Lean Management System LMS:2012

168  ◾  Lean Management System LMS:2012

Chapter 3 meanwhile discussed a cadmium electroplating operation

(Merit Partnership, 1996). This reference adds that traditional rinsing pro-

cesses are extremely wasteful and furthermore that dragout wastes the

chemical and creates an environmental aspect as well. Redesign of such a

process to add a spray rinse to the dragout rinse, both of which return the

dragout to the plating tank, followed by a two-stage counterflow rinse tank,

reduced water consumption by two-thirds (0.5 versus 1.5 gallons per minute)

and cadmium cyanide discharge by half (0.02 ounces per hour versus 0.04

ounces per hour). As a side benefit, the process redesign reduced the num-

ber of steps workers had to take from 58 to 21, thus ...