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Ingersoll Rand Contract
Engineering
Ingersoll
Rand (NYSE:IR) is a global innovation and solutions provider with powerful
brands and leading positions within its markets. The company
features a portfolio of worldwide businesses comprising of industrial
and commercial brands, such as Bobcat compact equipment, Club Car golf
cars, Hussmann stationary refrigeration equipment, Ingersoll Rand industrial
and construction equipment, Schlage locks and Thermo King transport
temperature-control equipment. These, and many other Ingersoll
Rand brands, are positioned as number one or two in their markets.
The
following experiences were sent to us by Robert Judd,
ME, who co-oped at Ingersoll Rand, Contract Engineering in Davidson,
North Caroling. Robert is a graduate of Trinity High School in
Louisville, KY. The Fall 2006 tour was the first work tour there.
Robert had participated in UK's Lean
Manufacturing Boot Camp in the Summer of 2006.
During
the course of my first work tour with Ingersoll Rand, I was responsible
for process improvement in the Contract Engineering department for the
Centrifugal Air Compressors. The department was responsible for creating
Bills of Materials for the production floor, as well as creating assembly
and customer drawings. I used lean tools such as value stream
mapping when I first began work to learn the system and create
visibility to the current state of the process. I then created a future
state value stream map to use as the blueprint of our improvement efforts,
which lead to a completely new order processing system.
Along
with my efforts in Contract Engineering, I attended a week conference
to value stream map the new product development process. The team created
both current and future state maps of this complex process and used
the maps to determine critical improvement opportunities. The results
were then reported to upper management and included in the company’s
Long Range Plan.
My
final major project was to improve material flow in the Engineering
Test Lab. For this I created plans for the ordering, storing, and disposing
of material used in the lab. I also created a visual control system
to eliminate the misplacement and loss of parts which would lead to
test delays.
My job
assignment was slightly different than what I originally expected. I
was asked to apply lean principles to an office environment when I thought
I was being hired to work on the production floor. I also expected to
have a specific project and goals to accomplish, but instead I identified
my own projects. This was a good work environment for someone with a
great deal of initiative, but it can create a lack of direction. The
tools I learned from the lean bootcamp were invaluable because it helped
me to avoid this lack of direction. From the value stream maps I was
able to identify several projects and never found myself asking what
needed to be done next.
This
work experience offered a lot of experience in process improvement.
Ingersoll Rand is implementing lean processes throughout all business
sectors, which gave me opportunities to apply the lean philosophy in
several different areas. I was able to meet Lean Champions and Six Sigma
Mater Black Belts that shared their knowledge of how to apply lean in
all facets of the business. The work was very beneficial in developing
my ability to communicate reasoning behind improvement efforts to create
by-in on projects.
From
this work tour I learned how versatile the Lean Philosophy is. I also
learned the importance of achieving buy-in to make change happen. Without
the support of both supervisors and coworkers, the transformations we
accomplished would not have been possible.
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