Continuous Improvement

There’s always something to improve.

A strong core belief in our company is continually improving our processes. Our Continuous Improvement (CI) Team is dedicated to upgrading our company through “Kaizen Events”. Since we started this program in 2021, our customers have enjoyed consistently reduced lead times and a trustworthy internal process that adds value to their projects.

改善 (kaizen) is a Japanese business philosophy for improvement. SPF is proud to be one of the businesses that utilizes this mindset, bringing Continuous Improvement (CI) to our company for benefit of both the company and the workers. Through standardized practices and functions, we aim to create a healthier and more productive environment for our company to thrive.

Ultimately, the implementation of Kaizen development empowers our customers through lower lead times and an internal process that reflects excellence. We’re in the business of ensuring both ours and our customers long-term success. Kaizen principles put our customers at the forefront of our strategies. Through a systematic approach, SPF America can identify and address customer pain points, optimize internal processes, and refine our offerings. Our customers receive consistently improved solutions. We seek to strengthen our customer relationships, build trust, and stay ahead of the competition.

Our company likes to encourage employees at all levels to identify and suggest enhancements to processes and workflows. By being the company that listens to our workers, we’re able to add value to our customers through streamlining our operations. Kaizen development emphasizes the importance of employee engagement and empowerment.

Continuous Improvement Tools

These CI tools strive to improve safety, quality, service, efficiency, organization, ease of work, and to help monitor the health of our internal processes. This tool helps us deliver higher quality parts faster to you, improve employee satisfaction, as well as keep our competitive pricing.

5S is a five-step methodology that creates a more organized and productive workspace and serves as a foundation for deploying more advanced lean production tools and processes.. In English, the 5S’s are: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain.
Value Stream Mapping helps us to analyze our production, assuring value in every step our production. This is how we give our customers the best price and precision simultaneously.
Key Performance Indicators help us to measure customer support, quality, and overall equipment efficiency (OEE).
Kanban is an inventory management tool that ensures reliable delivery times and throughput.
Our Quick Die Change System helps us to decrease lead time and increase flexibility in our processes.
The aim of this tool is to increase the longevity and efficiency of machinery. This ensures that our machines will be able to service us and our customers efficiently for as long as possible.
First In First Out ensures our customers are serviced in order.
By designing workplace “cells”, we are helping our workers thrive within their processes. This ensures faster production and higher quality products.

Before and After Kaizen Events

We’re proud of how far we’ve come. These images are proof of how Kaizen Events positively impact our company.

Hear it from our CI Team Leader

What are Kaizen Events?

Julian:

The term Kaizen comes from Japan and it means Good change, or change for good. So in general, a Kaizen is an improvement. When we talk about a Kaizen event, it means we put together a team to work on improving something in a specific area of the shop. This team receives some training, guidance, and tools, and we work on making some analyses to improve different aspects of the area.

What is your role within Kaizen Events?

Julian:

it is the first strategic definition of what the areas with more need are. So we defined where we will implement a Kaizen event so we get the best impact possible. Then I am the trainer and coach for the members of the Kaizen event. I transfer knowledge and guide them through the Kaizen process. I help the team make the right analysis and apply the right tools. In many cases, I am also the implementation of the improvements during the Kaizen events.

What are your goals for the program?

Julian:

We have several goals for the CI program and they change every year based on the strategy for each specific year. But in general, the goals of the program are:

Financial savings. Every year, we set a goal of total savings from CI implementation. This later translates into savings for our customers.
High level of satisfaction and involvement of our workers with the CI program.
High levels of 5S conditions.
Specific performance indicators for areas. For instance, when implementing a Kaizen in Fusion we had a specific goal of performance for that area.
Increase ease of work for our employees.
Increase production excellence, safety, and speed.

How have Kaizen and Continuous Improvement efforts proved important and helped SPF achieve our goals?

Julian:

The CI program has shown very important results that have positively impacted the company, some of these are:

Since we started the program in 2021, we have had close to $1M in savings.
We have increased the efficiency of some of our machines which make us able to increase capacity and get closer to satisfying our customer’s demand.
We have improved the CI culture in the shop.
5S has been a very impactful tool. Areas look much more organized and efficient, which customers notice when they visit us.
We have also been able to successfully bring new product lines to the company.

How have employees seen improvements in their working environments?

Julian:

In general, they see more organized areas, their work becomes easier, their morale increases, and in a general and better place to work where stress is reduced and everything is easier for them.

How have Kaizen Events helped SPF gain a competitive advantage?

Julian:

We can make parts quicker and better than other companies. Our shop also looks better, which makes it open to receive customers that want to visit us.
We are able to make different parts in all our different production lines when other companies are more specialized and don’t have as many possibilities as we do.