Lean Manufacturing Innovation Award Winner

Here is an article I just put together on the Lean Mfg Online website. It is about what they are doing in Europe to recognize companies that are using innovation to create growth and jobs.

Lean Manufacturing Innovation Award Winner

Lean Office Reduces Processing Time By 50%

Have you heard about the Lean Office concept? What if I told you that by implementing lean principles in your office areas, it's possible to reduce your administrative processing time by 50%. Would you believe me? Maybe, maybe not, right?

What if you were presented with data clearly demonstrating that a company had actually achieved this goal by using lean principles to restructure and develop lean office procedures. Yes, that's right, their lean office reduces processing time by 50%!

So, did I perk your interest? I would like to share a great article that I found on the WMEP website. It explains how a small family-owned company called Dalco Metals, in Walworth, Wisconsin used some basic lean tools to achieve these amazing results.

Lean Office Reduces Processing Time By 50%

Lean Office 

Since 1973, family owned Dalco Metals of Walworth has been a premier supplier of flat-rolled steel-processing services to manufacturers throughout the Midwest. John Ring, executive vice president of Dalco, credits this long-term success to the company’s focus on the customer’s needs, close relationships with suppliers, and constant attention to quality in every manufacturing and business process. 

“About eight years ago, it seemed that everything pointed toward adopting lean manufacturing methods: a customer recommended we look into lean manufacturing, a classmate in my MBA program recommended 5S (a lean method), and I attended the Manufacturing. Matters! conference and participated in a Lean workshop presented by WMEP. 

5S is not a static tool – Dalco Metals continually works at sustaining the changes they’ve made and to continually find new ways to make the process better, cleaner, faster and less expensive. “Dalco Metals is a great example of what it takes to generate the benefits of Lean manufacturing over the long-term,” said Thiltgen. “Many companies start lean programs, but lack the stamina and commitment it takes to fully realize the benefits gained when Lean is a way of life. Dalco Metals has tremendous executive support of Lean – it’s a part of everyone’s job.” 

Chuck Ferguson, inside sales and applications manager, agrees. “The ‘sustain’ part of the program is the toughest part. We are trying to ingrain the 5S mentality in everyone’s minds here at Dalco and I think it is working. As long as we have the support of the management, Dalco will continue to operate at peak efficiency.” 

Ferguson implemented the following steps to ensure that the company remains focused on 5S...[read more in the original article]

I have been involved in the Continuous Process Improvement field for nearly 30 years and I have to say that I still get stoked when I read article like this. Why is this? Well, its because small to medium sized businesses are the backbone of the US economy and it is exciting to see them leading the way when it comes to improving productivity. Contrary to popular belief, it is not using lean principles to improve efficiency and effectiveness that forces companies to close their doors and causes people to lose their jobs. So what does it? 

It is poor management structures and decision making that creates inefficiency and increase the amount of waste in the system that leads to rising costs that is the root-cause of it. So, if you want to create a right culture that is capable of developing a successful lean implementation, you need to start with the management team first. Then you will be able to write your own article with the same heading as this one - Lean Office Reduces Processing Time By 50%!

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If you enjoyed this article: Lean Office Reduces Processing Time By 50%!

You will enjoy reading this article next: Concepts of a Lean Office

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How to Implement Lean Manufacturing Principles?

The number one question that I see coming up time and time again is: How to implement lean manufacturing? As many executive management teams and business owners are being forced by the economy to step back and take a look at their operations to see how they can improve their processes, reduce costs and improve value for their customers.

The problem arises when companies are coming from the position of not knowing anything about how to implement lean  manufacturing principles into their business practices. Many will take a "do it yourself" approach, while others will drive organizational change at a fanatical pace and at any cost. While both of these management approaches are commendable for their effort to move their organizations forward, it is a typical example of the polar opposites or extremes at both ends of the lean manufacturing implementation spectrum. It seems to suggest that implementing lean manufacturing principles into your company falls into either of these two categories, "do it yourself" or "get somebody to do it for you." Neither of these approaches are the best for achieving sustainable long term improvement.

So, what is a good example of the typical and best methodology when it comes to implementing lean manufacturing principles? Here is a great article written by Kim Do-won in the Korea Times News. Kim Do-won is a partner and managing director of Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

How to Implement Lean Manufacturing Principles?

Companies typically progress through three maturity levels as they improve performance, build expertise, and enjoy the resulting benefits.

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At the first level, companies should learn the basics. Entry-level lean practitioners are primarily seeking to eliminate waste in production. Their objectives typically include efficiency gains, cost reductions, improved quality, shorter lead times, and greater flexibility. Companies at this level understand the key lean tools and apply them at local factories but not consistently across the plant network. Through quick wins, they can typically achieve cost savings of 5 to 10 percent, for an immediate impact on the bottom line. Sustaining improvements over time and applying consistent standards across the network are the key challenges that companies must address in order to progress to the next level.

