Efficiencies Achieved One Kaizen at a Time at Kubota
Cover Story
By Lisa R. Brown   
Sunday, 16 January 2005
smc Imagine a manufacturing environment where employees initiate changes for efficiency improvements. And where small, incremental improvements are valued by the company over blockbuster kaizen events.
Imagine a manufacturing environment where employees initiate changes for efficiency improvements. And where small, incremental improvements are valued by the company over blockbuster kaizen events.
Imagine a manufacturing environment where employees initiate changes for efficiency improvements. And where small, incremental improvements are valued by the company over blockbuster kaizen events.

Both are true at Kubota Manufacturing of America (KMA), which helps explain the success the company has had since it began operations in 1988 in Gainesville, Ga., according to John Harris, director of purchasing.

KMA manufactures lawn and garden tractors, zero-turn mowers, sub-compact tractors and utility vehicles, in addition to loaders, backhoes and buckets for farm tractors. Its two manufacturing facilities total 616,000 square feet on 151 acres, and the company employs 1,600.

The company plans to expand to nearby Jackson County, Ga., in 2005. A new $45 million factory on 88 acres is scheduled to begin operations in September 2005, manufacturing industrial attachments such as loaders, backhoes and buckets. KMA’s sales have doubled each of the past four years, all while increasing its work force by only 20 percent. “That’s our strength – kaizen is a constant stream of small improvements generated by factory personnel,” Harris says. “Our growth rate mandates efficiency improvements.”

The highlight of KMA’s manufacturing operations is the ability to balance production lines with a sequenced flow of material from both inside the plant and from outside suppliers in a safe and environmentally conscious atmosphere, Harris says.

KMA’s core competencies are welding and assembly with a decreasing emphasis on non-core laser and brake press work. In-house workflow – from receipt of raw material through laser, press brake, welding, painting and assembly – is sequenced to minimize work in process and overall inventory levels, Harris says.

A rotating staff of 12 people assists each shop floor to obtain, measure, analyze and recommend daily small improvements in productivity, cost, quality and safety. Approximately 20 employees each year visit KMA’s parent company in Japan to see what is happening in those factories as well as to absorb production in another culture, Harris says.

“Kaizen at Kubota is a grassroots movement, not a top-down mandate, which combines three important elements related to foolproof manufacturing, improved flexibility and productivity and the resultant cost improvements,” says Senior Manufacturing Manager Brian Arnold. “Our success continues to be where we empower production supervision and lead people to focus on their own work areas where no one knows better than them and their people what improvements are needed and what is possible, vs. trying to always identify the big all-plant solutions. The bottom line is it works, and the daily $5 ideas work better than the elusive search for the million-dollar bonanza.”

KMA’s customers have traditionally included contractors, landscapers, nurseries and farmers. However, a new product introduced in January 2004 – the RTV900 utility vehicle – has expanded its base to the leisure customer. Half of RTV900 sales are to contractors and farmers and the remainder is to hunters.

Harris says the utility vehicle has claimed a 12 percent market share in its first year. It is a good fit with KMA’s existing product lines because it borrows from the company’s expertise in manufacturing tractors. “Most people in this market provide a glorified golf cart,” Harris says. “We elected to go to the heavy-duty end using tractor technology, with an all-steel frame. We ended up being tractor tough, yet recreationally functional.”

Where KMA is most efficient is its time-to-market. Harris says the company’s typical concept-to-production time spans just seven months. The company has built its brand on continually refreshing the product line. KMA takes a unique approach to the market – its strategy is to constantly seek niche markets.

For example, as zero-turn mowers increased in popularity in recent years, KMA looked for unmet needs in the segment. “We often are the first to market and are always the fastest for new products,” he says. “Our system to move to production is less bureaucratic than some competitors.”

However, research is a fundamental part of the development process. New products are decided by extensive research by the sales and marketing and/or research and development teams. For the RTV900, the company conducted studies with customers and dealers that sold competing products. “We said, ‘What do you want?’ They told us, and we gave them every single thing that the majority of potential customers wanted – for example, automatic transmission and waterproof power brakes.”
 
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