Page 64 - AIMA : Foundation Day Souvenir

TurNArOuNdS WITH lEAN MINdSET
Sometimes, even the best laid plans can go awry. But a lean mindset can change it all.
Sanjeev Baitmangalkar, Stratmann Consulting
It was with great expectations Bridgeport USA and Texmaco Indonesia came together and set up a joint venture company (JVC). The project was headed by experts and a multicultural team from six countries. The land, building, machinery, and manpower were installed, the engineers and workmen were trained at the collaborator’s factory in USA. But, five years since inception, with plant, machinery, people, and money in place, they had failed to produce even a single machine! Sometimes, even the best laid plans can go awry, as it happened in this case. Here’s how a lean mindset changed it all...
The Bridgeport and Texmaco JV was setup to manufacture both conventional and CNC machine tools. In this article I will use the example of Bridgeport’s conventional milling machine for simplicity and understanding.
Identifying the central problem
In five years, some castings and components were developed but never converted into a complete machine. Discussions revealed that the business process was not well-defined and conflicting views between marketing and operations had impeded progress. We asked ourselves many questions ranging from strategy, policy, process, people, competence etc., and were in pursuit of a solution.
The main issues The factors we identified as playing a role in the company not being able to produce a single machine in five years were:
• The frequent interruptions and incorrect discrete instructions from the local shareholder family members who played different roles in the group. These instructions often contradicted earlier decisions. It also questioned the authority installed to oversee this project.
• Indonesia was known for textiles and not machine tools. Our Chairman had told me
that one of his dreams was to make Indonesia known for manufacture of engineering products. To do that we had to establish the manufacturing processes, supply chain, throughput times, lead times, and deal with cash cycles etc., all while contending with detractions from peers and discrete thinkers within the group management.
• Strategy for gaining market entries, breaking barriers, production, supply chain, and developing people were missing. Although the company was supported by technical knowhow from the parent company, a proper buyback arrangement was missing, because of which both sides had lost on potentially leveraging low-cost production opportunities.
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