Last year, Forum Energy Technologies’ Stafford, Texas, production plant was getting close to running out of capacity. Part of a global oilfield service and equipment company, the plant makes a variety of valves across seven different brands. Of particular concern was the plant’s PBV ball valve production area, which produces trunnion-mounted, quarter-turn ball valves in sizes ranging from 3/4-inch to 36 inches. Open since 1999, the plant revolved around a traditional manufacturing mindset, where a forklift is used to bring parts to one worker, who proceeds to build all of the necessary items for the valve. Then, a forklift comes back to move the completed ball valve to the next stage. But, that setup didn’t work so well when the plant’s business increased significantly. “When business increased, we knew that we needed to improve the product flow in our plant by eliminating waste and reducing cycle times,” says David Tummins, plant manager. “We knew that would help us build and finish valves faster than we were doing with the traditional setup.” Tummins joined Forum Energy Technologies about two years ago and began to attack the biggest problem, which was a lack of capacity in th...