A winning pinewood derby car through continous improvement: Part 3

Wheels: Take the burrs off the tire surface from the stamping process...we used a 1500 grit sandpaper to smooth the wheels as much as possible. Be very careful or you can create damage to the wheels. We tested the smoothness with the 'close eye-touch finger-spin wheel' test to feel any bumps or leftover irregularities on the surface as we sanded it to measure our progress. Also, we had an additional regulation pinewood derby kit and we picked out the best looking and straightest wheels. Not all pinewood parts are created equal.

Next, we waxed the wheel surfaces with car wax several times for a smooth uniform surfaces. I guess my son did it at least 10 times to build up a nice coat of smooth wax. It was smooth and good looking to boot. We used Johnson Car wax that I had for my car. We even tried waxing the inside the wheel where the axle goes...apparently, it didn't hurt. Lastly, test your wheels and axle out and true them up as best you can. I used a small level and checked to see if everything was trued up and straight with the wheels on. Also, leave a space the width of the pinewood cardboard stock thickness between the wheel and the car body. Friction against the body is bad and will slow performance.

Axles: There is a ton of information about the axle prep on the net-read it and follow it. It's better explained with pictures so do your homework. Here's my two cents-have your son polish, polish, and polish some more til he is sick of it. Then it will be ready. Here's my order of abrasives (that I had around my workshop) for axle polishing :

40 grit sandpaper
60 grit sandpaper
100 grit sandpaper
140 grit sandpaper
500 grit sandpaper
1500 grit sandpaper
00 steel wool
000 steel wool
0000 steel wool

By the time you are done, those axles should be shiny and bright. Be sure to do the same on the underside of the nail head too-it has burrs there that will slow down your car. We used a high speed Dremel like tool for the polishing which improved the process over the 3/8" variable speed drill I used in previous years.

For the axle lubricant, it's graphite all the way. I tried the white teflon stuff for several years and graphite made his car go fast. Another tip: Buy your graphite a month in advance-the day of the derby, the store I went to get it at was sold out...fortunately, a kind soul at the derby let me have some. I believe that the greatest improvement for me was to apply the graphite just before the car was weight certified and impounded until race time. We waited until the last possible moment before "graphiting up" the wheels and attaching the axles in a just in time fashion to improve lubricant retention. Several of the other cars had been finished a few days before and it was very difficult to add more lubricant because the axles were glued on or the car was impounded and moved and jostled around in the competition setup. In our "flow", we planned to have the car completely assembled and ready just minutes before the tournament started and it seems that helped as well. One piece flow is a lean concept...so google it.

Paint - Our cars was painted and sat in front of a fan for 3.5 days before the race. The local derby master had told past participants that vehicle paint should be dry at least 24-48 hours before the race to reduce friction. Fresh paint reduces speed-remember that one! There are some really fancy paint jobs and cool looking cars...but if not planned for, it can hurt the speed at racing time.


The results? My son entered his call in a field of 32 competitors and he finished first! Even racing against the adults, there was only one adult car that beat his by a whisker. My older son's best showing was 7th and he was on hand to watch his younger sibling win it all. As for me, we tried several kaizens that seems to work but the greatest joy was watching my boy beam with pride knowing that he had contributed a large part to the win. Victory is sweet.

What have you improved today?

Kaizeneer

A winning pinewood derby car through continous improvement: Part 2

Ok, here is the brain dump of what my son and I did to get a winning pinewood derby car:

First steps:

1. Get the car kit a month of two before the derby. Start working on the car early to give your son and yourself time to learn and overcome production obstacles. Beginning the work on the car a few days before the race will cause stress and frustration and lead to a poor outcome.
2. Create a work area for the car kit with all the tools so you and your son can work on the car and have everything in one place.
3. Have your son organize the tools and layout of the work area-he will take more ownership in the car and the process.
4. If you can, buy a second kit and pick the best wheels and nail axles out of the two kits.
5. Some choose to buy the books about how to make a winning car. My advice is to check out the library and see what it has on the pinewood derby. Also, networking with other dads will give you 90% of the knowledge you need for a great car.

