Challenge
Hancock Lumber leadership was looking to for ways to increase safety in a profession that is inherently hazardous, reduce unplanned downtime, and increase equipment reliability.
Collaboration
Hancock Lumber reached out to Fuss & O’Neill Manufacturing Solutions (FOMS) TPM experts to help with a solution. For over 4 years FOMS experts have conducted training at all three of Hancock Lumber’s mills to provide TPM training to all their employees. Hancock Lumber has since met their goal to have every member of the organization (around 600 people) attend TPM training and continues this throughout their onboarding process for new employees. FOMS provides a three day, hands-on focused improvement event that gives their team the tools and skills they need to identify opportunities for improvement and take action. With continued ongoing training Hancock Lumber continues to meet and often exceed their goals for continuous improvement.
Practice Areas Involved
Impact
TPM training has had a significant impact at Hancock Lumber. In just a few years, nearly all employees have been through TPM training, and since the implementation of TPM there has been a positive impact on the culture as well as the bottom line. Maintenance, operations, and safety throughout the entire production process has become an embraced responsibility for everyone, no matter their role in the process. Communication between operations and maintenance has significantly improved, and departments that once worked separately have become collaborative and communication has been streamlined. With this cultural shift and company-wide commitment to TPM, downtime has dropped and as reliability has improved their safety record went up. At their Casco mill alone unplanned downtime went from 25% to less than 4%, which is considered world class. There has been an increase in production without hiring more people or current employees working overtime – this increase in production has allowed Hancock Lumber to update and modernize their mills to keep up with their growing business. Hancock Lumber has embraced TPM and their culture and bottom line continues to reflect that along with their standing in the Maine manufacturing community, they continue to be voted the best place to work in Maine for the past 6 years in a row!
By implementing TPM into their culture, Hancock Lumber has increased productivity in all three mills. In the Casco mill alone, through TPM they produced over 300,000 more linear feet of lumber in Quarter 1 of 2018, than in Quarter 1 of 2017. This is due to improved communications between operations and maintenance, while significantly reducing downtime across the board.
