Slide 1 — Title slide
~ 0:00 – 0:30
Barry: Good morning! We are TIC-A-Dee-Doo-Dah — and my oh my, what a wonderful way to kick off your day.
Barry: We're Barry and Harrison, from FA3 here at Solihull, and this is our TIC project.
[Glance at each other, ready]
Barry: Right. Let's do this.
Slide 2 — Step 1: Barry intro
~ 0:30 – 1:05
Barry: Step One. That's me on screen. I'm Barry. Originally an ABS cover on the door line — now an operator on Line 12, I've been at JLR for twelve years, and I enjoy cycling — which is relevant, because this project had quite a few uphill stretches — and a fair few roadblocks too.
Barry: Second TIC circle for me, first time as circle leader. My scores were twos across the board to start — Business Awareness, Presentation Skills, Leadership. I started this as I am looking to grow my leadership skills.
Barry: Over to Harrison.
[Gesture to Harrison]
Slide 3 — Step 1: Harrison intro
~ 1:05 – 1:40
Harrison: Hi — I'm Harrison. Also an ABS cover on the door line, same as Barry. Started October 2023, so still fairly new to JLR. I go bouldering in my spare time, so I'm used to being out of my comfort zone.
Harrison: My scores are all ones. Honestly, fair enough — first TIC circle, first time presenting, first time even hearing the word 'fishbone.' I joined the team to develop my presentation skills, how am I doing?
[Beat]
Harrison: Well I know what a fishbone diagram is now. Progress.
Slide 4 — Step 2: Look for improvement themes
~ 1:40 – 2:30
Barry: Step Two. We each did our own Go-Look-See — we each came back with two ideas.
Barry: I suggested better holiday forms. I pitched it last year and it didn't get picked, so this year I thought — right, I'll lead my own circle and get it done myself.
Barry: I also put forward better Cover-Person support — improving the process for people stepping in across different roles.
Harrison: I suggested a better Drop Box. The one we had was causing problems every shift, so I thought we could do better.
Harrison: And I put forward a better tool point too — sorting out how shared tools and PPE get stored at the station.
Barry: Four ideas. One decision. On to the selection matrix.
Slide 5 — Step 3: Selection matrix
~ 2:30 – 3:15
Harrison: Step Three. We scored all four against SQCDPE, one to five.
Harrison: Holiday Forms scored 20 — but came back Not Achievable. Off the table straight away. Sorry, Barry.
[Barry shrugs]
Barry: Cover-Person Support also scored 20 — achievable, but no higher than holiday forms.
Barry: Tool Point scored 13 — achievable, but the smallest impact of the four.
Barry: A Better Drop Box scored 23 — highest overall, achievable, five out of five on both Safety and Delivery. The numbers made the decision for us.
Harrison: And it wasn't just the numbers — Drop Box was also the clearest fit with the Creators' Code. Integrity, because it's fully GSPAS-compliant. Impact, because it fixes a safety issue and clears an audit non-conformance.
Slides 6–7 — Step 3: Selected a winner
~ 3:15 – 3:35
[Advance to winning theme]
Barry: So — the theme we went with was... holiday for—
Harrison: The Drop Box!
Barry: Yeah. The Drop Box. That's what I was going to say.
Slide 8 — Step 4: Baseline condition
~ 3:35 – 4:10
Harrison: Step Four. Before the problems, a quick word on what the Drop Box actually does. When a door comes down the line, it has no power, so no way to raise the window. It needs to be down earlier on, to fit the trim around it — but if it isn't back up by the time it reaches Line 12, the door can't be fitted to the car. The Drop Box plugs into the door, powers it up, and lets the operator raise the window before it leaves the line.
Harrison: Simple idea. But what we had before wasn't fit for purpose, it was built from repurposed parts, used a battery system that wasn't standard to the line, and those batteries ran flat quickly. None of it was GSPAS compliant — GSPAS being the safety standard our process' checked against.
