Get the Clutter Out—Save Time and Money!
By Greg Mattson, RTPO  Welcome to the second installment in this
series of articles presenting real-world solutions to production
problems in the O&P fabrication lab. As insurance
reimbursements shrink and the cost of doing business grows, it's
hard to ignore the potential profits hiding in simple ways of
fixing production issues.
The overall focus is on implementation of "lean manufacturing"
zero defects, completing one job at a time, and just-in-time
inventory. Efficient lab organization is one avenue to this
goal.
Now, let's get the garbage out!
How many of you have odds and ends stashed in boxes throughout
the fabrication shop? Dirt and grime jammed into all corners?
Fabrication benches with almost the entire surface covered? Even
the cleanest companies have issues with clutter. There will always
be clutter. What's important is how you manage it.
Examples of classic time and money wasters include: Searching
for parts, tools and materials; walking to get parts, tools and
materials; moving items to reach parts, tools, and materials;
double handling of parts; and the loss of productive space.
When you think of cleaning the fabrication lab, you get an image
of all the clutter and old stuff that needs to be thrown away. But
most people are missing the big picture. Getting rid of the garbage
saves a company in many ways, but the main benefit is savings in
excess motion.
Is That Space Making Money?
Have you ever considered the square footage of the company you
work for? How much does each square foot cost the company? How much
profit is generated in each square foot? How many square feet are
not generating profit? Simply put, if you have a lot of square
footage dedicated to clutter storage, it's costing the company
money. The space has nothing to do with generating money. It has
become an expensive storage place.
Here is a prime example of a common problem that creates excess
motion and loss of productive spacestoring old parts. We do this
with good intentions. We may have a patient come in who needs a
fast repair, or we just don't want to throw out a good part.
In my shop, we did a simple study. We tracked the problem and
came up with some interesting conclusions. First of all, most of
the "good old parts" we were saving were not in our inventory
system. One employee knew we had a certain needed part, but others
did not. The result was that we reordered the part, rather than
using the one that we had. Second, since we knew we had the "good
old parts" somewhere, we scheduled a patient who needed one of the
parts to repair a broken brace. Problem solved, right? No. The
parts were missing a needed center screw. Now we made our company
look bad and provided poor service to our patient. The box of "good
old parts" also took up space that could be better used for
fabrication.
Let's examine the results. The saving of old parts resulted in
extra motion, the loss of productive space associated with the
storage of the parts, loss of money spent on a new part, plus time
wasted by the technician and patient. Most of the parts we were
saving were not expensive, and were therefore costing the company
many times their value in associated waste.
Take some time and look around the fabrication lab you work in.
Is space that can be used for profitable purposes used for storing
waste? How you get rid of waste is up to you and your company. I
recommend purchasing a book on the 5-S system (sort, straighten,
scrub, systemize, standardize) for those of you who want a detailed
system for getting rid of waste.
In the next article, we will tackle workplace standardization
processesyet another important boon to helping your company produce
improved profit and cost savings, more production with less effort,
better patient care, and greater employee teamwork! 
Table Of Contents - December 2002
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