchem Mfg Technologies Kirk Smallidge, Aerodyne Alloys Following the Annual Meeting, Board members met to elect ACM s Officers: Randy Plis, President Paul Murphy, Vice President Clifford Lawton, Secretary / Treasurer Congratulations to All, and special thanks to John Kornegay, Kamatics, having served as President during the past two years, and Steve Prout, Alpha Q, a two term past President and six year member of the Board.

2 At the Annual Meeting, John Kornegay opened his remarks quoting an old Chinese proverb, may you live in exciting times ; and reflected on some exciting times during the past two years in the aerospace industry and Connecticut s cluster initiative. The Cluster s were re-energized with an increase in the efforts by the State to help advance Connecticut s economy and the position of our aerospace companies. The State of Connecticut has become a participant on the world aerospace stage, attending last year s Farnbough Air Show and this year, at Le Bourget (Paris Air Show). Worldwide aerospace manufacturers have seen a robust recovery. There has been a dramatic change in the fortunes of ACM s aerospace suppliers from the dark downturn that followed However, along with prosperity come inevitable problems. Finding qualified employees is a significant issue being faced by everyone, yet ACM hasn t waited for others to solve this problem. ACM, as a team, has created some of the best training for ACM s outgoing President, John Kornegay, new and incumbent workers that may likely be the best addressing the Annual Meeting in the State and the country. We have a cadre of courses that are being taught within the companies on a regular basis, providing both training and positive cross-pollination among the students. We have faced significant increases in material deliveries and what seems to be exponential price increases, putting pressure on our ability to supply. We have also recognized the need for our members to identify and implement new technologies, a new thrust for the ACM. We have established a technology working group to explore whether this is an appropriate service we should be providing our members. Our Business Development Team has never been more active, with standing room only at recent meetings. Membership has remained focused on working toward new opportunities for growth while struggling to create capacity to meet today s demand. This far sightedness is what separates successful companies from the also ran s. Our trade show was outstanding in showcasing the amazing capabilities ACM can bring to the market. Lean, or world class manufacturing, formed the basis for the earliest genesis of ACM. For those who have embraced Lean, the ACM support has been extremely valuable; it has been for our company! Unfortunately, too many of our members have still not taken advantage of the Lean opportunity and the supporting teamwork available through ACM. Lean brings opportunity and will allow you to gain free capacity in both people and manufacturing space; every company within ACM that has embraced Lean has been able to take on more work allowing you to springboard for even more growth. Nothing is truly free; change always comes at a price, yet this is a price that is affordable and it s a price whose payback is truly worth it. Today, we are on a high with an upslope in the industry. Aerospace is cyclical. Take maximum advantage of today; every job today that we are too busy to take on, that end s up going overseas, will never come back. It is incumbent upon us, if we want to be successful in the long term, to make sure we take advantage of every opportunity possible. By working closely together within ACM, we can take advantage of this time of prosperity and improve our opportunity to extend this cycle of prosperity, even when it starts to turn down.