Harrison: So unsafe, slow, non-conforming.
[Pause]
Harrison: Not a great combination on a live production line.
Slide 9 — Step 4: The data
~ 4:10 – 4:40
Barry: And it wasn't just a feeling — we pulled the numbers. Lee, our Group Leader, dug out the SWC records, and we kept a battery-change tally on the line itself.
Barry: We were changing batteries every thirty minutes. Even worse, they were overheating while charging—and each one took an hour to cool down. That meant the operator had to swap the battery sixteen times a shift. We had four of them in constant rotation, just to keep the line moving.
Barry: When the tool broke — which did happen if it got dropped — there was no spare. An hour to repair it, and in the meantime, one cover person had to work both left and right hand sides with a single working tool.
Barry: And because of all that, we failed every single SWC — that's the standard working confirmation — on those two jobs. No engineer sign-off on the WES, the work element sheet, so no compliance. That's where we started.
Slide 10 — Step 5: Vision & targets
~ 4:40 – 5:15
Barry: Step Five. We set a SMART target. Not just 'let's fix the thing' — a proper, specific goal with a deadline we could be held to. Team TIC-A-Dee-Doo-Dah will design, build, and validate a GSPAS-compliant Drop Box, by the end of April, ready for the MQOS audit — that's JLR's manufacturing quality audit.
Barry: That's specific — we knew exactly what we were building, and exactly what it had to pass.
Harrison: It's measurable — one hundred percent of GSPAS control requirements met. Pass or fail, nothing in between.
Barry: It was achievable, because we had the skills and the kit — and realistic, because we had the time to deliver it.
Harrison: And it's time-bound — completed by the end of April, ahead of the MQOS audit on the third of June.
Barry: Clear target. Clear deadline. No wriggle room.
Slide 11 — Step 6: Fishbone diagram
~ 5:15 – 5:40
Harrison: Step Six. Before we drilled into the root cause, we mapped everything feeding into the problem — equipment, process, materials, environment, method, people. Every branch pointed the same way: no fit-for-purpose solution existed.
Harrison: So we used the whys to dig into why that gap was there in the first place. Barry?
[Hand to Barry]
Slide 12 — Step 6: Root cause (why analysis)
~ 5:40 – 6:05
Barry: The whys are on screen — quick version: the unit wasn't built for the job, so it ran on a non-standard battery, and nobody ever swapped it for something proper.
Barry: Why not? Because the downtime was never tracked — it just got accepted as part of the job. And why wasn't it tracked? Because nobody's shift report had a column for it. Output got measured. Quality got measured. Tool downtime didn't. If it's not on anyone's sheet, it never gets raised — and if it's never raised, it never gets fixed.
Barry: That's the real root cause. Not just "no process" — nobody owning tool downtime as a number. That's what we were going to put right.
Slide 13 — Step 7: Solution overview
~ 6:05 – 6:35
Barry: Step Seven. We set ourselves four goals: use the standard eighteen-volt Bosch battery already on the line, build it entirely ourselves, make it handheld and compact, and keep it simple enough that anyone can use it with zero training.
Barry: We did look at buying one first — nothing on the market fitted, and lead times ran to months. So we built our own. A tool made for this line, by the people who work on it.
Slide 14 — Step 7: Action plan
~ 6:35 – 6:55
Harrison: We split the build into three phases — select the components, test the components, then design the enclosure. And before anything hit the line, our Proposed Improvement form went to the TIC coach. All official, all above board.
[Hand to Barry]
Slide 15 — Step 7: Gantt chart
~ 6:55 – 7:20
Barry: Here's the Gantt — February to June. I owned design and build: we needed V1 completed by the end of March, then refining V2 through April and May.
Barry: Harrison took operator engagement — talking to the people who'd actually use the tool, so we built what they needed, not what we assumed.
Barry: He also put this whole presentation together, on top of all that — I just show up and talk.
