Dynamic Fluid Control has commissioned Clockworks, the productivity improvement programme, across all four company factories, completing a 42-month upgrade to maximise competitive advantage in global markets.

Programme implementation was carried out under guidance provided by industrial engineering services company Consiliarii, developers of Clockworks and consultants to DFC since productivity improvement began in mid-2006.

At that time, comprehensive recommendations were tabled based on the identification of discrete manufacturing processes, and the critical examination and measurement of each one using the four key aspects of efficiency, utilisation, quality and overall equipment effectiveness.

DFC’s productivity improvement programme then developed into three main phases.

Phases One and Two, completed late in 2007 after an investment of R26-million, comprised the upgrading of technology and the optimisation of materials flow and individual workstations.

Phase Three, just completed, involved the implementation of Clockworks to give DFC management access to manufacturing process data and overall equipment effectiveness by machine, product type and operator.

As part of the Phase Three process, Consiliarii helped DFC develop and define standards for each step in manufacture, and then implement methodology by which data is captured on the shop floor for central storage and access by management in formats facilitating analysis of performance and productivity.

The implementation of Clockworks was conducted in stages. Machine operators were first trained in specifically modified methods of carrying out their individual manufacturing processes, and in the correct completion of the forms needed to monitor progress. This basic format was then advanced to the ultimate stage of automatic electronic data capture at each machine.

DFC group manufacturing manager August Winter explained that Phase Three had been the most challenging of the phases.

“Transferring theoretical manufacturing flow into practice by getting people to alter ingrained habits and work according to the new plan required a lot of change management,” Winter said.

“Looking back, one of the most effective things we did was to communicate to all plant staff exactly what would be happening, right from the start of Phase One almost three years ago. For example, we explained ahead of Phase One that nobody would lose his job. We adopted a similar approach of open communication during Phases Two and Three, increasing remuneration to compensate for an anticipated decrease in overtime.

“Once the people grasped that the change was for the better, the processes accelerated as people bought into them,” commented Winter.

Anthony Harris, managing director of Consiliarii, explained that the programme’s inclusion of operator measurement delivered the key benefit of individual recognition.

“Without Clockworks, exceptional individual performance is difficult to identify, and therefore recognition is sometimes overlooked,” Harris said.

“Although DFC’s implementation of Phase Three took six months, there was an almost immediate drop in overtime as soon as individual productivity was measured and improved.

“What remains to be done is to examine specific bottlenecks and some minor problems encountered during implementation, and to address these,” he said.

August Winter explained that, every morning, the previous day’s plant performance is reduced to report form for managerial analysis and action.

“I get together with the factory managers once a week to discuss the various charts and graphs,” said Winter, “most of which are displayed on notice boards so that everybody can see how the overall productivity processes are performing.

“After this, the factory managers meet with the foremen, and so on, until the report-back process has trickled all the way down to the individuals on the shop floor.”

The success of the Clockworks programme at DFC follows similar successful implementation by Consiliarii of productivity improvement programmes at several other leading local engineering firms.

Clockworks becomes cost effective for any manufacturing concern with a monthly turnover of R5-million or more, and/or a staff complement of more than 50.

Programme implementation yields productivity improvements of 10 to 15% relatively quickly, after which a plateau is typically encountered until management develops expertise in the interpretation of the reports so that action can be taken.