Access Oil Tools - On a Path to Leaner, Cleaner Operations
April 14, 2005

Access Oil Tools, located in Broussard, manufactures high quality tubular handling tools used by the oil and gas drilling industry worldwide. The company was originally founded in 1985 in New Iberia, but moved into a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in 2001, which was further expanded in 2002. Today the facility covers 42,000 square feet. They currently employ 90 people and are ISO 9001:2000 certified and have API Q1, 7K, 8A, and 8C certifications. Their manual pipe handling tool products include rotary slips, safety clamps, drill collar slips, casing slips, drill pipe and casing tongs, and elevators. The automated tool line includes the TwisterSpin ™ drill pipe and BHA makeup device, the patented Rotating Mousehole TM Tool and the BackSaver ™ automated slip lifting device. They also manufacture casing scrapers and stabbing guides.

Informing and Educating

The company was familiar with lean manufacturing and its principles, but coming up with a plan for implementation was an obstacle. In September 2004, Access Oil Tools sent three of their employees to a free, two-hour lean manufacturing executive overview presented by the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Louisiana (MEPoL) in Abbeville as part of the USDA Rural Development Grant MEPoL received. They also sent three of their employees to the LEAN 101 course, “Principles of Lean Manufacturing,” in October. As they learned more about how lean manufacturing could be implemented, they worked on informing several other members of their staff through two on-site lean manufacturing overviews presented by MEPoL and by sending 9 more employees to a LEAN 101 course in January 2005.

Moving Forward with Implementation

Before additional lean training took place at Access Oil Tools, Shannon Nunez, MEPoL’s director of manufacturing productivity, worked with the company on lean performance metrics, which help determine key areas of improvement. The lean performance metrics report also serves as a tool for companies to track their progress on lean improvements. Mark Pierce, manager of materials and engineering at Access Oil Tools, and Lawrence Granger, the manufacturing manager at Access Oil Tools, worked with Shannon on the metrics and determined that a good place to begin their lean implementation would be in their elevator product line.

Shannon started by holding value stream mapping and lean implementation training sessions with employees involved in the elevator product line. The value stream mapping process yielded some interesting results.

“We found that the travel distance involved in that product line was quite lengthy,” Lawrence said. “It was much longer than it needed to be. We have been minimizing that through some process changes.”

The value stream map confirmed something that the company had been considering for a while - they needed to purchase a machine to reduce the up-front time for the elevator products. Access Oil Tools has since purchased the machine, which has eliminated five steps in the manufacturing process for the elevator products, resulting in a 25% reduction in travel time in the process.

MEPoL Project Directors Baxter Saucier and Lance Link have also started training Access Oil Tool employees on the 5S System (sort, set-in-order, shine, standardize, sustain) in five separate pilot areas, including the departments for the Vertical Turret Lathe, Milling, CNC Mills, Inspection, and Finishing/Welding. Three of the training sessions were held in March, and the remaining two will occur in April. The training involved employees from those pilot areas, who were asked to provide feedback on how their areas could be cleaned up, organized and improved. Baxter and Lance then worked with the employees to implement the improvements, including cleaning areas and machines, and labeling racks for various raw materials so that they are in a set location and not in the way or difficult to find.

Although it is early in the implementation process, Lawrence and Mark have noticed some improvements.

“Areas are kept a lot neater,” Mark said. “The machines look a lot better, and everything is much more organized.”

“The guys on the shop floor have taken it upon themselves to sustain the improvements,” Lawrence said. “They have been able to give their input and implement the changes. They are the experts on what they do, and now they feel like someone is listening to them.”

Future Plans

As Access Oil Tools continues to move forward on their lean journey, their employees and their customers will continue to reap the benefits. In April, Shannon will begin facilitating team meetings throughout the remainder of 2005 to keep Access Oil Tools on track with respect to their lean improvements. He will also work with Mark and Lawrence to monitor the progress of lean improvements at Access Oil Tools using the lean performance metrics tool. Their further progress in lean manufacturing will be highlighted in a future issue of MEPoL’s monthly e-newsletter, “Solutions for Louisiana Manufacturers.”

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Louisiana (MEPoL)
Link to article at mepol.org