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Implementing a lean production system is second level. Companies at this stage are among the top players in their industry. They are moving toward an integrated lean-production system that involves the whole manufacturing network. As a result, they can reduce value-adding costs (that is, all manufacturing costs except for raw materials and other inputs) by 10 to 15 percent, while cutting waste virtually to zero.

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Companies at level three have a complete view of their non-value-adding costs. They have devised and implemented advanced techniques such as product segmentation and production & inventory strategy, as well as disciplined sales and operations planning (S&OP).

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The optimal production processes have been identified and leveraged using advanced tools such as bill of process (BOP). Most plants and overall equipment efficiency (OEE) levels meet global best-in-class standards. Manufacturing is a key contributor to funding growth.

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Moving from one level of lean to the next can be difficult. However, organizations at all levels can create significant value by a continued focus on lean. Recently, we’ve observed that many companies trying to get beyond level one or two have begun implementing shorter, more targeted and effective lean programs. And many at level three are deploying a broader range of advanced techniques...

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Read the original article.

This article reflects my own thinking and expereinces over the years when I have pondered the questions I receive about how to implement lean manufacturing principles into any business. There are only two ways for implementing lean principles and these are the "right way" and the "wrong way." There is no in between state, you are either working to become a Lean Enterprise or you are not! Anything else is denial or a way to avoid the facts because over 90% of the companies that will start their lean implementation process today, will fail within two years. How do you stop this happening to your company? You follow a tried and tested methodology for implementing lean manufacturing principles into any organization.

It is called "10 Steps to become a Lean Enterprise" training and implementation model. It can take an individual, a group or an organization through the required steps to develop a culture that is able to integrate and support continuous process improvement. It demonstrates how a management team can use their valuable resources to achieve fast and beneficial results.

If you enjoyed reading this article: How to Implement Lean Manufacturing Principles?

 

You will enjoy reading this one too: What is Lean Production Success?

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Lean Certification Online

Should You Consider Office Furniture as an Investment?

Should You Consider Office Furniture as an Investment?

Workplace Organization!

Workplace Organization!

Which is the better system, Lean or Six Sigma?

Which is the better system, Lean or Six Sigma?

Pursuing the Ideal Office!

Pursuing the Ideal Office!

Implementing Lean Principles in Hospitals!

Implementing Lean Principles in Hospitals!

Lean Training & Certification

The question that comes up often when I visit with clients, “Where can I go to get the right training to become a certified Lean Practitioner?" Well, to answer this question you have to understand that there is no definitive standard for lean training or certification. Anyone offering lean training and certification is using generally accepted training materials that have become accepted over the years. There is no actual certification body that is giving guidance to training companies that are teaching lean principles and certifying them. 

The truth is that anyone who has been involved with implementing lean principles for 15 years or more understands what is necessary in terms of the lean knowledge and competency levels. Unfortunately, over the years different employers have developed different standards as far as which training and certification bodies they will and will not recognize. It is even worse in the Six Sigma world. A good example is you can have a Six Sigma Black Belt certificate from many of the recognized institutions in the U.S. but the Army will not recognize them. They want you to take and pass their own Black Belt certification exam.    

So, what does a person do? How can they know they are getting the right training? How do they know if the certificate is acceptable to other businesses?    

The truth is they don't know for sure. There is not any way of knowing. They must do their own research and look at the credentials of the person or persons working with any organization that is offering lean training and certification. Check their bio to see what experience they have in applying lean principles in different sectors. Find out what results they have delivered to their clients. Ask questions! Anyone who is not willing to answer your questions or tell you about their background is someone you probably don’t want to work with anyway. Walk away and save your time and most important your money.

So what are employers really looking for in a person who is applying for a Lean Implementation position? Many will ask for education, then certification, then experience and finally examples of results when applying lean principles into a business environment. If you can show great results for several projects with different companies, this will help. I think results are the most important factor when deciding if a person can apply their lean knowledge. Unfortunately, the person making the decision about employing you or not may not have any experience of lean principles. Therefore, they may be more interested in which college or university you attended.  

 Lean principles teach us to be prepared and develop a proactive awareness to prevention. To get the best training find the people who know about lean principles. These people are those who have years of experience in the business of implementing lean principles. Lean Certification Online is a great website because they explain what a good lean training program looks like. Click here to learn more.

Lean Healthcare! Do Patients Benefit?

Lean Healthcare! Do Patients Benefit?

Getting real before the chips are down!

Many companies set out on their own Lean journey only to find they are up to their necks in stuff. Why is this? It is because most companies are totally unprepared for their Lean journey. In fact, research suggests that over 90% of companies who embark on a Lean journey will fail within two years. This is an astounding number!

Most companies don't think about implementing Lean principles until it's too late. The business has taken a turn for the worst and things are looking pretty bad. I call this scenario the "Oh Crap Factor."  How can a company in this state begin to stack the deck in their favor?

