Jet Aviation Specialists Inc. ACE GOLD Journey
The Beginning of the Journey
In December 2007 Jet Aviation Specialists (JAS) was invited by United Technologies Corporation (UTC) to attend the launch of the ACE GOLD initiative for its 100 key suppliers. The ACE gold supplier program is a UTC initiative to have its key suppliers achieve a certain set of performance benchmarks, in the areas of quality, on time performance and responsiveness. These benchmarks are achieved by utilizing various ACE tools such as six sigma, lean manufacturing, TQM, Continuous improvement etc.
JAS has already adopted the Lean approach to MRO and has incorporated one piece flow set up on the main product line, with induction and the rest of the cells to follow in the second half of 2010. Continuous improvement is also being maintained with the assistance of kaizen events, which have been held at JAS for over 5 years and counting.
The benefits for UTC are the improved performance of their supplier base, and for the supplier we gain access to increased opportunities within UTC but also the ability to implement the benefits from the initiative across the whole organization, which will benefit all of our customers. So welcome to our Journey to be "all ACE all the time" and please keep coming back to see our progress.
What does ACE Gold mean at JAS?
At JAS we look at ACE gold compliance as a way of improving our company to a level of performance that is of benefit to our customers, giving them a reliable source for repairs. This is achieved by setting certain standards and measuring the company against these standards, rewarding achievement and finding solutions when we do not meet the metrics.
As will come as no surprise in business the only things that improve are the areas that are measured, and the only way to sustain improvements is to have robust procedures and processes. The metrics we have used on our journey are On time performance, Warranty rates, Lean assessments, and monthly customer surveys. With the information we have collected we have been able to start developing improvements and raise awareness within the organization of our customer's perception.
So what are we doing?
To enable JAS to deliver on our promise to be ACE Gold compliant the ACE Gold committee has been established. The committee includes two members of the executive management team. The role of the ACE committee is to coordinate the activities of the ACE team and ensure we meet our deadline.
The ACE Team has been established to develop and execute the plan to deliver the improvements to achieve ACE Gold compliance. To this end the ACE Team has several pilots that are from different disciplines in the organization. The team coordinates and leads the kaizen events, performs weekly employee meetings and coordinates the ACE excitement events. As the program has developed, the goal of ensuring all employees participate has been a focus of the team's efforts.
The largest hurdle we face is to change the culture of the organization, the goal being to involve all employees to adopt the ACE processes as the way we are. The second hurdle is sustaining the improvements and ensuring the cultural changes are permanently adopted. So not only are we looking to improve our processes, but we are also looking to involve all of our employees in the process.
What have we done so far?
We continue to work on several Kaizen, pictures of which can be seen by clicking on the links below.
Our weekly ACE meetings have become a staple of our operations, giving employee an avenue to give feedback on recommendation and observations of what they see going on in the shop floor.
Excitement events continue to be held on different aspects of ACE, which have involved all of our employees. These events have seen accountants repairing air tools to welders researching our intranet.
We are now well on our road to ACE gold compliance with monthly excitement events, and monthly Kaizen activities, the biggest of which has been our combustor cell.
Lessons learned so far.
We have started our journey and we are a lot wiser now than we were at the start of this process.
Lesson 1: The process needs to have buy-in from the bottom of the organization. Once you have momentum keep it going, and never forget to communicate, communicate and communicate! We have been very fortunate to have had external assistance both from consultants and interns who have helped us on the start of our journey. We have also gone out to other companies to benchmark and see best practice, it's important to understand that you do not have to reinvent the wheel when someone else already has.
Lesson 2: How do you eat an elephant? ... One bite at a time. Change takes time, understanding that will allow you to set realistic goals and have a great chance for success.
Lesson 3: Change is constant. Do not be afraid to change something, chances are that it won't be like that a year from now, anyways. The more your organization gets used to change the less resistant they will become.
Lesson 4: "Perfect"..does not exist, only more efficient. The moment you feel something is perfect is the moment continuous improve stops. And as we have learned….it never stops.
What's next?
Please keep returning to our ACE tab and news section of our web page for details of our events, pictures of our Kaizen and frequent updates of what we are up to! We have performed a major change in our organization and we recognize that this is only the start ...
