Applied Technical Services’ (ATS) story characterizes what makes a winner of IndustryWeek magazine’s prestigious “Best Plants” awards.
In just two years, Applied Technical Services (ATS) has gone from a plant whose operations have been described as “chaotic” to one that has increased its first-pass yield rate by 50% while achieving one-year savings of $73,000 in improvement projects.
Those improvements and the program that led to them made ATS one of eight manufacturers recognized for their efforts to achieve continuous improvement, joining the 26th class of the IndustryWeek Best Plants awards program.
ATS’ strides have been a function of a rapid Lean Six Sigma-driven transformation. The firm, based in Everett, Wash., manufactures circuit card assemblies and electronic box build products. Its Lean Six Sigma initiative has been led by a new chief operating officer, Don Doody, a Master Black Belt known for having trained between 800 to 1,000 Black Belts in the span of just two years at General Electric in the 1990s.
When Doody joined ATS in February, 2014, he immediately saw the need to ground its 160 employees in the value of and need for continuous improvement as his chief challenge. It was a plant where process flow, visual indicators and waste were not a day-to-day focus. “People had to understand what waste is and they had to learn to see it on their own,” he told IndustryWeek.
To drive the transition, Doody worked with the company’s engineering leaders to create a custom Lean training program. Its starting point was less on the tools – those could be applied – and more on the kind of Lean thinking that’s espoused by the late James P. Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute.
Lean thinking, Doody believed, was essential if ATS and its people were going to make progress. He helped it along by walking the plant floor daily and discussing aspects of Lean at each step of the production process with each and every employee.
The results speak for themselves. And to Doody’s point that ATS’ employees, not he, deserve the credit, half of those one-year savings were a direct result of employee suggestions.
IndustryWeek’s Best Plants awards program began in 1990 with two purposes. First, it intended to recognize plants that set the standards on operations that increase competitiveness, improve customer satisfaction and create work environments that are both stimulating and rewarding. It also seeks to encourage the wider manufacturing community to improve operations by following the path of the honorees.
In addition to ATS, IndustryWeek’s 2015 winners include: Bard Shannon Ltd., Humacao, Puerto Rico; Camcraft Inc., Hanover Park, Ill.; Carrier Transicold North America, Athens, Ga.; DePuy Synthes, Raynham, Mass.; MasterCraft Boat Company, Vonore, Tenn.; Pratt & Whitney – North Berwick Parts Center, North Berwick, Maine; Victaulic, Easton, Pa.
