Bosch Packaging Equipment- Long lead-times and late deliveries were impeding the market growth of this German-based division of Bosch. Viable Vision helped the leadership to re-think and then re-configure their business processes, implementing a new scheduling and resource management system. Within 4 months on-time delivery increased from 20% to 100%, and lead times were down 20% and continuing to drop. The market responded quickly enabling Bosch to increase its order backlog 18% within 5 months.
Continental Circuits– Following a careful analysis of their manufacturing flow, Viable Vision worked with executives of this producer of complex printed circuit boards to design and implement a high-throughput operating strategy. The company was able to reduce inventories by 30%, while increasing total output 1/3, with no additional capital or operating expense.
Cryovac- This manufacturer of plastic films for the food industry was facing a large increase in work volume and needed to accelerate the velocity of its production operations. Viable Vision helped management to identify their production constraints operations and design new work strategies and performance metrics to increase output in these critical areas. Throughput increased 35%, and the company cancelled a $15 million capital project to increase capacity.
Didde Web- Didde Web produces a broad line of printing presses. They were losing business due to poor lead time and delivery performance, and their high inventories were draining the company’s working capital. Viable Vision helped the company to slash inventories more than 40%, increase output by 25%, and reduce lead times by almost 50%, enabling the company to regain competitiveness and profitability.
Eircom- The Irish telecomm company was falling behind on its infrastructure projects, forcing customers to wait too long for new lines and upgrades to its network. Viable Vision helped the company to adopt a new mode of managing these projects and coordinating its field resources, resulting in on-time delivery improving from 75% to 98+%, and average project durations falling by 58%, without adding staff.
First Solar- This producer of leading edge solar panels has cut its production cost per watt (the industry standard metric) by more than half and nearly tripled its output using Viable Vision’s methodology. In managing the complex set of projects involved in deploying the company’s next generation of technology and production facility, they cut the planned start-up from 5 years to 2 years, and finished on schedule. They grew from sales of under $30mm to having a market capitalization of over $5 billion.
Harnischfeger- This Milwaukee-based manufacturer produces gigantic diesel shovels and drag lines used in the mining industry. These products, made from tens of thousands of components, many larger than the typical automobile, require a high degree of synchronization to complete. Lead times were too long, and growing, and parts shortages at the mining site were adding months as the shovels sat partially constructed. In less than one year we helped the company to reduce lead times 44% months and cut parts shortages at the mine site by almost 80%.
Hawaii Dept of Human Resources (DHRD)- Under state law DHRD screens job applications for all of the states agencies. A large influx of work had overloaded staff creating delays of 6 months in processing, holding up thousands of staffing needs and jeopardizing the ability of all agencies to serve their customers. Viable Vision guided management and staff in redesigning work processes and within 2 months the department was processing 230% more applications per week. After less than 4 months the backlog was all but gone and application turn-around times were less than 2 weeks.
Hawaii Dept of Taxation- Members of the state legislature routinely pointed to the Department as the poster child for government inefficiency. It took the department an average of more than 45 days to deposit checks, 80% of all tax returns took more than 3 weeks to process and customer complaints were out of control. Within three months of working with Viable Vision, the Department had increased returns processed by 38%, cut the time for deposits to under 14 days, and reduced the returns taking 21+ days by over 80%. “[We are] overwhelmed by the phenomenal change” Governor-elect David Ige.
Hendrickson- A truck component manufacturer, Hendrickson increased profits in three plants by more than $8 million per year. Inventories dropped by 40% and on-time deliveries improved 31%.
Huron Tool- A small job-shop business was struggling to maintain its service levels and suffering from declining business volume. Viable Vision helped devise a new throughput operating strategy (TOS) to focus and drive improvement efforts. Under our guidance they used this strategy to grow the business more than 25% in just 5 months, turning losses into profitability.
Intel- Viable Vision helped the semiconductor giant reduce its planned lead time for the design and ramp-up of a new multi-billion dollar wafer fab facility 25%. We helped them to make additional breakthroughs in the design of the process enabling them to achieve record output levels, in spite of having been previously “optimized” through dozens of iterations. Our work at several of the company’s other wafer fabs had previously resulted in increasing Throughput more than two-fold, without any increase in investment or operating expense.
ITT Defense- The EOP Division producing night-vision systems for the military needed to increase throughput, or face the loss of the majority of its contracts. Viable Vision led the creation and implementation of a Throughput Operating Strategy resulting in a 40% increase in output, an 80% reduction in scrap, and on-time delivery nearing 100%.
Johnson Controls Automotive- The automotive battery division increased throughput from the companies existing resource 34%, resulting in dramatic sales growth and greatly reduced unit costs. Viable Vision then conducted a facility analysis and re-design for the Automotive Battery Division’s new, state-of-the-art mega-plant. Viable Vision’s design improved output rates by more than 40%, adding in excess of $11 million to the bottom line annually, for less than $200,000 of capital investment.
Kroger- After an exhaustive selection process, the manufacturing division of the largest grocer in North America, with more than 40 plants producing its store label products, picked Viable Vision to support its reliability initiative. After less than 6 months, the three plants selected to launch the program had increased their utilization measures from about 50%, to near 80%. Eighteen months later when all plants had been brought into the program, average plant utilization had crossed 80%, and the division’s costs were down nearly 20%.
NASA- The research group in Langley, VA managing a large portfolio of projects increased its research output by more than 40% while reaching nearly 100% on-time completions. Viable Vision was the implementer of choice for multiple projects.
