With these vehicles being assembled manually, the employee is a primary focus. The proper tooling, sequence of assembly and the workstation layout are essential to minimizing the employees' efforts. Some jobs require an immense amount of movement; employees have been noted to walk up to 6 miles in an 8-hour shift. Kenworth expressed interest in decreasing the walking distance of its employees.

The sequence and plant layout should be documented and studied for possible improvements. Safety is always a concern and such things as trip-hazards and injury due to repeated motion should be minimized or eliminated. After interviewing an employee it was mentioned that hands, fingers, and feet (steel-toed boots are required) are consistently being injured. Workers hit their head on the frame or get struck by over-stretched airguns. The presence of a sick bay at the Kenworth Renton facility makes it obvious that the occurrence of injuries are frequent and can be severe. The number of reported injuries is well reported and publicized to the employees.

When making custom vehicles of such caliber, quality is always a concern. Kenworth selects three vehicles a day. These are inspected and the findings are posted for all Kenworth team-members. The posting is located at the conveyor controls; thus the push for quality is very prominent. These scores are dependent on the severity of the area. Such things as brakes, bolts and plugs are graded, and posted on the scorecard. Areas that consistently contain flaws, need rework, or get poor rankings need to be analyzed and suggestions made.

Materials that are wasted are a direct loss in capital (Not capital, but waste does directly impact the cost of a truck). While on tour of these stations the presence of waste was quite apparent. Nylon pipe remnants, zip ties, plastic bags, huck bolts, nuts, bolts, metal shavings, and grease are all wasted in this are of the facility. We understand some waste is unavoidable, so we will focus on what waste can be eliminated and suggest ways to make improvements.