Maynard Gets Results: Maynard helps Dana, UAW Make Successful Drive to Productivity Gains

Dana Corporation is one of the world's largest suppliers of components, modules, and complete systems to a wide variety of car makers, including Ford, General Motors and Volvo. Founded in 1904 and based in Toledo, Ohio, the company operates hundreds of technology, manufacturing, and customer service facilities in 30 countries and employs approximately 60,000 people worldwide.

Dana’s driveshaft component manufacturing plant in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, produces six product lines, including a variety of bearings, yokes and shafts. The plant’s primary operations include heavy machinery, testing and assembly. Most of the plant’s 400 employees are members of the United Automotive Workers (UAW) union.

One of the plant’s recent initiatives was to implement new productivity standards in order to better estimate manufacturing product costs. Facing intense competition in the industry, Dana’s management knew the previous standards, based on stopwatch times, were outdated and were negatively impacting plant profits. New standards would help the plant to more accurately estimate costs, reduce product costs and improve its equipment and labor capacities.

The plant called on H. B. Maynard and Company, Inc. to help in communicating and educating its UAW employees about the new standards.

Union Inclusion, Communication Pave the Way

Before Dana could begin to create new standards, the company needed to modify its contract with the UAW. The previous contract measured employee performance based on stopwatch time standards. To smoothly implement new standards, Dana knew it would be essential to include the union throughout the entire process.

Maynard conducted several meetings with Dana managers and union representatives to educate both sides about work measurement techniques that are used to develop new standards, such as the Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST®). In addition to these meetings, a Dana manager and union time-study steward completed a MOST training course to better understand the theory and proper application of MOST.

“It was important to set a tone of inclusion,” said Jeff Peretin, Business Development Manager for Maynard. “Unions are typically in favor of MOST certification for all interested parties, since it is less subjective than stopwatch time studies.”

“Maynard’s standards, education and awareness sessions were instrumental in communicating to both management and employees”, said Mike Kaminski, Plant Manager, Dana Corporation. “Maynard answered questions from management and the UAW so everybody understood the work measurement methodology up front. This led the union to easily approve the new work measurement process, and become involved in that process from beginning to end.”

Charting the Road Map to Improvement

With both Dana and the UAW in agreement, Maynard facilitated an analysis of the work performed in the plant’s 11 departments. Existing work conditions, layouts and work methods were reviewed to serve as the basis to develop new standards.

A technical team of Maynard consultants, Dana managers and union operators evaluated current methods and identified and documented the best method for each task. “It was important to have employees involved in the process,” Kaminski said. “By working through the methods with employees, we could gain their feedback and make sure they understood the best way to do the job.”

Once agreed upon, the best methods for each task were measured with MOST. The technical team developed, validated and documented the standards data, which defined employee responsibilities for each task.

“We implemented broad coverage of the standards very quickly,” Kaminski said. “In many cases, we were able to re-use standards data from one department to the next, because departments often use the same equipment and processes. So as we created more standards, our speed of deployment of the standards also increased.”

To help ensure standards would be achieved, the consultants provided performance management training to Dana managers and employees.

The Rubber Meets the Road

“As standards were being developed, employees discovered more efficient ways to perform their jobs,” Kaminski said, noting that the initiative has already led to significant productivity increases in certain departments.

For example, some of the plant’s previous work layouts required employees to walk across departments to retrieve needed equipment. To increase efficiency, work layouts were redesigned so employees could easily access equipment. The layout changes helped employees complete work more quickly and improved ergonomics and plant safety.

Significant time savings were also achieved on product changeovers. Previously, operators would need to sort tools on their own before beginning work on the next product. To solve the problem, the team created pre-set tool packages, which saved operators valuable time on product changeovers.

“These changes helped us save processing time, which saved money,” Kaminski said. “We’ve already been able to significantly improve the accuracy of our cost estimates, which provides us with a competitive advantage in the industry.”

New Standards Set Dana on Cruise Control for Success

In addition to cost savings, Dana has realized several operational benefits. The company can now more accurately plan and schedule labor and improve product throughput. The end result was a 15 – 20% improvement.

“Maynard’s expertise and support throughout the process was essential to our success,” Kaminski said. “We were able to rely on their incredible resources to meet our goals. Our management team now has accurate data to make critical decisions. In addition, we now possess the skills and tools to maintain the standards and continue our continuous improvement journey."