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Leaning the Processes at HUI

Julia Behm | Industrial Designer/Project Manager | HUI - Kiel, WI

From Medical Manufacturing 2010 an SME publication

Finding method in the madness, from design to delivery.

HUI, a contract manufacturer serving the medical industry, has been implementing lean practices for more than 10 years, in a process begun by CEO Kurt Bell. The organization initially began its lean improvements on the shop floor, but came to realize that 80% of its lead-time issues were associated with office activities—the major focus of this article. HUI develops and designs custom medical carts for medical-device manufacturers, and due to lean initiatives can offer new-product development to its customers at a highly competitive speed (industrial designs in five days; engineering in two weeks; prototyping in two weeks). HUI was awarded an AME Regional Award for its lean efforts in 2006.

Initially, lean “standard work” and the creative process seem to be strange bedfellows. However, HUI has found many repeatable processes in new-product development that can be improved. But where do you start?

Lean gains can often be made by catching an error in the design stage, rather than downstream in production.

The best way to get where you are going is to have a good map. On a macro level, HUI has made project planning visual. All teams have measurement/planning boards displayed in their work areas. The rule that is employed is 10’/10 sec: a planning or measures board should be large enough to see from about 10’ (3m) away, and a person who is unfamiliar with it should be able to figure it out in about 10 seconds. Color coding and simple icons both help express project status. Because the information is so visible, if a project is in trouble, it is addressed earlier. A planning board can also provide visibility of what is coming next to downstream teams.

HUI also follows standardization to the project-detail level. All projects are documented within a standard format, which organizes everything effectively and becomes a familiar place for people to find data. The standardized template that is used is a project process flow that lists every deliverable along the way. At its simplest, this is a project management checklist. All deliverables must add value to the end product, and all activities are deliverable-driven. It also identifies opportunities to level workloads (for example, to add manpower to a large task to get done faster), and sync tasks that do not need to be completed chronologically in order to improve cycle time. Finally, this document should be saved as a template for future projects. While projects may not be identical, it saves time by not reinventing the wheel.

Developing an effective team: HUI is an organization that is structured in a nontraditional setting. There isn’t an “engineering” department but rather self-empowered work teams that facilitate new business development, existing customer management, and manufacturing. All teams are cross-functional, dependent upon their piece in the order-to-shipment flow at HUI. The new business-development team (marketing, sales, industrial design, and mechanical design) handles a project from concept to prototype, with project meetings that involve other team members such as purchasing, manufacturing, and customer support. Any gaps in representation from other teams will result in increasing the cycle time and the number of quality errors.

HUI team members also flex (crosstrain) across disciplines to fill in where needed. It can be a creative stretch for an accountant to assist a marketing lead, but this should be thoughtfully considered before bolting on any additional resources, and burdening the project with unnecessary cost. As you define each person’s lead role, consider their backup position.

Co-locating a team is always best, though not always possible. At HUI, all teams are located within the same office area, in a U-shaped cell—similar to an assembly line on the shop floor.

Even those who are leery of lean methods are usually won over by the clear expectations for the team members about their level of involvement in each stage of product development, and who is responsible for what deliverable. Scaling each individual’s involvement to fit the project at hand eliminates resources wasted in attending unnecessary meetings. Their involvement may be nothing more than a regularly recurring review session, but it is important that every team member’s value is communicated to them and to the larger group. Once the proper team is assembled, critical product evaluations should be encouraged. Often the greatest lean gains can be made by catching an error in the design stage, rather than downstream in production.

Believe it or not, there are even ways to take lean design to the drafting table. Workflow solutions such as the Wacom tablet enable designers to sketch directly into digital, and on the road, in front of customers, or during a research session. Creating in place (researching and sketching simultaneously) has instant feedback and refinement.

A physical sample is even better than a picture. Bring sample materials and components to your stakeholders in the early concept phase. As a project progresses, prototyping early and often can help error-proof the final product. Build design validation focus groups and manufacturing trials into your project schedules, and expect changes to be made as a result. Manufacturing trials are especially helpful for optimizing the manufacturing flow and reducing defects and setup when the product hits the shop floor. There’s a soft benefit to early involvement, too—people feel more ownership and accountability for a product line they have been involved in creating, which can translate into greater cooperation and teamwork when problems do arise.

Lean demands sensitive and flexible processes that few companies have truly understood or embraced. But the bottom line is that such a system’s goal is more value for less work, and it’s a slam-dunk for improving your business. Implementing lean into your processes will save you time, preserve your project budget, and may decrease the amount of Excedrin you buy.