Ulrich Reinders
Director, Bosch
Production System
Bosch Rexroth Corp.
Hoffman Estates, Ill.
When was the last time you heard, or said, "Thank you," when
a problem was brought up? It's human nature to avoid dealing with things that demand tough choices or seem to add to
our workload. However, our company is learning to treasure
problems as part of what we call the Bosch Production System
(BPS). This Lean initiative focuses on eight key principles:
process orientation, pull system, perfect quality, flexibility,
standardization, transparent process, waste elimination, and
associate involvement.
Without problems, there are no opportunities to advance. In
fact, we say that if you think it is good to have no problems then
you have a much bigger one — you are not improving. BPS helps
create a culture that sees problems as fuel for continuous improvement. But for sustainable problem solving to work, problems must be explored and understood so that a true root cause
is identified and eliminated, and not just "fixed" superficially.
This culture of continuous improvement needs workers who
are both involved and empowered. Everybody who touches a
value stream must be trained to become problem solvers. In our
view, all major leaps forward come from empowered employees. Though it appears that the focus of this approach is largely
internal, it's really on the customer. Despite the fact that we call
BPS a "production" system, these Lean principles should be
applied to any process and area of the enterprise, including administration. Otherwise, we may make isolated improvements
but not major leaps.
Our company began implementing BPS in the U.S. in 2005,
and we have already seen substantial improvements. For example, in one facility we focused on creating Flow and reduced
throughput in our pump production from over two days to less
than 2 hours. In another facility, we focused on the BPS flexibility principle and cut setup time of NC machines from 7.5 hours
to 26 minutes. While these are isolated improvements, or socalled Point-Kaizen, these kinds of pilot programs encourage
teams to move forward to the next level of System-Kaizen, or
improvement of the entire value stream.
The real challenge, and what we found to be the key to success, is a willingness to change the company culture to a "Continuous Improvement Culture." It is in such an environment that
problems become treasure.
Bosch Rexroth (www.boschrexroth-us.com) is a maker of
industrial automation equipment.