[Cooter Brown]

Well, for those of you in the manufacturing field, y'all probably know what the hell I'm talking about, for those of you that aren't, it is the title of a 'Lean Manufacturing' method started by Toyota in Japan I believe, to cut costs, not keep a lot of inventory on hand and find ways and procedures to save money/time.

So, my job function is an Engineering Technician, I am around our facility throughout the day, back and forth all day long, probably logging close to 5 miles walking everyday. So this week, my feet were hurting one day, and I had ridden my bike into work, so I jumped on the P.2 and rode from my office, back to our pressure vessel test area where my tests were going on. It cut my back and forth time in at least half. Our Senior Design Engineer saw me, asked me what I was doing, so I told him what was up, and he thought it was an excellent idea and that we need to to a Six Sigma project on it. So this morning I get an email from our site Six Sigma Champion with all the parameters to get this thing rolling. So it's a go. Basically you take the time saved from walking to riding a bike, multiply it by my billable rate per hour and we can come up with a figure of yearly cost savings. So, now I get to krooze around the plant on my P2 all day as well as do a really cool job that I love.

werd

 

[Dirty]

but doesnt this pose a bit of a safety hazzard? 2 actually, 1 being your safety, ie: falling off the bike etc... and 2, the safety of the others in the office, like if you run into them at a blind corner kind of thing.

and as a side note, ithought six sigma was more of a quality control thing with cutting costs and what not as a side benefit...

from an HR perspective and trying to cut down on liability and increase safety for employees, your plan seems like it needs a lot of work...

 

[Cooter Brown]

dude, it's not like I throw down the superbike 2 wheel drift around the corners and crap. It's twice as fast (at least) as walking. Do the math

 

[Atomic Dog]

I think bikes are somewhat common in bigger facilities. I worked a couple summers at a fertilizer producing plant that had a fleet of cruiser bikes around for going across the plant.

So when can you get a six sigma project for some dirt jumps on the way?

 

[S.K.C.]

Cooter - you lucky Bastard!!!

I've seen techs and support staff using everything from golf carts to old-skool 3-wheeled cruiser bikes w/ baskets to get around the Boeing manufacturing facility on the west coast.

That is so awesome. I hope I get to do that at my future job.

...just don't get caught manualing...

 

[Cooter Brown]

So when can you get a six sigma project for some dirt jumps on the way?

as soon as I can get some 2 stroke full suspension fork lifts into the plant...........BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP

 

[HRDTLBRO]

My step father works for George Group, a lean manufacturing six sigma company, coming off of 13 years at Toyota...cool stuff. If you've ever been to a Toyota plant like the one here in KY, they have bikes all over the place for employee transportation. I think they even have some 3-wheelers with like 4 seats on em.

 

[Jay Gatz]

thats really cool that you found a way to save time and keep the ergonomic stress on your feet down.

dont take this the wrong way, but it pisses me off when people start slapping buzzwords on any and every project. Six Sigma involves reducing variance, specific problem solving methodology and statistical process control. a business degree gets a job in engineering management and starts saying six simga this and lean that and TQM whatever's left without having any idea what its all about.

 

[Mike B.]

dont take this the wrong way, but it pisses me off when people start slapping buzzwords on any and every project. Six Sigma involves reducing variance, specific problem solving methodology and statistical process control. a business degree gets a job in engineering management and starts saying six simga this and lean that and TQM whatever's left without having any idea what its all about.

Couldn't have said it better myself. UTC used the term ACE Gold for all their six sigma and lean efforts so through that in mix too. I get to ride my bike at work now as well. In fact, next week I'll be "working" in Moab and Fruita testing a new tire model.

I did tour a drywall factory, of all places, that used lots of bicycles to cruise up and down the production line. One long continuous sheet of drywall dries as it runs along the line for I think ~1 mile before it is cut.

 

[JRB]

uhm - "lean" is defined by any cost/time saving measure leading to enhanced productivity. No - Cooter won't win the Kaizen award of the year, but he saved time, which can make him more efficient. You do know that they CI all work centers in a "lean" environment, from order entry to production lines to shipping warehouses, right???

 

[maxyedor]

Awsome, another good excuse to go ride your bike. So do you think that the company will kick down a few bucks to buy new tires, forks, brakes ect. as compensation for saving them a bunch of money?