3 John Kornegay introduced each of the ACM Team leaders to review their Team s actions. Bruce Fiedorowicz reported on the Business Development Team. He cited the continued growth of membership and participation in the monthly Team meetings. The Trade Show was an outstanding success and feedback from members indicated an interest conducting the Show on an annual basis. Bruce stressed the need to continue on the growth of business collaboration among the members and to raise the awareness of ACM to the OEM customers. Cliff Seipold reported on the WorkForce Development Team indicating this team doesn t get a lot of attention, but chugs along behind the scene, working smoothly. The training provided is key to the group as a whole and great way to bring new employees up to speed. He described the Team s past and present work with the curriculum, looking to expand course offerings and develop new classes. Cliff encouraged members to participate in the Team s meetings, and to contact either Al Samuel, or himself, regarding specific training requirements. Steve Lawton reported on the Consolidated Purchasing Team. Steve indicated the Team s discussions, their sharing of best practices and lessons learned, as extremely valuable; recently, members have begun sharing excess inventory stocks. He indicated that some of our purchasing agreements, citing Turtle & Hughes, have been very beneficial along with the added incentive of year end rebates for their participants. A new agreement, beginning June 1 st, has been put into place to offer incentives with Aerodyne Alloys. Steve commented the Team will continue to look for new and better opportunities to address procurement issues as a group and encouraged the President s to send their representatives to the Team s meetings. Nick Lavieri reported on the Progressive Manufacturing Team. Nick stated ACM firms have distinguished themselves and quoted the ACM website, We are leaders in lean manufacturing practices. Working with the world s foremost experts, our members continuously increase efficiency and reduce waste by implementing best practices in lean manufacturing. Nick reviewed the Team s meetings and discussed the various internal and external experts who have led each meeting s discussion topic. He advised that to keep Lean moving forward, firms must assign a change agent, train and develop and implement a lean strategic plan. Tony Cacace addressed the new Technology Implementation activity. ACM had accepted Connstep s offer to support by conducting technology assessment meetings with individual member firms. Following 20 such meetings, Connstep, assisted by CCAT and RE Morris Co, summarized their results and indicated a common interest in Inspection Technologies, State of the Art Machining, Deburring and Mechanization & Automation. To this end, a workshop will be held on June 20 th addressing In-Process Inspection, presenting leading suppliers who will discuss and demonstrate the latest equipment. Hiring and training of new employees, driven by the significant increase in business volume and the aging of the incumbent workforce, has been at frequent topic at team meetings. CBIA s Vice President, Lauren Kaufman, briefed CBIA s recent survey on the needs of Connecticut s workforce, to be published about July 1 st. Lauren reported: --86% of respondents indicated the need to increase their workforce over the next five years due to new products, sales or expansion; up from 80% in their 2005 survey. --Regarding hiring of qualified workers; 56% indicated difficulty in finding CNC programmers; 54% on finding tool & die makers; 54% on finding CNC machinists; 31% on finding engineers. In CBIA Vice President Lauren Kaufman

4 comparison, the 2005 survey indicated difficulty at 30% for CNC Programmers and 26% for CNC machinists --Difficulty was defined as the lack of necessary skills on the part of applicants. It was reported 59% of candidates lacked vocational skills, math and problem solving abilities; 63% responded the most needed skill was critical thinking problem solving. --Manufacturers need to find more ways to get engaged with local schools. The survey reported 71% of respondents hire directly from high schools, yet only 36% reported being satisfied or extremely satisfied with the graduates.

5 Paul Murphy, CEO of Sterling Machine next addressed Implications of the Workforce. ACM firms and their needs are unique; we need to work on development of long term solutions to the problem of an adequate workforce, rather than quick fixes. I believe aerospace requirements are greater than the general statistics Lauren had reported. We can t take the average student out of high school; we hire people with the understanding they need to be trained on the job. The person who has the aptitude and willingness can be developed; we just need a bigger pool because it is drying up. We are looking to retain and expand; we are moving up the value chain, the work will stay. Paul reviewed a program recently initiated by Asnuntuck Community College (Enfield). The Asnuntuck Pilot program, which provides one year scholarships, is designed to get greater access to high school graduates and to change the perception of our industry. We have clean factories, are high tech, but no one understands the industry. Asnuntuck is currently conducting open houses to attract potential students; those interested are assessed and successful candidates presented to the participating (supporting) companies. The first semester, five months long, runs five days a week at 6 hours per day; the second semester, also five months long, runs 3 days a week at 6 hours per day plus two days of work at their sponsoring company. Training is provided in blueprint reading, math, quality control, CNC numerical control, introduction to computers, team building, lean manufacturing and root cause analysis. Paul encouraged ACM firms to participate in this Asnuntuck CC program as an example of how we can help ourselves to achieve long term solutions to the issue of an adequate and properly trained workforce. For additional information, please contact Paul Murphy at Sterling Machine (Enfield) or Frank Gulluni at Asnuntuck CC at Scholarship Program Costs The total cost of the scholarship for Connecticut students is $4000 which includes one year s tuition, fees, books, and tools. In addition, the company agrees to employ the student at $11 per hour for 15 to 20 hours weekly during the second semester. At the conclusion of the program, the student is expected to accept employment with the company at an entry level pay rate. Your Leadership is Needed Make no mistake about it, manufacturing remains a vibrant sector of the US economy. Unless we put forth long term solutions to our aging workforce we will become stagnant and die. We need a real plan for continuous improvement in developing the future state workforce. In adjournment, John Kornegay thanked the speakers and everyone for attending today s meeting. (l to r) ACM President John Kornegay and Paul Murphy, CEO, Sterling Machine

