Daniel Penn

Success Stories

Read how Daniel Penn has helped business organizations to continuously improve.

Achieve Peak Performance in Your Hospital’s Maintenance with These Key Metrics

This article explores the essential KPIs that hospital leaders should monitor and the modern technologies available to track these metrics effectively.

Maintenance Strategies in Manufacturing

We’ll cover the latest maintenance strategies manufacturers use, explain when each is optimal, and outline how you can decide which approach fits your plant’s unique needs.

The Chocolate Elephant

How do you eat a chocolate elephant? Well, the answer is easy and well-known – one bite at a time. The same is true when nibbling away at reducing lead time.

Components manufacturer streamlines the movement of parts, reduces idle time by more than 50%

By creating new workflows for support processes, the team eliminated nearly 740,000 feet per year of travel distance to move parts.

How Lean Practices Mirror Olympic Training

Your company’s Lean and continuous improvement teams drive organizational growth and excellence. While their critical role may often go unnoticed, these teams share traits with the world’s most elite athletes.

Part II: Set-Up Reduction for the Inserting Machines

Printing operation employees dramatically boost output and reduce scrap with set-up reduction events that improve flow, standardize work, and slash waste.

Apply a Lean Lens to Your Production Challenges

Daniel Penn Associates (DPA) is helping a large components producer apply a Lean lens to the production challenges that accompany their explosive growth.

Part I: Bindery Machine Baseline and Goals

Printing operation employees dramatically boost output and reduce scrap with set-up reduction events that improve flow, standardize work, and slash waste.

What it Really Takes to Control Inventory

Inventory control plays a critical role in manufacturing facilities. Proper spare parts management can reduce downtime, and increase profit margins.

Change Management Needs to Change

Why employees really reject change? DPA consultant Peter Harlamon shares strategies and tactics from his involvement in challenging labor-management negotiations.

Changeover improvements help company boost machine output and reduce waste

Client A national full-service direct marketing company. Situation More than 200 hours per year of downtime on the company’s six web printing machines were compromising on-time deliveries to customers. Goal The company’s long-term goal is to reduce overall downtime by 50%. Product changeover was the largest portion of the downtime. Employees assigned to a Kaizen [...]

How standard work, eliminating waste, and communication are helping this producer improve on-time shipments

How standard work, eliminating waste, and communication are helping this producer improve on-time shipments.

Kaizen team boosts packaging operation OEE by 66.5%

How an international manufacturer of materials for construction applications was able to improve operational excellence by 66.5%.

How to Tackle Overall Equipment Effectiveness

Original equipment effectiveness (OEE) is the product of availability, performance and quality. Knowing how to use these elements can help manufacturers improve operations.

How to speed mass vaccination

Process improvements at Hartford’s Dunkin’ Donuts Park clinic increase COVID-19 vaccination rate by 207 percent in five weeks!

Manufacturer’s “Rack Stars” shave cycle and wait times

Daniel Penn Associates helped rack systems manufacturer reduce cycle and wait times.

Root Cause Analysis and The Five Whys help cable manufacturer regain control of production cell

Daniel Penn Associates helped a precision cable manufacturer reduce lost runs by 83%.

Fiber materials producer gets to the bottom of waste-causing issues

Daniel Penn Associates helped a fiber-based product producer meet its waste reduction targets through data review, root cause analysis, and action steps.

Preventive and Predictive Maintenance for a Pharmaceutical Manufacturer

A case study on manufacturing focusing on preventive and predictive maintenance planning and scheduling for a pharmaceutical manufacturer.

How DPA Helped a Hospital’s Engineering Department Set Its Maintenance Staffing Requirements

Helping a large medical school-affiliated hospital reassess maintenance staffing requirements for its engineering department’s shops.

The Kaizen Multiplier Effect

Team-Led Improvement Ideas Boost Safety, Efficiency, and Uptime for Precision Molding Operation CompanyA global precision manufacturer of specialty pumps for personal care products. ObjectiveConduct a process mapping to find ways to improve cell layout, machine staffing, safety and productivity for two subassembly machines at one of the company’s sites. SituationTwo subassembly families are produced on two machines. […]

Value Stream Mapping Helps Cable Manufacturer Meet Customer Requirements

Daniel Penn leads value stream mapping (VSM) and lean continuous improvement Kaizen event to increase efficiency and lead times.

A Manufacturer of Commercial Explosives Dramatically Reduces Die Changeover, Startup and Shutdown Times

A leading manufacturer of commercial explosives worked with the DPA team to reduce die changeover time for production of the company’s shock tube lines.

How One Pharma Facility’s FDA Compliance Efforts Succeeded in Maintenance Reliability

We recently worked with a pharma client using DPA’s six-factor assessment tool. The client had received an FDA 483 Inspectional Observations report, detailing several conditions and findings that put the facility at risk.

Slashing Set-up Time

A global manufacturer of aircraft and gas turbine components retained DPA to conduct a Kaizen event that would reduce the 18 hours required for the set-up of a key machine.

