Newsletters
B/E Aerospace's Insider newsletter is a bi-annual, soon to be quarterly, publication printed on high quality glossy paper in full color. The company builds aircraft interiors and has five divisions located all over the world. Insider prints several articles from each division in each edition. Media Creations acts as contributing editor, rewriting articles originated by individuals within the company.
The following are sample articles from the second edition:
Flight Structures and Integration Group
Words: 430
Cut costs. Eliminate waste in all areas of operations. This Corporate Strategic Initiative raised a challenge to all of us at B/E, and in response, Jacksonville investigated methods of making focused and long lasting improvements. In December of 1998, after outside training, it was decided that Lean Manufacturing was the right tool, and Jacksonville set the program in motion.
The attractiveness of using Lean as the tool for continuous improvement (Kaizen) is the use of Accelerated Improvement Workshops or AIWs for implementing change. These workshops are focused on specific short-term or long-term strategic improvement goals. While taking as little as half a day or as long as a week depending on the complexity of the improvement, these Kaizen Events are a significant advance over traditional methods which could take three to six months to achieve the same result.
Another major benefit of Lean is that all levels and all functions of the organization, not just management, drive the changes. At Jacksonville, we've found that success requires a major cultural transformation and this is not achieved overnight. To facilitate this change in the corporate culture and to ensure that Lean gets the interest required for success, we developed and then promoted James Cecil to the position of "Lean Manufacturing Coordinator." Since his appointment not only has he been instrumental in implementing Lean into Jacksonville, he has also been instrumental in assisting with Lean in several other B/E sites.
Customers recognize that their success depends on the success of their suppliers. Boeing, for example, has teamed up with B/E Jacksonville to help in eliminating waste and implementing Lean Manufacturing. Richard Abercrombie of Boeing noted, "The principles of Lean Manufacturing are simple and easy to understand. Putting them into place, however, is not so easy because it means changing practices that are deeply rooted. The progress at B/E Jacksonville stands as an example of why ownership, personal involvement, and commitment to Lean by top management are crucial to implementation."
Within the first eighteen months of implementation, Jacksonville has seen significant reductions and benefits. Some of these documented improvements in performance include:
100% On Time Delivery
89% After Market On Time Deliveries
48% Reduction in Cost of Quality
71% Reduction in Part Travel
53% Reduction People Travel
23% Lead Time Reduction
48% Reduction in Part Shortages
As a corporate-wide initiative, the achievement of "Lean Thinking" has had considerable early success in Jacksonville and B/E corporate-wide, though small in comparison to its potential. As Lean becomes more embedded into the B/E culture, the results will be even more impressive.
Flight Structures and Integration Group
540 words
ALMOST FIFTY YEARS...
If ten years is a milestone, twenty must be an achievement, thirty a record. But how do you evaluate nearly fifty years of service? Peter Trendell started an apprenticeship as a sheet metal worker with CF Taylor in 1956, ten days before he turned fifteen. Paid the princely sum of one shilling an hour for a forty-eight hour week, Peter completed his apprenticeship seven years later on his birthday in 1963. Not long afterward, in 1965, he married Wendy. They had two lovely daughters, Dawn, born in May 1969 and Tina who arrived in January 1972. Both girls did well at school (Peter thinks they took after their mother!) and are now enjoying the fruits of their labors. Dawn works in the London financial center as a currency dealer, and Tina is a doctor working as a partner in a community medical center.
At CF Taylor, Peter was also enjoying the fruits of his employment. After working as a skilled sheet metal worker for six years, he was asked to train apprentices for the company which he did until 1971 when he became Chargehand (deputy foreman) in the sheet metal shop. When the Foreman left two years later, he was put in charge. But things didn't work out right away. For some time, he was left to run the shop with only an assistant to prepare jobs for loading. Finding the pressure and workload unbearable, and unable to get any support from the company, Peter resigned.
With two children at home, and one of them a new baby, he didn't waste any time. He immediately got another job working for a commercial ducting company. Although he was offered the foreman's job there, he declined when he received a call from Doug Lasetter, the works manager at CF Taylor, requesting that he return to CFT with the understanding that he would be installed as Foreman and provided all the assistance he required to do the job. He accepted, and continued as Foreman of the sheet metal shop until 1995—22 years—the longest serving Foreman in CFT history.
Meanwhile, his girls were growing up. He enjoyed his leisure time playing golf and entering local competitions, and he and Wendy worked for the Red Cross often helping out at local events covering first aid techniques. The usual ups and downs marked their years together until tragedy struck. Wendy was diagnosed with cancer and left this world on June 10th, 1989.
Peter kept up with his work. His daughters were in school and he was on his own for the first time in twenty-four years. In 1995, he was replaced as Foreman when the Cellular manufacturing system was introduced and was offered a job as an engineer, which he accepted. Daughter Tina and her husband Nick blessed Peter with his first grandchild in June 1999, and in May 2000 he married again to Maureen after having known her for a number of years at CFT. When the Wokingham site closed, Peter transferred to Dafen and now works a lot from home.
We'd like to congratulate Peter on his new grandchild and his new marriage and wish him and his family the best of luck. After nearly fifty years of working for CFT, Peter Trendell has certainly earned our respect. Well done, Peter! We all look forward to celebrating your 50 years in 2006!!