6 InLine Measurement Workshop June 20th 7:30am R.E. Morris Co, 901 Day Hill Road, Windsor, CT PLEASE RSVP TO THE ACM OFFICE at or Measurement has become a major source of lost time as process flow velocity becomes more important. A recent review of many machine shops in Connecticut indicated this has become a number one technology issue related to improving yield, reducing time to first article approval, developing a smart machine, and keeping good statistically valid and accessible data. To address this technology need, a workshop will be held on June 20 th at the new Robert E. Morris Facility at 901 Day Hill Road in Windsor, CT. It will span the range of instrumentation providing measurement, data collection, and machine feedback, with a cost spectrum and accuracy range to interest all machining requirements. The workshop includes five 20 minute presentations of instrument measuring capability followed by an opportunity to see the instruments demonstrated and to ask-answer questions. Roger Cormier, VP Technology of the Robert E. Morris Company, will offer case histories of the capabilities of some the apparatus described. Tech Solve, a Machining Technology Center in Ohio, will discuss practical considerations of in-line measurements based on their consultative work with different machining companies. Continental breakfast at 7:30am; first presentation at 8:00am, and will include: -Caron Engineering -- Tool Monitoring, Part Measuring Control System, Automatic Work Gaging -Faro Arm -- Faro Gage, Power Arm, Control Station -Mahr Federal -- MarShaft Helioscope -Machine Eye -- In-Process and Final Inspection Measurement on the Machine -Rennishaw -- RenScan -Roger Cormier, RE Morris Co Case histories of In-Line Measurement -Mike Gugger, Tech Solve Practical considerations for In-line Measurement After a buffet lunch, there will be further opportunity for individual hands--on evaluations and Q&A regarding all of the measuring instrumentation presented. Please be advised of the cancellation of ACM s June 7 th presentation by Pierre Chao. We had a terrific response with registration and hope this last minute cancellation does not cause an inconvenience. It is our intent to reschedule this special program for the early Fall.

7 Business Development The Business Development Team met on May 30 th having invited former 2 nd District Congressman Rob Simmons as the guest speaker. Simmons was sworn in on May 29 th to the newly created position of Business Advocate. He opened his remarks advising the Office of the Business Advocate was established to serve as an information clearinghouse for public and private programs available to assist businesses. Simmons stated free enterprise has brought more progress and quality of life than any other business system, small business being the essence of free enterprise. He noted 72% of businesses in Connecticut have fewer than 9 employees and 95% have fewer than 50 employees. To this end, small business is what we are all about and in his new job, will be available to help firms cut through government red tape and assist them in resolving problems. He plans to insert common sense and fairness into the business - government relationship. In Q&A, Simmons recommendations for how small business can work to resolve and/or change State government policies and legislation were: 1. aggregate and prioritize the most serious concerns 2. advocate the Business Advocate, State Legislators, local chambers of commerce and associations, in order to speak with a single voice 3. have faith that citizens can make a difference. Simmons is available to visit your firm to discuss specific concerns and provide assistance regarding the resolution of business government issues. A new interactive website will soon come online for the Office of the Business Advocate. Bill Matusz, having attended the Turbo Expo Show held on May th in Montreal, briefed: The Turbo Expo Show, sponsored by ASME, is an international show; in 2006, it was held in Barcelona, Spain. The focus is on gas turbines ranging from OEM's, gas turbine manufacturing, and auxiliary equipment production to maintenance, testing, and manufacturing services. P&W was the only representative of aircraft engines. The show was not very large, with 125 booths, but seemed to be well attended. Representative companies included OEM's, Pratt & Whitney Power Systems, Rolls-Royce, Vericor Power Systems (marine turbines) and Leistritz Turbine Components (German company), and Auxiliary Equipment manufacturers, Kingsbury magnetic bearings, Bently pressurized bearings, Hilliard Corp engine starters and Parker Hannifin fuel systems. The outlook for the landbased gas turbine market was very positive. Projection for sales of land-based gas turbines is $13.5 billion in CY2008, a 60% increase from CY2006, reflecting an expected surge in global demand for electric power. The next regular Team meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 10 th at 8:15am at CERC, Rocky Hill. Along with the Team s Round Table discussions, Kristin Muschett of Habco will present potential new business opportunities that fall into the leader/follower shared business concept. Please plan to attend.

