| Bridgewater Interiors
Warren plant (a Johnson Controls joint venture)
had been producing seats for the Escape and
Expedition trucks for Ford Motor Company.
The plant won the contract for producing the
seats for the new F-150 trucks. A TPT Engineer
was brought into the plant to assist with
the launch. Bridgewater Engineers did not
have any previous experience using MODAPTS,
having used MOST for the initial setup of
the production lines. However, the JCI management
felt that this launch was a good opportunity
to begin utilizing MODAPTS for production
standards management.
There were five separate lines for production:
Driver, Passenger, Console, Rear Back, and
Rear Cushion. The Driver and Passenger lines
were somewhat mirrored, however there were
still significant features and mix differences
between the two lines. The line rate was
planned for 72 JPH for startup. This rate
was revised to 66 JPH as requested by Ford,
less than two months before the plant went
into full production.
Since the TPT Engineer had completed all
of the MODAPTS studies before the line rate
change request, it was a simple matter of
using the studies to re-balance the lines.
The TPT engineer worked with the production
floor supervisors and plant management to
reallocate all work elements. In one month,
they achieved the needed manpower reductions
with minimum disruption to the production
lines.
The TPT Engineer also provided a series
of charts and graphs to assist the plant
with high cycle calculations, utilization
by operation, and the effects of mix changes.
Utilizing these tools, Bridgewater management
now has the necessary data to quickly react
and understand the impact of future line
rate and mix changes.
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