[Hand back to Harrison]
Slide 16 — Step 7: DC converter options
~ 7:20 – 8:00
Harrison: We needed a DC-to-DC converter to step the voltage from eighteen volts down to the 13.8 the window unit needs. We tested three options.
[Hold up first converter]
Harrison: Option one. This tiny little thing.
Harrison: It released its magic smoke on the first test.
Barry: Go bigger!
[Hold up second converter]
Harrison: Option two. Much bigger. Very impressive looking. Unfortunately, it ran very hot — too hot for production use.
Barry: Go bigger!
[Hold up third converter]
Harrison: No, Barry — not just bigger, better. Option three. Fixed 13.8 volts. Compact. Reliable. No drama whatsoever. That's the one inside the Drop Box.
[Pass all three converters to the judges]
Slide 17 — Step 7: Components & sign-off
~ 8:00 – 8:25
Barry: Once we had the right converter, we wired the full circuit using spade crimp terminals and assembled the enclosure. Everything you see was built by hand, on the bench, by this team. No outsourcing. No shortcuts. Us.
Barry: Before it could go anywhere near the line, it had to be reviewed and signed off by engineering. We produced a full wiring diagram and component list, showing exactly how it was built and that it met every GSPAS requirement. Approved.
Slide 18 — Step 7: PDCA cycle
~ 8:25 – 9:10
Harrison: PDCA got us there. Starting with PLAN — we tested converters until we found one that worked, and designed a two-part enclosure: Body and Cover. That was V1.
Harrison: Then DO — we printed V1 in PLA, wired the circuit, crimped every connector, assembled it and bench-tested. 13.8 volts confirmed.
Harrison: For CHECK — we took V1 to the line. Walls too thin, it flexed, no way to see if power was on — and then someone dropped it and it fell apart. Real roadblocks. So what did we do?
Barry: (deadpan) We stuck it back together with floor tape.
Harrison: Briefly. That is not the ACT stage. What did we actually do, Barry?
Barry: ...Redesigned it and made it stronger?
Harrison: That's right — for ACT, we thickened the walls, reprinted in PETG, added a green LED, and separated the Plug as a third, replaceable part. That was V2. Three parts. PETG. LED. Compliant. That's the one on the line now.
Slide 19 — Step 7: The V2 prototype
~ 9:10 – 9:30
Barry: Here's V2. Three parts — Body, Cover, and Plug. The plug is separate, so if it ever wears out you replace just that piece. You don't reprint the whole unit.
Barry: Printed in PETG, thicker walls, green LED so operators know power's on. That's the unit that went through engineering sign-off, and that's the one on the line right now.
[Hold up or gesture to the physical unit if present]
Slide 20 — Step 7: Design sign-off & handover
~ 9:30 – 9:50
Barry: The Drop Box worked — but we didn't just leave it on the bench and call it done.
Barry: We submitted the design to engineering. They reviewed it, passed it, and assigned it a GSPAS number. All 3D files and an instruction sheet are stored in the vault. Anyone can reprint it, replace a part, or repair it — without coming to find one of us.
Barry: It's not just a tool. It's a documented, supportable solution that will outlast us on that line.
Slide 21 — Step 7: Results
~ 9:50 – 10:15
Harrison: We achieved what we set out to do, and the feedback's been genuinely positive — working closely with the operators meant we built something they actually want to use, while still meeting what the company needed too.
Harrison: Simple to use as well — one hand, plug in, power on. Zero training needed.
Harrison: We hit a hundred percent GSPAS compliance, which let us sign off the WES's and clear the non-conformance for the audit.
Harrison: No more flat batteries. No more cascading them down the side to cool. No more non-conformance.
[Continues straight into Checking Results]
Slide 22 — Step 7: Checking results — before vs after
~ 10:15 – 10:35
Barry: Worth putting the old numbers next to the new ones. Battery downtime — was sixteen changes a shift, now barely one — the Bosch battery lasts around six hours. Repair time — was an hour with a shared tool, now under five minutes to swap a part, because there are three complete tools on the line now, so there's always a spare. SWC pass rate — was zero percent, now a hundred. The tool went on the line at the end of April, and every single check since has passed.