Car Design

1. Have your son draw designs for the car on paper first 1 to 2 months before the competition. This will engage his mind and create excitement about the process of creating the car.
2. Look at pictures on the Internet to get ideas of designs. Really cool stuff out there.
3. Make it as close as possible to your son's design-this will create more ownership from the boy.

Tools I recommend for this project to speed the production process:

1. Hammer
2. Screwdrivers
3. Variable speed drill
4. High speed drill tool(Dremel)
5. Wood chisels
6. Pliers
7. Jigsaw or ban saw
8. Belt sander

Car body

1. I believe the more aerodynamic the better. He chose a smooth curved shape this year and got good results. However, I do not believe that the greatest speed return will be in this area so don't go crazy with it.
2. Cut the car body with a ban saw or jigsaw.
3. Teach your son workshop safety tips as you go.
4. Sand the body down with a power sander or belt sander.
5. Make it an inter generation project and include grandpa if possible!
6. Sand the body nice and smooth to prepare for painting.
7. Start with a coarse grit and then use finer and finer grit sandpaper for final preparation.
8. Pencil on the bottom of the car "F" for front and "R" for rear - this applies to some designs that are hard to tell front from rear.
9. Do a "axle" test and see if the axles are level by placing the nails in the body axle slots and checking them with a level.

We would travel to my dad's workshop and do all this work. I imagine that we spent about 1-2 hours out in the shop teaching, cutting, sanding, truing, and cleaning up the shop. My goal was that both my sons remember working with Grandpa and Dad on their cars.

Next post will cover things to do for the wheels and axles.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

A winning pinewood derby car through continous improvement: Part 1

On Friday night, my youngest son had his last ever pinewood derby race for cub scouts. Both of my boys raced in the local pack race and enjoyed this activity. My oldest sons highest placing was 7th out of 28 cars and my youngest best finish ever was 5th in 2008. This year, we determined to use the kaizen approach and pull out all the stops since this was the final race that we would participate in. I will tell you that this was the best race we ever had in our family! Before I reveal our secrets and how we finished, here is what we decided to do in the final derby of our family:

1) My son had to do over 50% of the work on his car- In my opinion, Dad doing all the work defeats the purpose and spirit of the pinewood derby. Some of the cars that race are obviously built by an adult...my goal was that by doing over half the work he would take interest and ownership in the car.

2) Inter generational project - My dad, myself, and my son all took time to work on the car. My father is a fabulous woodworker with a primo workshop and he helped his grandson cut and sand the body of the car. Our goal is that he remember working with his grandpa and his dad and how much fun it is to do projects with his family.

3) Check listing all the things I learned previously - in all the past races, I learned a few tips here and there. This year, I went back to all the techniques I had heard over the years and followed them in the building of the car.

4) Add my own improvement - this year I added some of my own kaizens of which most I believe helped the cars performance in the race. One didn't work at all...not all kaizens work!

5) Focusing on the process instead of the outcome - the time that I any son spent was building and working on the car to do all the things we knew to make it go fast. We focused on the fundamentals and process of reducing friction in every place possible instead of thinking about winning the competition. If you work on the fundamentals, the results will take care of themselves.

In my next post, I tell all the secrets we learned over the years and how we used them. Unlike so many others charging for pinewood derby car information, we share what we learned for free to benefit everyone that wants to read it.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Moments in the snow.

We got buried on Wednesday the 28th. 12.5 inches of snow dropped on Indianapolis a couple days ago resulting in two days of closed schools. There was plenty of opportunities to use continuous improvement to make the big job of snow removal a little easier. Before we even started, I suggested that we take a moment to find ways to improve the process of clearing the snow...

My oldest son had a dilemma. He had to get out to the BMV to get his learner's permit for the driving part of his drivers ed class. Our street is never plowed since we live on a dead end so we didn't want to get stuck. His kaizen was to measure the height of the snow in the street and then measure each vehicles ground clearance to pick the car with the best clearance to improve the chance of getting out. As simple as this is, I praised him for his data based decision making process!