8 Progressive Manufacturing The Progressive Manufacturing Team met at Kamatics Corp, Bloomfield, on May 24 th. Kirk Paluska, a consultant with the Lean Transformation Group and faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute, provided Team members an overview of Self-Balancing Techniques for Cellular Manufacturing. Kirk described self-balancing as a technique for distributing work more effectively in established production manufacturing cells, useful in a mixed model, high variation environment. The methodology is adapted from the Toyota Sewing System, developed by the auto manufacturer for upholstery manufacturing. Kirk indicated we tend to artificially balance workload to takt time and with this basic premise, develop built in lags and inventory stock within a cell. By Self-Balancing, waiting time within the cell is reduced and a slow operator no longer sets the pace for the entire cell. Work becomes equally distributed among all the cell s operators, rates can be instantly changed and work in process is minimized. Cells that are highly controlled by fixed process times will likely benefit less from the technique. Kirk s presentation is available for viewing or download from the ACM website library; go to Member Login, File Library, Progressive Manufacturing folder and Self Balance Overview by K.Paluska pdf. For additional information, please contact Kirk Paluska, Lean Transformation Group (Glastonbury) at or kpaluska@lean-transform.com. Kamatics is working with Kirk in addressing specific segments of their manufacturing department which will implement self-balancing. The Progressive Manufacturing Team will next meet on Tuesday, June 26 th at 7:30am at Aero Gear, Windsor. John Kravontka, President, Fuss & O Neill Manufacturing Solutions, Manchester, CT x5699 and ACM member offers his monthly single point lesson as a visual best practice to help foster the spreading of game changing ideas leading to improved safety, quality, lead times and profit (right). A Message from Jim Womack of the Lean Enterprise Institute commenting on The Problem of Sustainability I recently got a call from an old friend who led one of the first lean implementation efforts in healthcare in the mid-1990s. He has moved on to other challenges and we hadn't had a chance to catch up in recent years. So I asked him what happened to the lean initiative in the healthcare organization where he had been a senior manager. --Continued on Page 10--

9 Consolidated Purchasing The Consolidated Purchasing Team meets on Thursday, June 14 th at 8:00am at Barnes Airmotive, East Granby. Suppliers having current Agreements with ACM are: Shop Supplies, Abrasives, Cutting Tools, etc Raw Materials: Nickel, Cobalt, Titanium -- Sheet, Plate & Bar Stock Supplier: Key Contact: Telephone: Turtle & Hughes Lynn Haas Dave Howard Aerodyne Alloys Kirk Smallidge x120 Workforce Development The Workforce Development Team meets on Tuesday, June 5 th at 8:00am at Aerospace Techniques, Middletown. News from ACM Members Please forward significant company news and announcements to Allen Samuel at alsamuel@acm-ct.org for posting on the ACM website and publication in the UPDATE. IN MEMORIUM Sidney Greenberg, 83, CEO of Birken Manufacturing Co., passed away May 24, Sidney graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Following his graduation, he served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. After the war, Sidney was employed by Hamilton Standard as an aerodynamicist and graduated the University of Connecticut School of Law. With Sid's knowledge of law and degree in engineering, he ultimately became a partner with Lou Rogow in developing Birken and moving it from its original Franklin Avenue location in Hartford to its present location in Bloomfield. Sidney and his family created such companies as Lucid Manufacturing, Aircraft Components and Fasteners, General Plasma Associates, Turbine Controls, Inc., and TC Power. Memorial contributions may be made to the Todd S. Greenberg Charitable Foundation, 5 Old Windsor Road, Bloomfield, CT

