A hard hat in front of a factory

Table of contents

Sierra Nevada Corp

The Lean 101 training provided by Manufacture Nevada helped SNC change its mindset on production. Training has already dramatically reduced rework and waste, lowered residual inventory and helped drive design changes as a result of taking quick action on the line when problems are found.

- Jay Lawson, Director of Operations, SNC

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is a leader in providing engineering answers to the world’s toughest challenges by delivering end-to-end advanced technology solutions in space, aviation and systems integration. SNC employs 3000 people in 34 plants with corporate headquarters in Sparks, NV.

Rethinking your workflow can lead to significant gains.

One SNC division in Sparks, NV produces Ruggedized Handheld Computers (RHC) for military personnel. As they continue to ramp up production of the RHC units, improvements in material flow, operator takt times, part presentation and part quality were needed to meet customer demand. Components were batched at each assembly table and the throughput was not being optimized. Also, quality issues were aggravated by large quantities of components being produced at each cell. Component failures and design issues were often ignored for weeks or months due to all-out effort to build as many units as possible to yield enough good units to make shipments.

Educating all employees involved in the production of the RHC units was determined to the best way to get full engagement of the employees. We decided to have everyone participate in the Lean 101 workshop with live simulation. With input from the entire production group, lean initiatives could quickly be tried and implemented if successful. A cross section of employees from line workers, supervisors, material planning and program management were engaged. This served to not only be a lesson in lean manufacturing, but also turned into a team building exercise.

Lean simulations help increase productivity.

After training, teams were challenged with coming up with ideas for existing problems. The input from everyone was mixed with facility and tooling improvements. The result was the elimination of large amounts of non-conforming product, daily resolution of any issues found on the line, and improved quality and delivery. In a 6 month period, SNC reduced rework from 50 units per day to less than 5 per day, a 90% reduction! Additionally, total product flow was reduced 58% from 577 feet to 243 feet.

Take the First Step

Get in contact with a Manufacture Nevada representative to discuss
reaching your growth targets.

More Stories From Our Clients

Sugar and Spice: A Sweet Story

Sugar and Spice is a testament to the power of passion, community, and a little bit of strategic sweetness.

Automation Advances Minting in the Silver State

Manufacture Nevada provided SMI with unlimited local resources and critical contacts within the community to be successful and expand operations.

Mary's Gone Crackers

Through an employee engagement survey, MGC discovered a feeling of segregation between the leadership and subordinates. For help, the company turned to our business advisors at Manufacture Nevada, part of the MEP National Network.

Kennametal

The goal of this project was to reduce operational downtime related to processing pumps. This involved creating a game plan based on the principles of lean. Another finding, as this process evolved, was the need for mandatory log out tag out sheets and checklists to quickly identify the causes of the pump failures. Furthermore, we determined the need to perform root cause analysis on each pump failure and target preventative maintenance accordingly.

Subscribe for Updates

Stay up to date with the latest news from Manufacture Nevada.