What participants said were the best parts of the 2010 MUDA Walk:

Start times for one area need to be consistent; currently they are not which results in waits for PM’s, and interruptions to the other staff member who shares similar responsibilities.  We also have to look at our paperwork and implementing error-proofing methods so information is not missed, which results in delays, waiting, and wasted motion.

Having guys meet at the shop and car pool to long distance job sites. Seeing 6 vans on a site 60 miles from the shop was disappointing.

        

I think all the action that was taken on all the Muda walk were small but good improvements

Identifying same day fab by flagging the fab with red stickers so everyone in the shop would know this fab is priority.

Schedule sales to operations turnover meetings in a timely fashion to reduce waiting

Setting up a standard checklist for how the estimator/project manager conducts a job site visit with the team leaders (foremen). It helps keep the est/pm on track and makes sure he touches all the important topics. It also helps the team leader understand what is important and gives him a guide for running the jobs as well as an agenda for the meeting.

Improvement #1 was our weekly input to payroll from the service department. We do payroll weekly and start on Monday morning in a normal week. The input from the service department comes from their “transmitting” daily work orders to the system. Because of the complexity of the pay rates necessary, there is editing that has to be done before the data can be imported into the system. We were waiting for the input every week because the service technicians were not transmitting their work orders when they were completed and we had to chase their input to completion. While still not perfect, reemphasis to the technician about the timing of the process has helped shave 24 hours off the cycle and putting it in sync with the rest of the payroll input.

We discovered that there is a significant amount of over processing between drafting and our pipe shop (with regards to BOM).  Drafting is now rounding pipe up to the nearest full length on the master BOM and this has eliminated the wasted time from our shop foreman.  I think the MUDA walks are very valuable and I have them on my calendar to do once a month to keep them on my “to do” list.

Sheet Metal

3 Machines needing to be inspected for maintenance or replacement

2 flaws in process

1 preventative maintenance issues

2 new pieces of equipment are needed

Piping

1 request for maintenance by maintenance department or Pipe Fitters needed

8 flaws in process

1 problem with building

3 problems with Engineering Services

3 flaws in process in the SPE department

My partner in the shop and I did try to do a MUDA walk daily, ended up doing something about twice a week and did not do a good job of documenting/logging. He focused on movement of workers and I focused on inventory and movement of material. We did find some areas that we felt could be improved on, as we always do and have implemented a couple of changes. We are monitoring these to see if there is any impact. Simple things like moving machines for better flow, and trying very hard to keep everything moving in one direction. Sounds easy but not always accepted.

On inventory, it was interesting to watch material be prepared for process and then sit on a rolling bench for 3 days. This bench would get moved out of the way at least twice a day and then the items were looked for and finally processed on the third day. I have met with the decision makers for the shop to discuss ways of releasing work and lead time needed for preparation of material. All in all, the MUDA Walk for a Month process is a great reminder for us to go look at what is happening on a more regular basis.