Read the attached Case Study “Wiley Construction” and answer the 4
questions at the bottom. Explain your findings and include any
calculations. There are 4 questions under the case study in the attachment that need
to be answered. There is no minimum or maximum word requirement, as long
as each question is completely answered
case_study.docx

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Where’s My Cart?
The Senior Seminar at Allegheny State requires students to complete a process
improvement project with local industry. Jim Davis and Leanna Hearn have been
assigned to Wiley Construction. Here is their report.
Wiley Construction
Company History
Founded in 1975, Wiley Construction was one of the first designers and builders of
wooden roof trusses. Over the past 40 years Wiley has prospered, and it now has office
and manufacturing space of approximately 132,200 square feet and additional lumber
storage facilities of about 22,300 square feet, on a 60-acre site near the Monongahela
River in Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania. Utilization of this space has never been difficult, and
in the fall of 2000 Wiley proudly opened a new 6000-square-foot showroom, which
serves as an educational building center and showcase for many of the products it builds
and/or sells. In addition to its core roof truss business, Wiley now has over 200
employees designing and building floor truss systems and pre-constructed interior and
exterior wall systems.
Joseph Wiley, the founder and chairman of Wiley Construction, not only wanted to build
superior roofing systems, he also envisioned the idea of prepackaging an entire house.
The package of materials, from foundation blocks to roofing shingles, would be available
through one source. This idea soon led for a custom-designed line of homes, called Wiley
Homes. The key selling point to these “prepackaged” homes besides convenience and
accuracy, was that, while the interior layout was universally applicable, the exterior of the
home was de- signed with a very local flavor.
The exemplary reputation of the Wiley Home program as well as attention to customer
service, prompt delivery times, and accurate product specifications allowed Wiley to
become an international supplier of quality building products. Their products have been
shipped to dozens of countries, including Russia, Germany, Spain, Japan, Korea, China,
Greece, Turkey, Mexico, and Chile.
Gary Cox replaced Joe Wiley as president of Wiley Construction in January 2013.
Executive Vice President Ciro Alvarez is one of the many highly skilled and motivated
Wiley professional management employees. To accomplish its diverse objectives, the
company has assembled a team of employees with degrees in Architecture, Building
Construction, Civil Engineering, Math, Forestry, Wood Science, Accounting, Business,
International Relations, Computer Science, Architectural Technology, and Biological
Systems Engineering.
Technology
From the days of hand drafting and manually designed framing layouts, Wiley now
utilizes highly automated methods of production as well as completely computerized
design programs. These technologies have resulted in annual sales approaching $25
million. The most automated piece of equipment at their Pittsburgh facility is a Unisaw, a
highly sophisticated machine capable of simultaneously making the necessary angle
adjustments on four circular saw blades. One of Wiley’s newest endeavors is the
construction of prefabricated wall panels, for which it now has a new wall panel machine to more efficiently construct a higher quality wall panel. The new partially
computer-controlled machine was designed especially for Wiley and is one of the best in
the industry. In order to maximize the utility of its automated capabilities, Wiley employs
nearly 50 computer operators and programmers experienced in engineering, design,
export, sales, and accounting software systems. Central to the operation is the highly
specialized wooden-truss design program used by the engineering staff. To ensure that all
of this technology results in the highest quality products, the Wiley production facility is
one of a very small percentage of facilities that opens their doors to the rigid qualitycontrol specifications of the Pre-Fab Construction Industry.
Current Production Process
Wiley Housing Systems, Inc., is a batch production company that specializes in make-toorder timber housing systems. The manufacturing facility is over 100,000 square feet in
size (see the accompanying figure) and is sectioned off into different areas such as wall,
floor, and roof truss assembly, raw material cutting, and metal storage. Each of the
assembly lines is fed by a common 26,000 square foot on-site supply point. The only
required materials are common-sized lumber (i.e., 2 3 4, 2 3 6, etc.), aluminum
connecting plates, and nails. However, each of the processes is tailored to meet customer
demands and specifications.
All of Wiley’s products are constructed of standard dimensional lumber that arrives via
truck or train and is stockpiled in its lumber yard. Typically, Wiley has enough lumber on
site for two weeks of continuous operation without replenishment. All other inventory,
work-in-process, and common materials are stored inside the production facility. Once an
order is received, the staff engineers design the truss system and electronically queue the
order for manufacture. The production foreman then assigns the order to a cutting team.
This team consists of two men, the sawer and the tailor. The sawer is responsible for saw
setup, as well as lumber retrieval and optimization, while the tailor stacks and labels the
cut lumber for assembly. Mr. Alvarez explained that his major concern was the amount of
setup time required by the cutting teams. He said that up to 45% of production time was
spent adjusting the saws for each job, a very typical problem in batch production. This is
where Wiley’s problem and our challenge began.
Process Improvement
After our initial plant tour, where we noted the large amount of work-in-process
inventory waiting in carts between the saws and the assembly stations, we spent a day
interviewing workers on the assembly teams. It was brought to our attention that at
certain points during the day the backup of WIP carts was in fact problematic, from the
standpoint of worker safety and from the ability to locate the required cart quickly and
easily. There are approximately 80 to 90 carts in use at any given time, which are loaded
with raw materials on a per-job basis and are tagged with a work order. After the carts are
loaded and tagged, they are placed in front of the assembly workstations. Copies of the
work orders are taken to the plant control office. The plant supervisor then assigns the
jobs to assembly stations by placing the work order copy in assigned bins located on the
plant control office wall. The assembly employees will go to their assigned bin, pick their
next job ticket, and then locate the corresponding cart for that job. Mr. Alvarez
mentioned that locating the cart required for the next job could take anywhere from one
to ten minutes depending on the assembly backup (number of full carts used that day) and
the location of the cart within the facility. The manufacturing employees are tracked on a
100th-of-the-hour time basis for work, which means that there should, in theory, be very
little unproductive time during the day, with the exception of break periods. This also
reduces socialization of employees.
We decided to narrow our analysis to the immediate problem of locating the correct cart.
After brainstorming possible solutions, we have concluded that Wiley should use an
electronic paging system similar to what restaurants use to notify customers that their
table is ready. We recommend that the carts be outfitted with long-life, durable, and
replaceable lithium battery-powered strobe lights that are activated by a key- pad located
on the plant control office wall beside the pending job order bins. Each light would have
a unique three-digit number assigned to it. These numbers would be handwritten on the
work order, by the individual who loads the cart, before it is given to the plant supervisor
to be assigned. There is a chance of multiple carts being needed for the same job, but
each cart has its own individual work order and therefore would have its own three-digit
identification number and light. This is no deviation from the current process. The
assembly workers would walk to the plant control office, retrieve their next job from the
bin, type the three-digit code into the keypad, and then find the cart that has the strobe
light turned on. This process would eliminate all of the guessing currently required to
locate the cart with the raw materials and should reduce the overall aver- age time needed
to locate a cart. This would also allow remote storage of the carts, rather than stacking as
many as 30 carts at the top of the assembly line, a hindrance to traffic flow and safety.
1. Identify waste in the current production process.
2. How does the pager suggestion eliminate waste?
3. Have the students and Mr. Alvarez found the root cause of the cart problem? Why or
why not?
4. How would you apply the principles of lean production to improve Wiley’s situation?

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