Novartis Animal Health- Facing growing demand and a $18 million plant expansion, Novartis looked to Viable Vision to expand its Throughput much more cost effectively. After 3 months throughput had increased 37%, after another 4 months Throughput was 73% higher than before without adding capital and only minimal increases in operating expenses. Profits soared and the company’s market share grew. Expanding the application to its Aquaculture Division resulted in shipments growing 100% over the previous year, with no additional expense, within just 5 months.
OEA Aerospace- This producer of large aerospace components to the military and commercial markets was jeopardizing orders and client relationships with its long (10 month) lead times. Through a concerted, focused effort to synchronize work flows, the company was able to slash its engineering and production times in just 4 months. The result was remarkable, with lead time dropping form 10 to 4 months leading to a substantial increase in revenues.
Perrigo- The leading producer of store-brand OTC pharmaceutical and nutritional products used increased output through its constraint in packaging enough to in-source $8 million dollars of contracted work, adding $4 million to the bottom line annually.
Pfizer- Worked with Viable Vision in product development to accelerate the launch of a multi-billion dollar blockbuster drug, turning a 6 month competitive deficit into a 4 month advantage at launch. Beating the competitor to market was the main driver behind the company’s $1.5 billion advantage in first year sales. Across 6 manufacturing and pilot plant sites the company has seen output increase from 30% to 100%, and driven on-time performance to nearly 100%. Lead times were reduced 55% on average. A major plant reconstruction project was completed in 6 weeks versus the original plan of 6 months, enabling the company to maintain its competitive advantage in a key product.
Precision Castparts- PCC first worked with Viable Vision when its Large Structurals division, producing large titanium aircraft engine parts, was struggling and losing money. Our work dramatically increased production velocity, slashed inventories and reduced lead time by half. Company losses turned into industry leading profits, and the division manager was propelled into the CEO role within 4 years.
Procter & Gamble- Deploying a complete supply chain application, P&G’s soap business reduced inventories from 29 weeks to 6 weeks. They went from consistently allocation of orders to 100% fill rates which it has maintained for more than 8 years. Output increased so dramatically that they scrapped plans to add two new facilities and have been able to reduce the number of plants in the division from 11 to 7 even as demand has increased steadily.
Rapid Solutions Group- RSG designs, codes and fulfills personalized marketing campaigns for the financial services industry. Rapid, on-time delivery is essential as campaigns are coordinated efforts between several of the clients’ functions. Growing business volumes had caused the company’s lead times to extend (~15%) and its on-time delivery to fall below 20%, compromising its market advantage. Working with Viable Vision to address its needs in this complex multi-project environment, the company saw its on-time delivery level off at more than 90%, record levels for the company. At the same time lead times fell more than 25% giving RSG a substantial competitive edge.
Sheridan- This Australian textile manufacturer producing high quality sheets and towels was mired with high inventories and obsolescence. Working with Viable Vision across its supply chain the company cut inventories by 45% while increasing service levels dramatically. Efficiencies improved so dramatically they were able to scrap plans to outsource production to Asia which would have doubled inventory levels. Profits doubled within 6 months.
Stryker Instrument- Viable Vision helped Stryker drive throughput up more than 30% in just 4 months while inventory fell by half and total labor reduced more than 20%. The Throughput Operating Strategy Viable Vision devised continues to focus on-going improvements that have enabled the company to add more and more new products without expanding its costs.
Texas Workforce Commission- TWC has always been a leader among the 50 state workforce agencies. When the recession drove their workloads up suddenly and tax revenues fell, Viable Vision won the contract to help the agency maintain service in the face of increased demand. The initial pilot was successful—reducing the backlog of work from 200 days to under 30 days, while trimming costs 10%–that the agency rolled it out across all departments. Across the agency backlogs have dropped 10-80%, service levels are up 20% or more, and costs are falling.
US Air Force- In two separate initiatives, Viable Vision helped to re-design the Aero-medical evacuation and outpatient medical care operations to cope with the high uncertainty and inherent demand variability. Wait times for access to physicians declined by more than half and patient throughput increased by 40%, eliminating tens of millions of dollars paid to third-party care providers.
US Navy- Overhauling a nuclear submarine is a large task, typically involving over 300,000 man hours of work. It’s also critical to do it fast because the longer a billion-dollar sub spends in dry dock, the less time it’s available to the fleet. Working with Viable Vision, the US Navy shipyard at Pearl Harbor took 43 days off the turn-around time on one submarine, while reducing overtime hours more than 40%. Using this process the shipyard has continued to meet or beat this turn-around time on subsequent submarine overhauls.
Utah Department of Workforce Services- The recent recession hit governments doubly hard, as tax revenues fell while demand for services such as Medicaid and food stamps increased dramatically. In Utah workloads nearly doubled over a very short period of time. Working with Viable Vision, the Agency was able to absorb the increase, improve all service levels 20+%, and reduce annual expenses $14 million.
State of Utah- In support of Gov. Herbert’s statewide initiative to improve government performance and efficiency by at least 25%, Viable Vision has been providing strategic and implementation support services across the state. We have trained internal experts to lead and drive improvement efforts based on our unique application of TOC for government. More than 20 state agencies now have Throughput Operating Strategies they designed with our assistance that focus and guide their improvement efforts. Many agencies are well down the path to achieving the Governor’s mandate more than a year ahead of schedule.
Zycon- TOC enabled this printed circuit board maker increased on-time delivery to 100% and cut its lead-time from the industry standard 8 weeks to less than two. Leveraging its operational gains, the company increased margins 25% and tripled its revenues over a 6 year period resulting in the sale of the company at more than 5 times its valuation at the start of the initiative.