Rahco develops efficiency programs to manage workflow

LAKE FOREST, Ill.—Shawn Durbin, Rahco Rubber Inc.'s new director of manufacturing, has been pushing for a visible change in how the company manages its projects.

For Durbin, that starts with a new flag system that helps his team manage a job's workflow with just a quick glance across the 65,000-sq.-ft. space.

Each machine has a series of flags in different colors ranging from green to yellow to red, indicating the status of that particular press.

"So as you walk through the factory, you'll see green flags," Durbin said. "Anybody within the factory from engineering to ownership can see what's going on."

An important part of making the system work is the understanding that a yellow or red flag doesn't mean something bad is happening. "It just means, 'I need help, for whatever reason.' It's a support call," Durbin said.

The system started as an hour-by-hour board, as a way to parse special cause compared to common cause variations, he said. With that kind of record, it was easier to determine whether there was a challenge at the startup of a particular machine, or if there was a special cause happening at some point in the day.

Supervisors are designated for each section of the floor per a particular number of presses, and they update the hour-by-hour "manufacturing excellence" board at the head of the area, he said.

Durbin started integrating the new system into Rahco's operations just a couple months after he started in the position, he said. As operators check in at a particular machine and keep it running smoothly through the day, the system gives them more control over the process.

"There's a sense of pride and ownership, in 'I'm responsible for this machine today.' In their interaction, they've been showing that they're getting to know me better, plus they're engaging with it," he said. "It makes them part of the process, rather than being dictated to."

The system eventually will be developed to include more electronic communication, but the excellence board already has had a big impact on the shop floor, Durbin said.

"I can walk out here and look at this push press here, and see what's happening. I can diagnose things and understand quickly," he said. "Along with that, we have our daily notes, and the priorities for the day. These are the things that need to ship."

The flag system and excellence board has brought together co-workers who were separated by their individual jobs and sometimes by language, said Dennis Askew, Rahco business development manager. A high percentage of the work force at Rahco is Hispanic. The board is a visual work plan that improves communication and interaction.

"Before this, everyone was on their own little island. Now it's company-focused, prioritized goals, who's responsible for what. It just tells a story in real time," Askew said. "That's where the ownership and the pride factor and accountability factor all start to meld."

The board and flag system are easily understood regardless of language, and has boosted efficiency, Durbin said.

"It's easily understood. Its interpretation is pretty black and white, there's not much to argue with. You can walk in here and tell, hey, what's going on in the mix area? Who's running X? We can see that," Durbin said. "Lead with data and not perception. That's been my goal."

Supporting growth

Both Durbin's hiring and the new system are part of an effort to develop the company's processes as it continues to expand, Askew said.

"What we do, we feel we're the best at, and really deliver the best value. We're growing. Sales are up, efficiency's up," Askew said. "Shawn's at the helm, just doing magnificent work for us."

Askew said Rahco is running at about $15 million in sales, and his personal goal is to double the size of that business, partially through opportunities with existing customers.

Reshoring also has been a source of new business, as companies deal with changes to available chemistries. As an ISO certified company, Rahco is accessible and open to communication with customers, Askew said.

"We're getting a lot of opportunities coming back from offshore," he said. "We're proud to be made in the USA. We're proud to be family-owned and operated, to be ISO-certified and vertically integrated. All of those things are why people want to do business with us."

The shop floor itself is running two shifts with a skeleton third about three weeks of the month, Durbin said.

"We've definitely seen some efficiency gains from that too. Presses love to run. When they're running, you don't want to shut them up," he said.

There are more presses to keep running, as Rahco has invested about $1 million into new machines in the last 18 months, Askew said. There are two new Rep presses and one new Desma press, as well as a dry ice jet blaster to maximize efficiency in cleaning.

The dry ice blaster speeds up the cleaning process by using compressed air and granulated dry ice to freeze dirt and clearing it away quickly, he said. The new air blaster has reduced cleaning times by about half, taking some from about 1.5 hours to a 45-minute period.

"You cut it in half, and that helps your efficiencies. You want to get it back into production, because we don't make any money cleaning. We make money getting parts out of it," Askew said.

The company also has incorporated deflashing processes, with a 9,000-gallon liquid nitrogen tank on the side of the building feeding a bin that rotates and quickly clears off flash or trimming, Askew said. The process helps avoid secondary operations and generating waste, which is environmentally damaging as well as being cost-prohibitive when dealing with off-shore competition.

"All that waste is being piggybacked onto the piece price of the part," Askew said. "We have to be as efficient as humanly possible or capable in mitigating that."

Rahco has two mixing mills, a 62-inch and a 48-inch mill, as well as a lab mill, he said.

"When we go through to prototyping phase, we don't do it in a pristine cell. We want to give you what you're going to be buying a million of, so everything is aligned when it comes to performance," he said.

The company is running at about 65 percent of its capacity, with about 100 employees, Askew said. The company maintained ISO 2008 certification for about 20 years, and as of the fourth quarter of 2017, it was certified ISO 2015, which was "a huge accomplishment." The ISO 2015 certification also provides a drive for the business that makes the metrics and measurables meaningful, supporting the vision of the owners.

Meeting customer needs

Rahco is family-owned, shared by three brothers: President Steve Anton; Jim Anton, vice president of operations; and Jack Anton, vice president of sales and marketing. Steve Anton was also named RPN's 2016 Rubber Industry Executive of the Year. Production Manager Billy Anton and Office Manager Beth Anton are part of the next generation of the family involved in the business.

The family keeps a "mutual fund" approach to the business with a diverse portfolio reaching into multiple markets, Askew said. It makes parts for applications in markets such as wastewater, power equipment, condiment dispensers, medical and military usage.

"It's that diversification that keeps ripples in the industry from becoming tsunamis," Askew said. "If you have all your eggs in the automotive basket and Ford sneezes, the next day you catch pneumonia and die. We try to avoid that."

Rahco uses advanced product quality planning processes to match customer expectations with delivered products, with stage gates that require sign-off from customers to ensure alignment. Askew said not only does the process keep customers on top of the job, it cuts back on the company's percentage of scrap per sale.

With its continued growth, the company prides itself on providing orders on time in full 96 percent of the time on average, which are "best-in-class industry metrics," Askew said.

"We're proactive, versus reactive," he said. "We come to people with solutions, not problems. That's what business partners should do."

One way Rahco works toward those solutions is through their chemist, a part of being vertically integrated. When a customer brings in a part, they look at the application and spec to make certain they're aligned, Askew said. Then they check material selection to ensure that it works in that application and develop a formula. The company writes a specification that protects the performance criteria the customer is after.

"We start with a customer's wants and needs and go on from there. Having a chemist on staff, and external resources that we've developed over the last 40-plus years either with special chemical suppliers or manufacturers—having that network strengthens us and our response to customers," he said.

"This is where we shine. Our best day is when the phone rings and the other end of the line says 'We have a problem.' We want to meet not only the needs but the wants."