Aerospace & Defense Case Study
Dante Valve Company, Inc.
Dante Valve is a family owned manufacturing facility that has been in business since 1960. Dante Valve manufactures industrial, commercial and military
valves. One of their primary customers is Northrop Grumman Newport News (NGNN). At the beginning of the project, Dante Valve had 30 employees at
their Bellflower, CA facility.
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“We saw large cost savings, an increase in sales
and productivity after working with CMTC to
implement Lean techniques.”
Lisa Dante Papini
VP of Operations
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Issue/Needs
NGNN asked Dante Valve to participate in their Lean Supply Chain
Management program with CMTC. Through the program, Dante Valve
wanted to use Lean tools and techniques to develop and implement
processes that would reduce lead-times, enhance inventory controls and
reduce overall material costs while maintaining product quality and
improving on-time delivery.
Implementation Highlights
Starting in December of 2003, CMTC consultants approached the project
in a modular fashion by first conducting a Value Stream Map (VSM) to
identify non-value added activities and focus on improvement opportunities.
Included in the VSM was a map of current and future states of the business.
The future state VSM map provided improvement opportunities that
were implemented to meet NGNN’s Lean Dashboard/Supplier Agility
scorecard. The stated objectives of the future state VSM map were to raise
internal company awareness on baseline measures and demonstrate how
the project would positively impact Dante’s supplier performance.
Working closely with Dante Valve personnel, CMTC reviewed the current
facility layout with the intention of creating more efficient workflow and
flow of materials. The next project included implementing a Single
Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) coupled with a 5S Lean training program.
The last project was a review of the production scheduling process. The project
started in December 2003 and was successfully completed by July 2004.
Improvement Description
Training of machine setup operators to perform changeovers/setup to
SMED resulted in setup time reduction in excess of 50%. From the Value
Stream Mapping project, improvements were initiated by implementing
Machining Cells to eliminate batch processing and initiate single-piece
flow whenever possible to reduce Total Lead Time from 351 to 45 days.
This in turn resulted in a sizable cost savings. Further improvements
included the implementation of 5S’s and Workplace Organization
throughout the facility. A comprehensive review of production scheduling
resulted in the implementation of scheduling improvements due to the
utilization of Kanban (material replenishment) techniques which reduced
Lead Time further from 45 to 15 days. This resulted in inventory reduction
of 50%, an increase in Inventory Turns and an increase in on-time delivery
from 90% to 98%. In addition, operator’s “Quality at the Source” inspection
was introduced and Quality metrics were developed to collect Scrap and
Rework data. As a result of this project, Dante Valve also saw an increase
in sales and was able to hire additional personnel.
Financial and Investment Impact
Both Dante Valve and NGNN were very satisfied with the results of the
project. Dante experienced a sales increase as well as a cost savings due
largely to a 40% increase in productivity. As a result of the project, Dante
was able to make a capital investment of $405,000 in plant equipment
and add 5 new jobs, taking the workforce from 30 to 35.
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