The client urgently needed to reduce labor costs while maintaining current product shipments to its customers. One weld assembly line with 34 people was selected as having potential savings and the client wanted to implement changes in two weeks.

IET viewed this project as a classic line balancing exercise. After developing a thorough understanding of the product’s Bill of Materials and processing sequence, an IET engineer performed detailed stop watch time studies on all 34 stations. Work elements were classified as value added, non-value added, machine cycle, walk or wait/idle.

Some work elements were assigned to different stations and some methods were redesigned to reduce wasted motions and delays. IET’s analysis identified the minimum number of people required to run the line along with specific station layouts and work assignments for each person.

In less than two weeks, IET gave the client a plan to eliminate four people or 12% of the line labor. On top of that, all of the changes could be implemented with no capital cost.