Company Profile: Transonic Systems, Inc. is a flow technology innovator, marketer, and manufacturer of fluid flow measurement devices. Its biomedical products measure and confirm liquid flow during surgery, post-surgery, hemodialysis and research application.

They were founded in 1983 by Cornelis Drost, who as a Sr. Research Associate at the NYS College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University invented the transit-time ultrasound flowmeter.

Transonic sells its ultrasound transit-flowmeters, hemodialysis, laser Doppler perfusion and angioplasty monitors to surgeons, nephrologists, interventional radiologists, research scientists, and original equipment manufacturers throughout the world. From the laboratory to the operating room, Transonic provides accurate, intuitive, and reliable tools for flow verification. They are the industry leader in biomedical flow measurement innovation and quality.

Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, R&D, Finance, Administration, and Manufacturing are based at the company's headquarters in Ithaca, NY employing 130 people.

Situation: Transonic System's management attended a lean manufacturing seminar and realized the potential benefits of implementing lean at its facility. Eager to proceed, Transonic contacted the Alliance for Manufacturing & Technology (AM&T), a NIST MEP network affiliate, for assistance.

Solution: AM&T developed a customized Lean Enterprise training program for Transonic Systems. The program was partially funded by a New York State Department of Labor grant, NYSDOL 37-L.

The primary focus of the program was to train a key group of employees on the basics of Lean which would help them drive process improvements throughout the organization. The comprehensive training program was comprised of Principles of Lean Manufacturing with Live Simulation (Lean 101), Lean for the Office, Value Stream Mapping, 5S System and Workplace Organization, Cellular Flow Manufacturing, Pull/Kanban Systems, Mistake Proofing. Also, AM&T provided assistance with Lean implementation planning and project management.

Through this training, Transonic has improved employee morale, encouraged empowerment and teamwork, created a safer and more efficient work environment, reclaimed misused floor space, reduced inventory levels and cycle times, reduced non-value-added activities and improved yields.

During the Value Stream Mapping project, Transonic selected one product line to focus on for all the additional training to come. They then created a current and future-state map. These were used as their blueprint for future projects. Quick hits were implemented immediately. This was a very informative experience for all involved.

Transonic then had two big 5S organizational events and saw dramatic improvements in employee participation and teamwork while improving their layout and overall efficiency. Two 5S leaders were then assigned who led several additional projects on their own, and will continue to do so going forward. One of their 5S projects in the stock room reduced shelving space requirements by 20% and Kitting times on some products by approximately 30%.

With the Kanban / Pull training, Transonic reduced product cycle time by 40% (from 5 days down to 3 days). It also reduced inventory by implementing 2-bin systems and creating point-of-use storage on the manufacturing floor. Their goal is to achieve an estimated savings in inventory for this product line of approximately 54%.

During the Cellular training teamwork was very evident. With the innovative ideas that were expressed by the team they were able to implement a system of cable delivery that was more efficient, improved cycle times and inventory control. Transonic reduced cycle times in the cell by 75% (4 days to 1 day) and inventory levels by approximately 50%. During this process, Transonic also reclaimed misused/unused space and were able to put 4 new workstations in place.

The Mistake Proofing event was very successful. Transonic was struggling daily to meet shipments on one particular product because of 1st pass yields of only 78% at one of our critical test points. Their current 1st pass yields for the same test now stands at 95%.

Results:

• Increased sales

• Reduced lead time

• Reduce inventory

• Improved Customer Satisfaction

• Improved workforce morale and empowerment

• Created a safer, more intuitive and more efficient workplace

Testimonial: By working together as a team to identify problem areas, focus on completing an aggressively scheduled task list and reallocating resources that were made available as the result of previous projects, we were able to successfully ship to the customer almost 5 times as many of these units in one month.

This was a fantastic way to close out the year!

Thanks Carol and AM&T.

~ Laurie Moore, Production Manager

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