Barry: That's not a feeling. That's the difference, in black and white.
[Look at the screen]
Barry: Well — green and cream.
Slide 23 — Step 8: User manual
~ 10:35 – 10:55
Harrison: Step Eight. The instruction sheet we archived in the vault grew into a full user manual — how to fit it, how to check it, what to do if something's not right.
Harrison: Step-by-step assembly and wiring, a quick-reference checklist, and troubleshooting if something goes wrong — the whole thing's finished and ready for anyone on the line to use.
Harrison: And it's not buried in a drawer either — press your phone against the number on the side of the tool, and it'll take you straight to the manual.
Slide 24 — Step 8: Sustain
~ 10:55 – 11:15
Harrison: If we're honest, one regret — start the data tally from day one.
Harrison: The Drop Box isn't sitting in a drawer gathering dust. It's in active use on the line right now, with SWC checks verifying it every cycle.
Harrison: We've already started on a version for the station that lowers the window — smaller, lighter, a genuine design challenge we're working through.
Harrison: We're also looking at whether FA2 could benefit, and other sites after that.
Harrison: We've already emailed our Nitra site — the files and manual are archived in the vault, ready whenever they need them.
Barry: And I'm proof of that — I've since moved to Line 12, and the Drop Box hasn't missed a beat without me.
Barry: And if we make it to Slovakia — we might just take one with us. Call it a gift — not a bribe.
Slide 25 — Step 9: Barry reflects
~ 11:15 – 11:30
Barry: Step Nine. The numbers on screen tell part of the story — twos to threes across the board for me. But I'd rather tell you what the numbers don't show.
Barry: I've been on this line twelve years. I've walked past problems and thought 'someone should sort that' more times than I can count. This circle taught me the someone can be me. Leading a team, making decisions, keeping things moving — I'm better at all of that now.
Barry: My contribution was the design — I built the enclosure and everything inside it from the ground up. Taking something from a problem on the line to a fully working, GSPAS-compliant unit I'd built myself was a big deal. I'd never even heard of the vault before this. Leading the circle at the same time pushed me further than I expected, and I'm proud of both.
Slide 26 — Step 9: Harrison reflects
~ 11:30 – 11:45
Harrison: I started with all ones, and honestly wasn't sure that was going to change. Never done a TIC, never presented anything, never designed something that had to actually work in a production environment.
Harrison: What I'll take from this is that I can change things. Real things. That feels different to just turning up and doing the job. And it doesn't matter whether I'm on this line or up on a bouldering wall — that's a skill I'm keeping.
Harrison: My role was the people side — talking to operators, understanding what they actually needed, feeding that back to the team. Getting out on the line, asking questions, listening properly — that's a real skill, and I'm genuinely better at it now.
Slide 27 — Thank you / close
~ 11:45 – 11:55
[Both stand forward together]
Barry: We started with a non-compliant, makeshift unit — we finished with an approved tool in active use, real lessons learned along the way, and more sites already lined up for what's next.
Barry: We're TIC-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. My oh my, what a wonderful day.
Barry: We're very happy to take questions.
Q&A prep — not for presenting
The evaluation form asks judges to check whether problems were learnt from and future steps identified. One near-certain question:
"What would you do differently next time?"
Barry: "We touched on that in the Sustain section — starting the data tally earlier. If I'm honest, I'd also loop engineering in during the design phase rather than waiting until the wiring diagram was ready for sign-off — that could have saved us a redesign cycle."
"How do you know the improvement will stick once you two move on?"
Harrison: "It doesn't depend on us. The files and manual are in the vault under a GSPAS number, there are three complete tools on the line, and the SWC checks pick up any slip every cycle. Barry's actually moved to Line 12 since we finished, and the Drop Box hasn't missed a beat without him."