HYDAC North America employs over three hundred people at their Bethlehem, PA location. The corporation has facilities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and provides fluid power solutions to OEM’s, manufacturers, and end users of a variety of heavy duty mobile and industrial equipment. These solutions increase the efficiency, longevity, and safety of fluid power systems – even under extreme conditions. Through their ongoing testing and research, HYDAC is constantly and proactively looking to improve upon their current products and to place that same research and experience into their new product designs.
HYDAC Maximizes Learning & Continuous Improvement to Evolve the Organization: MRC Engaged for Process Improvements & Leadership Development
“MRC is a trusted resource for success whether its consulting, training or networking within our industry.”
John Simon, Director – Human Resources
Over the years MRC has completed twenty-seven projects with HYDAC. Mid-Year of 2022 they again reached out to MRC to support continued process improvement activities and to develop customized leadership training. MRC’s recommendations were to implement a Lean method for leveling out a production process and to facilitate a leadership program for supervisors and team leaders aligned to HYDAC’s strategic initiatives for talent management, retention, and succession planning.
Solution
Gene Kaschak
Gene Kaschak, Vice President, Continuous Improvement at MRC, facilitated the CI project for developing a Heijunka Board scheduling process for the Desiccant Breather Assembly Area focusing on a structured problem-solving PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach using the Improvement Kata methodology. A Heijunka Board is a Lean Manufacturing technique used to visualize the work orders that need to be completed to meet customer demand. A focused project team of members from assembly, supervision, and other supporting functions was created. The team was guided by a detailed project challenge and met on a frequent basis to move the project forward. An internal project champion was assigned to facilitate progress between improvement sessions.
“With MRC’s help, we were able to create a Repeatable, Efficient, and Visual Heijunka board which significantly reduced our scheduling time.”
Douglas Sutter, Production Supervisor
Wendy Beltzner
Wendy Beltzner, Director, Leadership Development at MRC created and facilitated MRC’s Leadership Development – Critical Business Skills Program. The in-person training was delivered over six months to three groups of participants. Each group attended a 4-hour training session monthly. Thirty-five supervisors and team leaders successfully completed this leadership certification program. By design, the six training sessions focused on critical business skills for leadership success. These sessions included topics such as Work Behavioral Styles, Situational Leadership, Change Management, Coaching, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Conflict Management and Team Building.
“MRC’s collaboration in building out the structure, content and learning activities for the leadership program was outstanding. Their instructional approach of See→Try→Do→Learn coupled with interactive activities was excellent for the acquisition and application of knowledge to impact performance.”
Mark Bibighaus, Corporate Training & Development Manager
Results
- Waste Reduction – Standardized a process to schedule and update a Heijunka Board for the Desiccant Breather Assembly Area to avoid inefficiencies in production by leveling customer demand and reducing changeover time.
- Process Improvement – Production line scheduling time prior to the MRC continuous improvement engagement was five (5) hours per week which has now been reduced to 45 minutes per week for a time savings of over 208 hours per year allowing more time to focus on the assembly of the product to meet/exceed customer on-time delivery.
- Employee Engagement – The leadership development training provides a framework of expectations and behaviors of how to achieve success through HYDAC’s core tenets of getting work done, innovation, and relating to people and growth.
- Talent Retention – Savings of Thousands Annually -This training fosters a corporate culture of renewed emphasis on the human element of leadership to facilitate increased job satisfaction and retention across the organization saving HYDAC thousands of dollars annually.
To learn more about HYDAC North America, visit their website at www.hydac-na.com
(Photos courtesy of HYDAC website)
