NAMMO is an AS9100 certified engineering and composite manufacturing company with more than 20 years of experience. They specialize in producing canisters and military-grade rocket launchers for the Department of Defense. They also have a diverse range of advanced composite experience with clients in aerospace, oil, industrial, commercial, and recreational markets.
Project Scope
NAMMO wanted to increase their output in order to support the increasing needs of their DoD customer.
Solution
NAMMO recognized they needed to identify and eliminate waste in their manufacturing process. With the help of the University of Utah Manufacturing Extension Partnership (UUMEP) Center, a Value Stream Mapping Event was implemented to help address these issues.
UUMEP Center staff worked with their TOW Missile cell’s cross-functional team to establish SMART goals, document current state, identify improvement ideas to support SMART goals, design a future state, and prioritize improvement ideas based on impact and complexity. UUMEP Center staff also trained and coached their teams on lean principles and waste identification.
Results
- Increased throughput capability to support customer requirements by 40%
- Increased visual management of inventory from 6 process steps to 10 steps, with dedicated inventory staging
- Reduced part travel by 30% by co-locating process steps
Impacts
- Increased annual sales by $3,640,000
- Cost avoidance: Staff is trained to lead future VSM events, saving up to $10,000 (assuming three events per year)
Client testimonial
“The UUMEP Center helped us understand that we didn’t need major facility changes to increase flow. We simply needed a systematic approach to eliminate the waste and to fully implement some basic process flow rules. They respected that we had a facility to run and were flexible when hot issues came up. It was clear they were interested in training us to meet our needs rather than ensuring we follow their exact process.”