Placing a Monument

Author: Joe Costello

Production Preparation Process (3P) or “When the need to do it right the first time means you keep your job.”

When you put a monument in place you better not plan on moving it for a long time. Our team had to locate (4) 30’ wide and 200’ long printing presses.  Each press has support machinery, tooling, and other auxiliary areas that require proper planning (the 1^st time).

In the Lean manufacturing world, “3P” (Production Preparation Process) is a method in which we model a high number of operational layout variations in rapid succession, i.e. PDCA.

Previously, Lean had been largely relegated to fixing existing problems in manufacturing plants. 3P takes Lean principles upstream into the new product development arena and applies them liberally at the point in the process where they can have the most influence on both product and operation.

The 3P process allows you to create a 3-dimensional (scaled) version of your plant which illuminates constraints and under-utilized floor space.  Properly designed raw, WIP & finished goods inventory levels can be allocated and located with an assurance of supporting flow and product velocity (think Kanban sizing).

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One of the greatest attributes of the 3P process is in its ability to view, share and critique the layout in a very inexpensive way and at all levels of the organization. In our recent model, we used fork truck operators to critique the material flow lanes; we used maintenance managers to review the machinery access panel requirements; and, we used the EH&S managers to approve the egress paths & hazardous products storage locations. Operational and transactional staffing (see the Minions) options were reviewed, the machine staffing was defined the number of fork trucks was determined.

The break rooms and bathrooms were moved and adjusted several times all for free!  Everyone in the organization had a chance to contribute their ideas and in a matter of a few days, we build an efficient model that covered the 300,000 square feet of scaled operational areas.

Our client has already put an extension on their plant that doubled the production floor space, they will be installing over a dozen new machines and as you can imagine the flow of the process has to be right the first time.

Why does 3P work?

• Intense cross-functional collaboration
• Product development concurrent with Process
• Rapid learning and Try-storming
• A process that moves quickly through a series of steps that activate our thinking and help us gain
• Understanding as we evaluate and converge upon optimum solutions.