Lean Manufacturing

Return to process.

A Rapid Method of Improving Your Processes

The concepts of Lean Thinking achieve many of the objectives that have been associated with the team environment. Empowered, flexible workers, reduced set-up time, layout based on process not on function, a clean, neat work area, and many other benefits are the results of applying Lean Thinking.

Through out the 90's many people discussed how to improve the productivity of the workplace and suggested creating an empowered workforce. But over time many of these suggestions have merely stagnated without delivering the promised improvements in quality and productivity.

By embracing the lean concept, organizations have found they achieve higher quality and productivity. The various concepts are applied, as needed, buffet style, so you get what is most effective for you. The concepts can be used effectively in the office or the manufacturing area, in fact, they bring results to all types of work.

We have worked with a variety of organizations and have found them to achieve real gains in a short period of time. By applying either Standard Work or the 5S's many problems can be eliminated. These two concepts alone can make a major difference for your people. In some cases 5S has made a 50% improvement in quality and productivity. By adding Standard Work after the implementation of 5S, you could achieve another 50% improvement. That's over a 75% improvement accomplished within a month after implementing just these two concepts.

Using other concepts such as Pull, JIT (just-in-time), or Value Stream Mapping, you can dramatically impact the organization and achieve major improvements in quality, delivery and productivity. With over 45 years of combined experience, we have never seen such quick change and dramatic impact as is achieved by these concepts.

Some of the results we've observed after initiating lean thinking have been astonishing. We’ve seen doubling, tripling or even quadrupling the output of a given area after realignment based on these principles. Here are some examples of what we’ve achieved for our clients.

We started our work with these principles with organizations like General Electric - Electronics Business. Our goal was to assess their processes and help them reduce set-up time when switching from one product line to another. The plant in Morristown, TN was comprised mainly of punch press operations. We piloted the changes in the 2nd shift and the results were dramatic. We were able to train seven managers to continue the set-up reduction process with their production lines after our project was completed.

During 1992, we worked with the Production Supervisor of a building supply manufacturer based in Des Moines, IA to assist them in JIT Purchasing. The logic of not warehousing large quantities of raw materials but negotiating smaller, more frequent shipments tied in with production schedules, led EVERCO to also investigate the principles of JIT manufacturing. This success led them to initiate set-up-reduction in production changes. The next step was for them to develop a curriculum of supervisory skills for production supervisors to empower problem solving by all associates, ultimately realizing nearly self-directed production teams.

We were involved in a preventive maintenance audit at a St. Louis newspaper printing operation. We identified areas where simple scheduling of preventive maintenance, locating materials and supplies in logical sequence and labelling storage of supplies (all elements of 5S) minimized expense, lost press time and employee frustration. The project was proclaimed a 100% success by upper management and adopted as policy upon the completion of our project.

This past fall one of our clients was experiencing large amounts of WIP (work in progress). This resulted in 3 costly problem areas: 1) thousands of dollars spent in storage costs, 2) a warehouse with too much of what wasn’t needed and not enough of what was to be shipped, thus constantly experiencing late deliveries and 3) quality problems with products that had been produced weeks, even months earlier. We held four weeklong process improvement events to redesign the workplace and improve flow. In some instances we created work cells where a complete product was produced, while in other situations we just improved the flow of material through the area. Early estimations are that the client’s return on investment will be between 5 and 10 dollars per dollar invested in us.

Just recently a client faced 1.5 to 2 hours of downtime per shift on a production line due to faulty processes at a cost of $175 per minute. Annually this accounted for over $10 million in unwarranted costs. Since we’ve led a process discipline weeklong event, the expectation is that no more than 1 hour of planned down time will occur with the work force productively filling that time. For every minute saved, the client should reduce their cost by $350,000. Each minute saved will be returning over $10 per invested dollar.

As often as possible we will be updating this site with additional events and the results they achieve so keep checking back from time to time.

Return to Process.