July 31, 2014. NPO Electromachine, one of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Chelyabinsk-based member enterprises, started introducing the principles of lean production. The company has already come up with a production system development plan based on this method. Some of the basic principles are already being used at some of the company’s processing departments, Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports.

Personnel training is one of the first stages of the project. Nearly 100% of staff are expected to be trained. The enterprise is offering workshops on the introduction of the 5S principle in three of its divisions: the pressure casting one, the one responsible for welding of conditioner bodies, and the conditioner assembly section in the mechanical assembly department. In July, workshops were also launched for the workers of galvanizing department (in the printed circuit section) and of the assembly department (in the micro-assembly section and in the printed circuit assembly section). Over 30 engineers and technicians are now on the 5S launching team.

A standard has been developed for involving the personnel in the improvement process – the so-called Improvement Proposals Submission System. Electromachine actually used to have something similar in the past, now the task is to revive this practice. The company now has to collect and assess all the proposals. The enterprise’s management decided that authors of proposals which can result in more than 50,000 RUR worth of savings a year will receive a bonus (10% of the money their ideas saved the company).

Electromachine is actually not the first of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s member enterprises to introduce lean production. In December 2013, Omsktransmash started switching to the system as well. Besides, Volchansky division of Uralvagonzavod has been working along the principles of lean production since 2011.