DPA Helps Sealing Products Producer Reduce Lead Manufacturing Lead Time By 64.8%

DPA helps sealing products producer reduce lead manufacturing lead time by 64.8% applying sound Value Stream Map (VSM) and other lean principles.

Reducing setup times, increasing safety and multiplying output

A manufacturer of components for medical device, commercial and bearing needs to reduce work-in-process bottlenecks and increase production.

A New Look at In-sourcing and Cell Layout Boosts this Manufacturer’s Capacity by 107%

Identifying risks to product quality and other supply chain issues of logistics and costs reduces lead times by 60%, cell layout boosts capacity by 107%.

Facilities Maintenance Re-engineering for a Multi-campus Hospital System

Daniel Penn Associates analyzes and helped evolve its work processes, management tools, staff responsibilities and metrics for a multi-campus hospital system.

Helping a Specialty Materials Producer Apply FMEA And Preventative Maintenance To Reduce Scrap

The Kaizen team worked with DPA to identify simple, repeatable methods for capturing the amount of scrap generated at the process.

Helping a Specialty Materials Producer Embrace PDCA Culture

DPA recently worked with a manufacturer of wire, cables and connectivity products to reduce scrap at one of their factories.

Standardizing Set Ups and Reducing Re-work for a Fiber Products Manufacturer

Improving throughput was the challenge to find ways of standardizing setups while streamlining an increase in reliability on a major production line.

Production to Shipping Performance

How DPA helped improve the flow in the shipping department so that available goods are processed more efficiently increasing productivity in the shipping department by 30%.

DPA Helps Aerospace Supplier Ensure Machine Reliability

A manufacturer of specialty components wanted to make sure that its molding press equipment will reliably produce a 60% increase in orders from its biggest aviation customer.

Implementing a Pull System on a Medical Device Production Floor

DPA performed a Kaizen event to implement the pull system for the Die Stamp value stream on a medical device production floor.

Speeding Set-ups for a Medical Device Manufacturer

A Kaizen event held with the DPA team for a medical device manufacturer developed a list of 71 additional action items for improving the set-up time.

Reliability-Centered Maintenance for a Pharmaceutical Manufacturer

Developing a Reliability-Centered Maintenance program incorporating reliability risk analysis into existing maintenance environments.

A Warehouse and Logistics Plan to Keep Pace with Growth

DPA helped a successful U.S. manufacturer work through its warehouse and logistics dilemmas.

Public Housing Authority Sustain the Benefits of Recent Renovations

Public Housing Authority installs solar water heating, co-generation and other ‘green’ features to increase energy efficiency and resident comfort.

Tightening Operations to Increase a Printing Company’s Margins

A family-owned operated and managed full-service printing company with 40 employees. The company aims to be the greenest commercial printer in the U.S.

Reducing Lead Times for a Power Gen Industry Supplier

Helping a leading supplier to the power generation industry by reducing lead times for their inspection and procurement processes.

DPA Helps Supplier Resolve Inventory and Return to Vendor Issues

A fast-growing supplier of tankless water heaters experienced a high rate of inventory errors. DPA supported the work of a kaizen team within the company to identify and solve process gaps to improve the accuracy of inventory counts and its Return to Vendor (RTV) process.

Finished Goods Strategy

DPA’s Kaizen team helped a medical device manufacturer implement a finished goods strategy to reduce lead times and satisfy delivery commitments to its customers.

Continuous Improvement Process for Financial Services

Daniel Penn Associates helped a mutual fund company design, develop and implement a Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) initiative.

Reducing Production Time

A pharmaceutical plant I worked with excelled with their preventive maintenance program. What were the key drivers of their success?

Adapting Two Production Cells

DPA led two Kaizen events with a New England-based manufacturer of complex metal stampings and surgical cutters to adapt production cells.

Increasing Productivity – Nutmeg Container

Daniel Penn Associates helped Nutmeg Container increase productivity with workflow layout and total productive maintenance (TPM) support

Clean Room Staple Loading Kaizen Event

A medical device manufacturer needed to increase its annual production without compromising safety or customer delivery schedules.

Three Kaizen Events Help Component Supplier Meet Delivery Expectations

As a result of the three Kaizen events DPA managed, the company was able to significantly improve their delivery performance while reducing lead times.

Re-thinking Product Flow, Parts Picking and Assembly Standards

How to increase efficiency by reducing time to prep and assemble parts.

Slashing Set-up Time for a Global Manufacturer

DPA worked with a 5 member employee team in a Kaizen event to reduce the line’s changeover time from 5 hours to less than 2.5.

Manufacturer Reduces Logistics Costs

DPA reduces logistics costs for a global auto components manufacturer with a program of consolidation, re-negotiation and vendor changes.

Improving Pack-and-ship Operations

DPA improves pack-and-ship operations for a global lock manufacturer. “This improvement yielded radical process change to our ship/pack line”.

Manufacturer Shaves 56% Off Machine Set-up Time

DPA worked with seven members of the company’s production and engineering team to set an overall goal of reducing the set-up time by 40 to 60 percent.