THE
CORE
DMMI’s Central News Source
March 30, 2015
Jishuken, Emergency Response Highlight Strong Partnership
with Our Northern Neighbors
Jishuken: A Problem-Solving Kaizen Blitz
Our partners in the North, DENSO Manufacturing Canada (DMCN), threw open
their doors for a thermal group improvement activity that made things clearer—literally.
“You can now see the entire Department at a glance,” said John Klassen, DMCN
Operations Manager. “We eliminated finished goods inventory on the production floor
by direct staging, so the view is no longer blocked by full racks of finished goods.”
In addition to direct staging in the warehouse, the DMCN team also highlighted
several other improvements as part of their Excellent Factory activity. These efforts
earned them recognition as the North American representative to the global EF Conference this spring.
The movement to direct staging certainly didn’t happen overnight. It has been the
focus of several Excellent Factory competition genba reviews and a Toyota-supported
jishuken activity that included representatives from many thermal group affiliates. A
jishuken is a management-driven kaizen activity that identifies areas of improvement.
“This was the first time that TEMA (Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing
North America) sponsored a jishuken outside of Japan, so we wanted to show our appreciation and support of the activity,” John said. “In-plant leaders led the activity, but
management from throughout other thermal plants helped provide guidance and make
observations that they could take back to their plants.”
The scope of the jishuken was huge, encompassing Molding, Assembly and Warehouse departments. They used a material information flow chart (MIFC) to examine
the value stream from shipping door to assembly line
and beyond. John said the approach and thinking
way of the Toyota facilitator was extremely valuable.
Before
“We use TPS (Toyota Production System) tools
at DENSO, but the jishuken application of the TPS
tools was different than we were used to. A lot had to
do with approach; they encouraged us to create a new
reality. To think with the end in mind. And to have
an ideal image to move toward that was able to drive
us to continue to push and change the reality on the
plant floor.”
The long-term benefit of cross-lining this and
other EF-winning activity is a core DENSO
value—doing more with less.
After
“Just like in Michigan and Arkansas, we have
new business that is expanding the size of our
department,” John said. “The direct staging and
other EF activities allow us to keep less inventory
on the floor and the elimination of racks means
we have better visual management, so we can see
and anticipate when we start to run behind.”
Through years of EF activity, DENSO had focused in on their ideal condition, but
the jishuken moved them to make changes with visible impact. EF competition judges
noted that a key reason for selecting DMCN was that they demonstrated a culture
change. The kaizen has continued long after one EF genba review or the jishuken.
“We had implemented direct staging before the activity, but we didn’t realize the
full benefit until we started the jishuken. It created standard work in the warehouse, and
this is a best practice where all of DENSO can benefit—we are all warehousing in some
way.” 
Tool & Die Team to the Rescue!
At 7:53 a.m. on Monday, March 9, the email
arrived. “We will be in misshipment condition by
Wednesday.”
Our partners to the north at DENSO Manufacturing Canada (DMCN) had a broken heater mold and
a customer expecting a continuous supply of their
finished products for new car production.
The thermal group Tool & Die Department here in
Battle Creek sprang into action.
By 10 p.m. that evening, the DMMI team had
disassembled a similar tool, modified three parts for
repair and shut the door on an expedited truck that
reached DMCN at 4:30 a.m. With quick work from
the DMCN team to complete the repairs, the first
shot out of the repaired mold happened at 10:30 a.m.
“We are the tooling group for all of TAC,” said Jake
Williams, Advanced Mold & Die Engineer. “DMCN
has a really great group, very capable of handling most
issues, but we have the responsibility and the resources
to pull solutions together in an emergency case like this.”
Thanks to cross-country communication and teamwork, the situation did not impact the customer.
“Tool & Die has hot jobs every day between Arkansas, Mexico, Canada and Michigan, but when it comes
to shipping condition and safety issues, that’s always
where we look first,” said Dave Ball, Tool & Die Plant
Engineering Section Leader. “This is an instance where
strong working relationships really paid off and we
got a difficult job done without any customer disruption.” 
What’s Up
TUE March 31
Calendar subject to change.
Miller College Visit: 11a1p, Dining Center
WED April 1
THU April 2
$10 Haircuts: 11a-5p,
Assoc Service Center
Retirement Party for
Denis Vosburg: 2p in
Dining Center
Meet Your
Miriam Sundalius
Management
Director, Quality
How long at DENSO? 27 years
Talk about how a DENSO colleague or mentor has influenced
your career. Sherman Kawaguchi was a coordinator at DMMI when
I started. He taught me about our parts, problem solving and how to
make a presentation. What I learned from him is that a report has to
be visual. Pictures, not words. Especially in a global, dual-language
company like DENSO.
