Problem Statement
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I was assigned to lead the continuous improvement project for the routine preventative maintenance of the CIGS machine at Solyndra's manufacturing facility in Fremont, CA. The CIGS machine was vital to the production of our company's product as it deposited the active layer which converted sunlight into electricity.
The CIGS machine had to be brought down every three days to be serviced. However, this operation took a crew of 11 technicians 18 hours to complete. There were 4 shifts of technicians servicing 6 CIGS machines all of whom had been performing their work differently. My challenge was to identify the best practices for servicing the machine and reduce machine down time by streamlining the routine maintenance across all shifts of technicians. |
Maintenance Staff Script Chart
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Solution & Results
To accomplish my goal, I would be on call to perform the arduous maintenance service or turnover to learn the process and get to know the technicians on each team. I held regular bi-weekly meetings with the team of technicians to review their performance and identify best practices. At each meeting we had a representative from each shift attend to establish a uniform baseline of work.
Together at these meetings we drafted procedures of how to perform the machine turnover. The procedures were approved by the shift managers and executed by each team. Record times were noted and rewarded to keep the teams motivated.
I drafted a script to chart out the duties of each team member over the course of the turnover. A sample of the script can be seen to the right.
After 4 months, we had reduced the average down time of the CIGS tools by 67% or down to 12 hours. This had a lot of benefits as it allowed a single crew on a 12 hour shift to complete the turnover before the next crew arrived eliminating the need for a detailed pass down between shifts.
Together at these meetings we drafted procedures of how to perform the machine turnover. The procedures were approved by the shift managers and executed by each team. Record times were noted and rewarded to keep the teams motivated.
I drafted a script to chart out the duties of each team member over the course of the turnover. A sample of the script can be seen to the right.
After 4 months, we had reduced the average down time of the CIGS tools by 67% or down to 12 hours. This had a lot of benefits as it allowed a single crew on a 12 hour shift to complete the turnover before the next crew arrived eliminating the need for a detailed pass down between shifts.
