JBPCO Widget Factory Flow Simulation

We at JBPCO would like to congratulate some of our team

members that were selected to go through our Widget Factory “flow” simulation

in the Elkhart Indiana area. The simulation pulled different team members from

3 of our facilities in the Elkhart area for 1 ? days.

This activity focused on 3 simulation activities focusing on

1.) Batch Flow 2.) Fake Flow 3.) One Piece Flow. In each simulation the team

had a build schedule based on customer demand with required or suggested levels

of inventory to use for building the customer’s product. At the end of each

simulation the team would evaluate their results and discuss their findings.

Our JBPCO corporate lean team received positive feedback on

how well the simulation demonstrated the impact that changes made based on the

Lean Transformation and how it impacted the flow, inventory, and lead time

through the Widget Factory. All the participants were first timers in the

exercise and thought the simulation did a great job explaining the impact of

driving from batching orders to one piece flow.