10 --continued from Page 8-- The Problem of Sustainability The answer was what I feared. "We created a lean improvement team and conducted a comprehensive campaign to kaizen the organization's key value streams. And we had dramatic results. Faster patient flows. Better outcomes. Lower costs. But we couldn't sustain the gains. The improvement efforts weren't connected to the way the organization was managed and the value streams started to regress to the mean as soon as the improvement team left. After I left the organization, the whole program came to an end. What a shame." My friend is far from alone. In our annual LEI web survey of the Lean Community, a leading problem Lean Thinkers always note about their improvement efforts is "backsliding to old ways of working" after initial progress. And the most frequently cited issue this year is "middle management resistance" to change. In short, the lean movement has a sustainability issue we now need to address. What is at the heart of our sustainability problem? More important, what can we do about it? I believe that the root cause of regression in most organizations today is confusion about priorities at different levels of the organization compounded by the failure to make anyone responsible for the performance of important value streams as they flow horizontally across the enterprise. To prevent regression, someone needs to periodically clarify priorities for each value stream and identify the performance gap between what the customer needs and what the value stream is providing. The person taking responsibility then needs to engage everyone touching the value stream in carefully capturing the current condition (the "current state") of the value stream which is causing the gap. The next step is to envision a better value stream and determine who will need to do what by when to bring it into being. Finally, the value stream leader needs to determine what will constitute evidence that the performance gap has been closed and collect the data to demonstrate this. This exercise is, of course, nothing but Dr. Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle conducted repetitively by the responsible person, ideally employing A3 analysis. I'm not proposing a dramatic change in the organization chart to reassign authority. Indeed, I've hardly ever seen an organization improved by a "re-organization". And I'm not suggesting the creation of a matrix organization where everyone has a vertical and a horizontal boss. Rather, during the transition to a mature lean organization, someone with another job in the organization needs to take on the role of periodically (and quickly) auditing the horizontal flow of value and bringing to the attention of everyone touching the stream how the organization is performing along that stream. Note that periodic audits of processes within small areas (for example, a continuous-flow work cell or a materials replenishment process) are a well established aspect of Toyota practices that I call "standard management". So auditing across departments and functions to examine value stream from end to end is a scaling up of current best practice, not something wholly new. Auditing every value stream will expose problems with the flow of value and contradictions in organizational objectives. Indeed, it will expose many problems and many contradictions. And that is precisely the point. Most value streams currently have substantial performance gaps, but the magnitude of the gap and the precise causes are hard for anyone to see. (Hence the confusion and resistance of many middle managers, who are doing well on one set of objectives - asset utilization, for example -- when lean methods require another set.). And fixing the root causes of poor performance will require someone - and quite possibly everyone -- touching the stream to change their behavior. It follows that the responsible manager needs to engage in a dialogue with the leaders of the functions and, if necessary, with top level management to gain agreement on who must do what by when to achieve a sustainable leap in performance that will benefit the customer and the organization. (One of the "whats" is likely to be rethinking the metrics the "change resisting" middle managers are being judged on.) The responsible person then must periodically revisit the value stream, not just to prevent regression but to continually move it to a higher level of performance. --Continued on Page 11--

11 --continued from Page 10-- The Problem of Sustainability A special problem as we tackle this issue is that we can't simply copy current-day Toyota. In the past Toyota went through many iterations of how to solve the problem of value stream management across the organization. But today its mature organization relies on policy management (hoshin kanri) at the macro level and a cadre of line managers auditing their areas at the micro level. Because there is no confusion about objectives from top to bottom and because managers have been taught from the very beginning of their careers how to see the flow of value under their management, no formally appointed value stream managers are needed. Other organizations - yours and mine for example! - are different and what we need now are experiments with value stream management methods. Whatever the final answer, everyone in the Lean Community has a big stake in our solving the sustainability problem. Otherwise, the current surge of interest in lean -- driven by the success of Toyota -- may become just another episode in the long history of unsustainable management improvement campaigns. Best regards, Jim Womack Chairman and Founder, Lean Enterprise Institute