LLC ‘NPF “Real-Storm” is a developer and manufacturer of lightweight metal-composite high-pressure cylinders with seamless aluminium liner and power composite shell. Serial production of cylinders with capacity up to 210 litres for pressure up to 39.2 MPa is organised on the production base equipped with original equipment of domestic and imported production. The design and technology of cylinders manufacturing are exclusive in Russia and are protected by a range of patents. The enterprise employs 150 people. Annually the enterprise produces about 30 000 cylinders. Major consumers of cylinders are the enterprise of PJSC ‘Gazprom’, as well as car plants: ‘KAMAZ’ and “NEFAZ”.
At the end of 2020 ‘NPF Real-Storm’ LLC enters the National Project ‘Labour Productivity’. On September 17, 2021, the regional project ‘Targeted support for increasing labour productivity at enterprises’ with the participation of the Regional Competence Centre of the Udmurt Republic starts within the framework of the National Project.
During 6 months of work, the project team managed to achieve a 13% reduction in the production cycle time of a metal composite cylinder, reduce work-in-progress inventories by 19% and increase staff output by 11%.
The first stage of the project involved process diagnostics, production analysis of shift and daily assignment data, and identification of problems that hindered the normal flow of work and fulfilment of the production plan. Based on the results of the analysis of the value stream map and the movement diagram, 77 problems were found in production - these were downtime due to the lack of a shift assignment or a worker with the necessary competence, lack of priorities and unexpected adjustments to plans, inefficient organisation of the workspace and equipment breakdowns. In the second stage, lean tools and solutions developed by the project team were implemented to equalise the workload of production operations and eliminate equipment downtime. In implementing the 5C tool for workplace organisation, unused tools were eliminated from work areas, storage areas were created and visualised for safe, convenient and efficient use of the required tools, and the necessary tooling was refined or purchased. Thanks to the Standardised Work tool, workers' actions were analysed and standard operating procedures were created to ensure smooth and consistent work. In addition, the efficiency of work organisation and identification of production problems was improved by means of hourly production analysis and the organisation of a system of efficient information centres.
Over the next two years, the company intends to apply the experience gained in the pilot stream and launch projects to improve the efficiency of equipment operation, improve the ergonomics of workplaces, reorganise the storage system for finished cylinders and expand production space.
Quotes about the project results:
Victor Frum, General Director and Head of the Labour Productivity Improvement Programme, LLC ‘NPF Real-Storm’: ‘I express my deep gratitude to the experts of RCC UR for the introduction of the “labour productivity” programme tools at our enterprise, which allowed us to significantly improve the production culture, to interest employees in the results of their work, to change the logistics of technical processes and, as a result, to achieve an increase in labour productivity and the responsibility of specialists and workers for the quality of products’.
Dmitry Epishev, the head of production of LLC ‘NPF “Real-Storm” and the leader of the pilot project: “At the beginning of the project, I was sceptical about the effectiveness and the need to apply the tools of ”lean manufacturing’ at our company. But after I received training and learnt how to use the lean approach, my attitude changed dramatically. I would like to express my huge gratitude to the whole team of NPF Real-Storm LLC, the project working group and experts of the Regional Competence Centre of the Udmurt Republic!’.
RCC flow optimisation expert Ivan Kapustin: ‘We have achieved a good result. Production of a cylinder now takes 13% less time and less labour effort of employees than it did before, which means that high quality products will be delivered to the customer faster. Most importantly, the employees were able to see their production in a new way, from the point of view of identifying and eliminating unproductive losses in work, opportunities to improve production and the need for systematic work. And this is just the first step on the way to increasing productivity using cost-effective lean methods’.