Chock Department redesign will improve efficiency, production
For more than 40 years, NewView Oklahoma—the state’s largest employer of blind and visually impaired individuals—has manufactured wooden airplane wheel chock blocks for the United States military. Little had changed on the chock line during those decades until last month, when a group of NewView Oklahoma supervisors and employees collaborated on a major redesign of the chock department.
Based on Lean manufacturing principles, the redesign promises to increase the efficiency and speed of the chock department. “The Lean redesign looked at all the movement along the chock line and storing the chocks,” said Benny Hall.
With butcher paper taped to the walls, the team began by mapping out the current path of single chock throughout the manufacturing process. Employees were startled to find that a single order of chocks traveled 2.5 miles through the NewView facility. Each chock was stacked and unstacked eight times during the manufacturing process.
“We’re all tired of lifting chocks.” Hall said.Using the map of the current process as reference, employees brainstormed ways to eliminate redundancies and inefficiencies at each stage of production. Moving equipment, adding rolling tracks and changing procedures all came into play.
Equipment upgrades over the next few months will not only increase efficiency, but also increase accessibility for blind individuals, according to Adam Higby. “Turn-around times will improve and the work will be easier on each employee,” Higby said.
“I think it’s going to work out pretty well,” said Chris Tuton. “It will streamline the whole process. Everyone is looking forward to it.”
According to Tuton, the chocks department hopes to turn out as many as 900 20-inch chocks a day under the redesign, compared with 500 to 600 a day under the current system.
Chocks employees and supervisors spent two weeks on the redesign. Though those involved didn’t always agree, the team worked through differences and everyone was pleased with the end result.
“The redesign process went pretty well; it was well planned out,” Aaron Higby said.
As an added bonus, a sense of community and cooperation developed among the chock employees who helped with the redesign.
“Collaboration makes us feel like part of a team,” said Tuton.
