Company Profile: Baker Oil Tools, located in Broussard, Louisiana, manufactures oilfield completion tools and downhole screen products. The public, international company was originally founded in 1909 by R. C. Baker. The company opened its Broussard facility in 1976. Baker Oil Tools employs approximately 150 people and currently maintains a 77,000 square foot facility.

Situation: Baker Oil Tools has always been involved in the community, including involvement with local universities. Plant Manager Gary McAllister first heard of MEPOL due to its affiliation with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Gary and his staff were interested in implementing lean manufacturing principles at their facility and learned about MEPOL’s capabilities in this area through discussions with MEPOL project directors. The staff at Baker Oil Tools wanted to double their output, eliminate manual labor strain on their employees, and maintain their standards of quality without increasing personnel.

Solution: Baker Oil Tools operates under a vision statement which reads “Continuous improvement through creative employee-led teams to become a world famous manufacturer.” There are three things that the staff focuses on: (1) Team-based management; (2) Lean manufacturing; and (3) a grass-roots philosophy for leadership. Based on these principles, teams at Baker Oil Tools meet regularly to discuss methods of improvement in all aspects of the business.

For lean manufacturing implementation, teams were created that included a Lean Team and a Blitz Team to develop improvement methods based on principles of lean manufacturing. The members of these teams come from various aspects of the manufacturing process at Baker Oil Tools. Meetings held by the Lean Team are facilitated by MEPOL project directors who listen to the ideas of the employees and help them apply lean manufacturing principles to their manufacturing processes. Many members of the Lean Team attended the Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s Lean 101 class, “Principles of Lean Manufacturing,” and also attended training facilitated by MEPOL onsite at Baker Oil Tools.

Since Baker Oil Tools is a large facility that manufactures large, heavy products for the oil and gas industry, the implementation of lean manufacturing principles was divided into four phases, which have been allocated between a screen shop, a machine shop and a pipe shop. Improvements that have been implemented under Phase I in the screen shop include the following:

• A re-arrangement of inventory based on the 5S system and the development of visual controls, which has allowed for a reduction in inventory.
• A re-arrangement of machines that properly accommodated product flow with “first in, first out” and reduced work in process.
• The installation of racks and conveyors that greatly reduced motion waste and eliminated manual labor strain on employees.
• 5S systems and TPM have been implemented at each work station to greatly reduce wasted time.

Results: In Phase I of the lean implementation at Baker Oil Tools, the following results have been realized:

• For the first time ever, the company has had a year without lost time accidents by eliminating heavy manual labor processes.
• The company currently has experienced an estimated cost savings of $250,000 a year.
• Output of products has doubled without hiring additional staff.