PNCA success at Kings Norton
02 June 2008If the cap fits … you have not only saved time, temper and several hundred plastic bottles a year, you also have proof positive that PNCA really does translate shopfloor ideas into action.
The Pilkington New Collaborative Approach, developed at Niles and Clinton plants in the US a year ago, was launched at Kings Norton last September, initially with the 15 members of Green Shift on the Honda and Land Rover tracks.Unlike conventional 'how-to' training, PNCA focuses on helping operatives to understand how their job impacts on the operation as a whole and gives them the tools to identify problems and resolve them.
And the first issue that Green Shift came up with was the hassle of having to decant chemicals into a separate container with a dispenser cap. Why couldn't the caps be modified to go straight on the original bottles?
"It made sense," said process improver Graeme Saunders, who was leading the initiative with them. "We looked at it, it could be done and will now be standardised across the plant.
"It's a small issue and it will only save a few hundred pounds a year but PNCA is not about hitting specific targets - it's about sustainable, continuous improvement.
"The biggest benefit is the fact that it was raised and resolved so quickly, which has been a real motivator.
"People no longer see PNCA as just another management idea that will go away again, they are really enthusiastic about it. They feel that this is now their process and woe betide anyone who doesn't get it right."
Green Shift has since halved its start-up time by arranging for one operative to arrive early and set out the chemicals, rather than individuals fetching their own - a possible saving to the business of around £9,000 a year.
Meanwhile, shifts on the Toyora Auris backlight and the Nissan windscreen lines have begun the PNCA programme.
During a recent visit, Professor Katsuki Aoki, who is part of a Japanese academic delegation studying the impact of Japanese manufacturing practices on UK industry, commented on the enthusiastic response from the PNCA participants. "In the UK, I have not seen any projects, apart from PNCA, that try to give workers real power to improve their work processes," he said.
"I had wrongly believed that UK workers were not interested in trying to improve their plant performance. Now I understand that is caused by the failure of management to create the atmosphere of trust which is necessary for success.
"The Pilkington and Kings Norton management are doing a very good job which I cannot see in any other companies in the UK - even Japanese companies."