Valley Machine is in the process of designing and building a new purpose-built facility for our precision manufacturing requirements and we brought in Dr. Irani early in the process based on a recommendation from a trusted industry contact. Dr. Irani arrived at our facility and quickly came up to speed on our current layout and helped guide us through mapping our product flow as well as multiple iterations for improved flow and lean considerations. Through these exercises, in just over a day’s time we were also able to explore more efficient use of human resources which has helped us to shape staffing philosophies along with product flow and the resulting improved facility layout.
Thank you for your assistance with the planning and layout of our new manufacturing facility. It was exciting for us to locate someone who specializes in understanding and supporting machining job shops like us, or as you put it, High Mix Low Volume (HMLV) manufacturing operations.
The 1st team which was lead by your student Mr. John Wheeler we employed cost Alpha 1 $ 20,000.00 but yielded a cost savings in the targeted areas of $ 8,000.00 per employee. At that time there were only 8 employees in that working cell so at the time the 1st year’s savings equated to $ 64,000.00.
You and your team are on the cusp of success through the implementation of Job Shop Lean Concepts and the exploitation of the Production Flow Analysis Simplification Toolkit. Since 2001 you have made great strides in not only developing these concepts deeply but also broadly.
Trafficware engaged with Dr. Shahrukh Irani in order to begin our lean journey with a proven, knowledgeable guide. Dr. Irani used his Job Shop Lean methodologies to improve Trafficware’s high mix, low volume manufacturing operation. Multiple lean projects were completed over the multi-month engagement, but most were focused on reduction of inventory waste and waiting waste.
In one project Dr. Irani revolutionized our cabinet manufacturing by helping us implement a kit cart process that ensured we only began value added assembly activity if and only if all needed components and subassemblies were available. This project saved many hours of waste in cabinet assembly, as well as providing a tool for Production Control to focus their efforts in pulling jobs through the factory. Additionally, Dr. Irani guided us in a drastic inventory reduction project, in which we moved about 8 pallet racks of wire, cable, and terminal blocks out of point of use on the manufacturing floor, and pushed the material back to our suppliers. We saved a large chunk of floor space while simultaneously converting inventory to cash.
I strongly recommend Dr. Irani as a consultant or guide for high mix manufacturing operations that are on the lean journey, or looking to begin.
Office: (281) 240-7233 x701
There has been an ongoing trend in American manufacturing that has seen more academics and fewer practitioners leading companies. Both of these backgrounds bring key elements to the management role, but very seldom do you find someone that possesses both. Dr. Shahrukh Irani is one of these individuals. I have personally worked with Dr. Irani on numerous projects and have seen the sustainable results that he is able to produce. I would highly recommend that any organization seeking to achieve greater efficiency leverage the experience that Dr. Irani has gained over his impressive career.
