Page 28 - CMA PROfiles Spring 2020

2020

Vision
HINDSIGHT

Using hindsight

to create success

by Carla Atkinson

Eric Ciampoli works with manufacturers to improve their equipment you have before you purchase more, and there’s a
efficiency. He offers Lean manufacturing training and consults metric called operational equipment effectiveness (OEE) that
with them on shop layouts, relocations, or redesigns in order to can help shops understand the theoretical capacity — and the
optimize workflow. His outside perspective and expertise helps current capacity — of their equipment.
companies do more with what they already have versus making The OEE is the ratio of the amount of time your business is open,
more investments that may not pay off. lights are on, people are working, and how many minutes of those
Ciampoli has an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering hours you have good parts coming out of the equipment. In most
and a bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering technolo- cases, the OEE for many woodworking shops will be around 35
gies from Wentworth Institute and an MBA from UMass Boston percent – meaning that they’re only getting 35 percent of their
in operations management. He worked for several companies theoretical capacity. (Toyota’s OEE is around 85 percent and up,
before starting Eric Ciampoli Industrial Consultants Inc. and no one ever achieves 100 percent.)

In a way, Ciampoli’s work is all about harnessing hindsight to Shop owners with a CNC will give me a figure for the estimated
improve your business. When clients team up with him, they’re number of pieces they can produce in a day (it will vary depend-
forced to take a hard look at the way they’ve been operating, not ing on the size of the shop), and often their estimate is only a
to mention the mindset they have about their work. third of their machine’s theoretical capacity. When I tell them this,
Ciampoli talked with us about some of the common challenges they assume they aren’t running the machine fast enough.
he helps cabinetry and woodworking clients overcome and the
common misconceptions he addresses along the way. Highlights
of our interview follow, in Ciampoli’s words.
Lean goes beyond machines.
I work with clients on a lot of process issues relating to their
use of machinery, and as an efficiency consultant, I do believe
CNCs in particular can make a huge difference for cabinetry
shops. However, I know plenty of shops don’t have CNCs and
other equipment due to space constraints or budget issues, and
I urge those shops to take some of the lessons I’m sharing here
and apply them to their processes in general.

Metrics matter.
Sometimes companies will add another piece of equipment to
their shops and then wonder why they’re not doubling their
productivity. Lean thinking calls for fully understanding the

26 PROFILES SPRING 2020