As one of the leading Brazilian multinationals in the field of public transportation, a bus body manufacturer based in Caxias do Sul (RS) and with around 15.000 employees, Marcopolo S.A celebrates the great results achieved with the implementation of Lean together with Staufen Táktica in recent months.
After a intensive teamwork, training, coaching and practical application for the Lean methodology implementation in the stamping industry, the company registered an incredible reduction of 43% in setup time from 57 to 32 minutes. As a result, there was an increase in the availability of 26 hours/month, which ensured a greater flexibility of the products mix produced by the equipment and, as a consequence, the reduction of inventories.
According to Nilton Marchiori, Staufen Táktica’s senior consultant, there were many opportunities for improvement, such as the standardization of activities, excess tooling adjustments, better distribution of the operators activities which was resulting in waste of time and waste itself.
"One of the points that drew attention was the an unnecessary movement of the operators, which we were able to reduce by 70%. With this, the work was optimized and made it able to reach the demand and flexibility without overtime. The results of this implementation are very satisfactory and are certainly already reflecting on savings for the company, " says Nilton.
Currently, Marcopolo is carrying out a production of about 18 buses a day at the Caxias do Sul plant.