Nestor Cables

The challenge: Expert help to support production development

The solution: Desired results through development of internal processes

The cooperation with Pinja was started by identifying 5–6 development priorities that were critical for enhancing production. Very soon, they reached a consensus on how to start developing the process.

“Particularly, I take my hat off to Pinja’s experts Teemu Rovio and Janne Lamberg, who were able to see very quickly that it was not a new system that would solve our problems but the best result would be achieved by improving our internal processes to make them more efficient and productive.”

The development work was started by drawing a value stream map of the product change processes of one production line. Value stream mapping is a Lean tool that aims to identify waste and central problems and bottlenecks of production. The methodology selected consisted of 2+2 days of which the first two were used for conducting an initial analysis and defining the common desired state.

“In practice, we stood beside the production line and made very detailed registrations of the steps involved in a product change and how much time they took. After this, we evaluated whether or not a certain event added value; in other words, was it absolutely necessary right now or could it be shifted to another point of time.

This approach helped Nestor Cables understand concretely what takes place during a product change and identify waste and potential bottlenecks and problems. As the work proceeded, they also defined the desired future state; in other words, the desired procedure for product changes in future.

Observations made during the mapping stage were then processed over the following weeks. Persons in charge were appointed to all work steps and schedules were defined for further development actions. The cooperation with Pinja’s experts continued for other two days by reviewing items that had been changed in production to achieve the desired state.

Fast results and sustainable development

Olli Tuovinen is particularly grateful for his personnel’s positive and encouraging approach in the process.

“The Lean approach was already familiar to us and I believe that this contributed to our fast achievement of the concrete action level.”

According to Tuovinen, production employees played a major role in the change.

“It was important to us that the people who are concerned with the change are a part of the process.

Thanks to the development work, the product change time of the line analyzed with value stream mapping could be halved. According to Pinja’s Teemu Rovio, this is a great evidence of how fast results can be achieved.

“The results are so amazing because of the commitment and motivation of Nestor Cables’s experts in this process. They performed the actions exceptionally well, and it has been a pleasure to see how impressively things have been put into practice”, Rovio says.

The best thing, however, is that the procedure has inspired Nestor Cables to carry out similar activities in all workplaces and create new practices for daily management, for instance. Practical Lean work has thus been more extensively established in the organization.

Olli Tuovinen thanks Pinja for their sufficiently down-to-earth and concrete approach.

“Teemu and Janne are practical down-to-earth persons. Improvements were immediately and concretely put into practice in the production facilities and they listened to the experiences and views of our employees very carefully throughout the journey.