My oldest daughter had a kaizen moment as well. As all five of us were clearing the driveway, it occurred to her that our process of snow removal could have been improved. We had cleared most of the snow off our pavement when we started to clean off the two cars. She observed that since we didn't start by brushing off our vehicles, we had wasted time moving the snow twice. As I thought about what she said, I realized that she was right-we had wasted time by moving the snow needlessly. This lead to her"Top down" snow removal approach: Start at the highest point where there is snow and clear it from top to bottom. I was impressed at her observation!

Lastly, we helped four other neighbors to dig out of the snow. We had fun helping other people and our last exercise was for all of us to make snow angels before heading in for a warm beverage. Some of our improvements included shoveling between the tire tracks only, pushing instead of picking it up, and if shoveling, only moving snow the minimum height and distance needed. After returning to work, several of my co-workers complained of how sore and tired they were moving snow in their own drive. I had to chuckle...using kaizen, we helped our community, cleared our driveway, and turned this chore into a fun family memory!

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Applying Lean in the kitchen:World record time unloading the dishwasher

New World record time unloading our dishwasher and placing all dishes, silverware, and cups away: 1 minute and 30 seconds on 1/28/09.

It's fun to set world records. Guinness may not care but it's cool to turn work into a game which helps draw the kids into it. My youngest son and I have a two person unloading record of two minutes and forty six seconds but we should be able to smash based on what we have learned about standardized work. Here's a few lesson we learned:

• We load our plates and bowls on the bottom rack.
• When the dishes are clean, we can take the entire bottom rack out and set it on the counter for faster unloading.
• Turning the silverware caddy around 180 degrees makes the unloading easier and faster.
• Cups and large spoons are loaded in the top of the rack.
• Placing similar cups in the same rack row makes for faster collection and stacking.

The kitchen work is getting simpler and easier because we eliminating the variability of how the dishes are loaded. The process is not perfect but it is getting better little by little. In fact, I am seeing more improvements everyday as we are moving slowly and building "kitchen consensus".

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Applying Lean in the kitchen: Kids loading dishes...

In my previous post, we have been working to use continuous flow to help make it easier to process the dishes. Here is my innovation to help the kids to use flow rather than "batch and queue" dirty dishes:

Yeah, it's not going to win any art prizes but it is effective in getting the kids to put their plates and silverware in the dishwasher. The sign was designed to cover the drain hole in the sink and I placed it under a plastic lid to keep it from getting wet. So, when the kidlets come to the kitchen sink, they see the instructions. This signage only comes out when the washer is empty and has room for the next load of dirty dishes. My process is the run the wash cycle just before bedtime and put away the clean dishes when the coffee is brewing first thing in the morning. Because of this, the dishwasher and sign are out all day capturing used dishes. I haven't measured the success rate but I believe it's about 80% of the dirty dinnerware gets put in. The kids follow the sign to the letter...which leads me to my next improvement and change the sign soon to read, "Rinse your dish and place it in the washer". ;)

My oldest daughter came home from college and told me that she was going to put her utensils in the sink but she saw the sign and put them in the washer. Even college students can be trained...

My next post is about shaving down the time to put away clean dishes and our "world record" unloading time. See you then!

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer

Applying Lean to the kitchen; Fewer dishes, less work!

I have been using flow to reduce the work for dishes and reduce the number of utensils used in a day. Collecting some data, I determined that we were using around 21 cups a day as a family of six. In other words, we were using reusable cups like they were disposable. Also, the dishes piled up in the sink in a batch and queue system all the time making more work for my wife and I after a hard days work. So, kaizen to the rescue.

• The device below is a small cup holder I made out of a shoebox to "meter" the cup use to reduce one and done usage.
  
• In the morning everyone gets a cup-upside down means it clean so they get a fresh one everyday.
  
• The cup is flipped over when it’s first used and remains upright and used all day.



• Each hole has the initial of the persons name next to it for each person’s home position.



• The rubber band has their name on it and they can put it on so if they take the cup away it won’t get mixed up with the others.

This improvement alone has reduced the number of dishes used by a significant amount and we're down to about one washer load a day. So, we're using fewer dishes, less water to wash, less dishwasher detergent, and less energy because we are doing fewer loads. The other nice benefit is that we are seeing a cleaner kitchen and with the next kaizen I will show you, the kids are doing more of the work.

What have you improved today?

Dan Lafever, Kaizeneer