Walk us through your career
path. My first job has always been
as a Mom. I stayed home with my
children until my youngest daughter
turned two. I started working at
Goodyear in quality engineering and
quality training and spent a few
years there before I joined DENSO
in 1988. We were called Nippondenso back then. So for the last 27
years, I’ve worked in just about every
area in Quality.
I still have one of Sherman’s hand-written presentations about Quality
Systems. He knew how to tell a story with almost no words.
Early in my career, I was responsible
for Diamond Star Motors, a joint venture between Mitsubishi and Chrysler.
I am proud to be part of the group that developed the standards, rules and
auditing procedures for our QS9000 certification, which later became TS
16949. And as DENSO grew over time, quality was divided into sections so
we could focus on different areas like new product introductions, mass production and warranty in addition to working with customers on the day-to-day
issues.
What do you do? That’s the fortunate part of Quality. There’s rarely a day
that’s repetitive. My current focus is Warranty. I work with the problems that
occur in vehicles after they are sold to the final customer. The Warranty group
is one that is truly a function with responsibility for all of our North American
thermal products. Regardless where they’re made, we investigate all TAC warranty claims here in Battle Creek.
I spend a lot of time in polite disagreement with people as well. That’s a nice
way of saying that I get screamed at on the phone a lot.
What’s the most interesting part of your job? We joke that the warranty
job is like CSI. We never get all the information and we have to figure out
what happened from the evidence.
What important lesson(s) have you learned in your career at
DENSO? There is no “my” job or responsibility. We must work together to get the job done. When people start placing blame or pointing
fingers, we are quickly moving farther away from a solution. Teamwork
must come first. We can argue over whose fault it is later.
What advice would you give to an associate who wants to advance
their career—either through a management path or just as an individual contributor? Understand what we make and sell.
Learn how to effectively communicate what you want people to know. And
remember that words are not always the best way to do that.
Finally, you can’t be afraid to jump in and do something. It may be someone
else’s responsibility to finish, but you have to be a part of creating that solution.
What is your fantasy job? An artist. I like to paint with watercolors and
oils, make clay figurines and quilt.
What do you like to do outside of work? When the weather is nice, I take
three bicycle rides a week. Anywhere between 12 and 20 miles each ride. I
also like to visit with my grandsons (ages 6 and 2), travel, and do various arts
projects.
Tell us something that people may not know about you. I have been doing engineering work for 30 years, but my degree is in Accounting. And I grew
up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My father was an auto mechanic,
and believed everyone needed to know how to fix their own cars. Taking apart
a carburetor or rebuilding an engine was something fun we did together. 
DMMI Named One of 20 Michigan
Environmental Leaders by DEQ
The Michigan Department
of Environmental Quality
(DEQ) has honored DENSO
Manufacturing Michigan,
Inc. (DMMI) as a Michigan
Environmental Leader, citing
our outstanding, voluntary environmental stewardship.
environmental stewardship, community partnering and mentoring.
DMMI is among the first 20 facilities to receive this honor, and the
only Battle Creek business selected.
Another critical component of the Environmental Leaders program
is having a strong compliance history with a proven track record of
success. 
“Our involvement as a Clean Corporate Citizen (CCC) and a
Michigan Business Pollution Prevention Partner since 1998 really led
to this honor,” said Dave Mayfield, Advanced Environmental Engineer. “The State brought a group of us together to talk about ways to
recognize people that go above and beyond the CCC responsibilities
and reach out into the community to help and guide others. That led
to the development of this new program and us being a part of the
pilot group.”
The Environmental Leaders program recognizes environmental achievement at Michigan facilities. Qualifying companies demonstrate sound
The principles that set Environmental Leaders apart is the accomplishments of their mentoring efforts, such as providing assistance
or guidance to suppliers or customers and encouraging interaction
between company environmental professionals and local college and
high school students.
Congrats …
Kudos &
Congratulations to two
associates retiring after 24
years at DMMI:
Denis Vosburg retires on April 2. He began working at
DMMI on November 18, 1991.
Kathy Master also retires on April 2. She began working at
DMMI on November 25, 1991.
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