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the accompanying figure) and is sectioned off into different
areas such as wall, floor, and roof truss assembly, raw material
cutting, and metal storage. Each of the assembly lines is fed by a
common 26,000 square foot on-site supply point. The only
required materials are common-sized lumber (i.e., 2 × 4, 2 × 6,
etc.), aluminum connecting plates, and nails. However, each of
the processes is tailored to meet customer demands and
specifications. All of Wiley’s products are constructed of
standard dimensional lumber that arrives via truck or train and is
stockpiled in its lumber yard. Typically, Wiley has enough
lumber on site for two weeks of continuous operation without
replenishment. All other inventory, work-in-process, and
common materials are stored inside the production facility. Once
an order is received, the staff engineers design the truss system
and electronically queue the order for manufacture. The
production foreman then assigns the order to a cutting team.
This team consists of two men—the sawer and the tailor. The
sawer is responsible for saw setup, as well as lumber retrieval
and optimization, while the tailor stacks and labels the cut
lumber for assembly. Mr. Alvarez explained that his major
concern was the amount of setup time required by the cutting
teams. He said that up to 45% of production time was spent
adjusting the saws for each job, a very typical problem in batch
production. This is where Wiley’s problem and our challenge
began. Process Improvement After our initial plant tour, where
we noted the large amount of work-in-process inventory waiting
in carts between the saws and the assembly stations, we spent a