Hayes Heat Treating
Back to Basics, Leads to Growth at Hayes Heat Treating
Company Profile
“Made in America” isn’t just a catch phrase to Carl Hayes of Hayes Heat Treating. As a matter of fact, Steve Egan, Hayes’ General Manager will tell you “Made in Rhode Island” ranks right up there as well. The C. I. Hayes company, founded in Cranston, RI by Carl’s father in 1905, has grown to be a leader in the thermal processing industry, manufacturing industrial vacuum and atmosphere furnaces. In 1962, when Carl Hayes spun off his commercial heat treating company, all of the furnaces in his plant came from C. I. Hayes in Cranston.
Today, Hayes Heat Treating concentrates on the aerospace industry, requiring that their shop be NADCAP certified. NADCAP, the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program, coordinates industry-wide standards for special processes and products. Heat treating is one of many varied processes for which NADCAP awards certifications. “Concentrating in aerospace requires that the materials produced are from American sources, and must be milled in America”, states Egan. NADCAP requires a strong quality system and Egan speaks with pride of the specialty high-end work done in Hayes’ shop.
Situation - Communication Gap for Process Improvement
So why would a company that had achieved special accreditations and was producing high-quality products seek help from an outside source? Egan relates that although the company had achieved certification enabling them to compete in their specialty market, management felt there was a gap in communication that was creating roadblocks to performance. They were interested in applying the Lean concepts of 5S to improve communication between management and employees, among the employees, and from shift to shift, ultimately improving communication between the company and their customers. And, management wanted to inspire their employees to have a personal interest in their work – a “passion of ownership” – so they would have a true sense of the value of what they do for the company. Hayes turned to the Rhode Island Manufacturing Extension Services – RIMES – to help them get back to the basics. “We needed to take a fresh look at things like how to set up the work area, what are the rules, what are the goals of each area and the shop as a whole”, Egan relates. The executive committee of the company participated in the training alongside the staff to eliminate the “my way” attitude and help build team consensus.
Solution - Overall Equipment Effectiveness & 5s System
Following the 5S principals of Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain, the teams began utilizing charts posted at each furnace to track scheduled versus unscheduled down time, and time the furnaces had product in them. They knew that they had to increase the “value-add” time. They analyzed the data they collected and found that by performing scheduled maintenance more often they could eliminate 75% of the unscheduled down time they had been experiencing. In the tempering process they were able to concentrate production of five furnaces into three, eliminate the maintenance, calibration and electrical costs of those two furnaces and “save $4000 each month, more each month than the whole ongoing 5S process costs”, remarked Egan. Eliminating the two unused furnaces then opened up space on the shop floor for other operations.
RIMES staff assisted Hayes teams with producing “spaghetti diagrams” showing parts “travel” through the shop. Studying the diagrams, the teams realized that if they moved their lab and shipping areas together they would greatly reduce wasted steps. This move provided space for more shelving, providing a solution to another challenge Hayes had been facing. Hayes’ customers ship items to their shop to be heat treated. There had been problems with maintaining the shipping containers in good condition for the return shipment. Added shelving provided space for safe storage of the containers which are now identified with a work order number. Treated items are now repacked as received and returned to the customer with the same quality packaging they arrived in.
Implementing the changes that resulted from 5S training has meant a great improvement in production speed and efficiency. “There is now a 20% shorter time in the pipeline between receipt of items from the customer and shipping the completed order, and billing the customer”, says Egan. “And employee productivity has improved greatly now that they are working on efficiently functioning furnaces. In the case of one customer’s parts, the employees identified a way to reduce load to load turnaround time from one hour to five minutes, meaning that the furnace can process one extra load in the two-shift operation. That is a 25% increase in capacity for us”, he added.
Results - Cost Savings & Positive Employee Response
Steve Egan attributes much of the success of the 5S initiative in their shop to management involvement in the process. He had always wanted the employees to feel pride of ownership in their work. The fact that the company’s owner, Carl Hayes, brought RIMES in to provide training, and he participated in the process right alongside them really impressed the employees with the importance of the initiative to the company. Egan feels it is important for management to participate fully, to show support for the employees. “Employees respond when you show support for their achievements”, says Egan. “This positive response leads to their ownership of the process and ultimately to a passion for excellence in their jobs”, he noted. Steve says Hayes will have RIMES return to their shop this Fall, to carry on their Lean journey.
Testimonial
“Now that we know what we’re doing with 5S, and where we’re going we want to continue the process. After all, the process of 'Continuous Improvement' is, well, continuous!”
- Steve Egan, General Manager