They can start by using the 5P's. Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance! To prepare, a business must clearly define its purpose for implementing a Lean program. Next, it must determine the outcome it is trying to achieve, this could be to increase market share, improve profits, save jobs, etc. It must be able to define a measurement of success or a Key Performance Indicator (KPI). How will it define success? This is very important, without this the business will not know if it is on the correct course or not.

Training its employees to understand the Lean tools is another important part of preparation. I would suggest using an online training program such as Lean Certification Online. This will allow employees to receive their training during non-production hours.

Applying Lean Principles in a Business!

I get lots of comments about applying Lean principles in a business when the economy is down and troubled. I say "Listen up people! Nothing is easy at any time but now is the time to suck it up and make your business as effective as it can be at delivery products to your customers on-time, every time."

To many business owners are focused on what is not happening in Washington DC to turn the economy around rather than trying to get their businesses prepared for when things do change. I can only give this piece of advice "Stop looking over their for solutions, they are not coming from that direction, start looking at your own business today!" Try to improve your processes by teaching your employees about how to use and  implement Lean principles. Empower your employees to come to work and turn on their creativity. Allow the to finds simple ways to work smarter and not harder. The myth is that everyone will get out of trouble by working harder. Not true! People have to work smarter and only then will the magic happen in every business.

Doing business in a down economy

It seems like you can't get away from the news about the state of our economy these days. It's amazing how everyone has a different opinion about how to get out of it. I do know one thing and it's happens to be true! Of all the companies suffering at the moment, the ones that are suffering the least are those companies that adopted lean manufacturing principles into their business model over the past several years. Just look at the severe state of GM and Chrysler compared to Toyota, Honda and Nissan to name a few. It's really a sad comparison when you base it on their ability to create a quality car at a fair market price. The American Automobile Industry has been heading over the cliff for several years with no one telling them to pull back or re-evaluate their business goals and objectives to re-calibrate their organization.
What ever happened to their strategic planning? Did they have one? I'm not really sure if anyone understands the words "Hoshin Kanri" in Detroit these days.
I continue to wonder if they understand the key reason for their failure, in that it was a lack of flexibility in their business model to meet the changing demands of the market. The ratio of big gas guzzling vehicles to small economical cars was totally out of whack. It's highlighted a major problem with getting their "products to market" timeline, starting from research and development to get a new design of vehicle off the drawing board onto the production lines and out to the dealerships.
I hope GM and Chrysler make it because so many peoples jobs and our economy are dependant upon a competitive and viable American Automotive Industry. Only time will tell and in the twilight of history I hope the lessons learned will echo in every business sector.

Step 2 - Value Stream Mapping.

In Step 1 we defined and prioritized specific focus areas to give major breakthrough using a road map. In Step 2, we start to change and improve each of these areas identified along the route. It’s necessary to ask more questions.

• How can we change this area?
• Which activity do we improve first?
• What resources do we need?

Until you can answer these three questions, you can’t be sure you’re improving things to deliver the best results. Many organizations use a shot gun approach when deciding what to improve first. They don’t back up their decision making with data, instead they use opinion. When you’re taking employees away from their jobs to be involved in an improvement project, it’s very important to know their time is value added and not being wasted. The process we use to identify and prioritize any opportunities for improvement is “Value Stream Mapping”. It’s a process for demonstrating graphically how materials, products and information flow between suppliers, through your business operations and your customers.

Value Stream Mapping allows you to view an organization from several vantage points. It’s like looking down at the business from high up i.e. 10,000 feet. As look down at the structures, you notice some problems areas, so you move down to 5,000 feet to get a closer look. Then you move down to 1,000 feet, and so on. As you drop down lower you lose the big picture view but see a smaller part of the organization and in more detail.

1. Choose processes identified and prioritized in the Strategy Deployment Plan. Start by drawing a high level map of your company processes. Show the main departments and their activities. Try to define as many value and non-value activities with supporting data as possible. Identify any constraints throughout the process and prioritize them based on the level of impact to achieve breakthrough.
2. Draw a Current State Map of the process showing details of all value and non-value added activities. Collect process data to show inputs and outputs for each step of the operation. Typical types of data collected are; number of people, process quality, production throughput, inventory levels, and equipment uptime.
3. Using the 8 wastes as a guide, identify all non-value added activities. List all of the potential opportunities for improvement and prioritize them based on cost to implement, impact to the bottom line and the level of effort required to implement them. Start with the easy changes first, then slowly work up to the more difficult ones as you gain more experience. Next, you will convert your Current State Map into a Future State Map by making all the changes necessary to improve the process.
4. Create a Value Stream implementation plan. Determine the specific actions required to implement any of these improvements and determine who is responsible for each of these actions and the date they will be completed.

Remember, Value Stream Mapping is a journey of discovery, it is never ending. You must be open to change and willing to remain objective when uncovering the hidden waste as you work through this process.
"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." - Lao Tzu

Step 1 - Strategy Deployment:

An explanation of Strategy Deployment is to think of your company as being on a journey toward a specific destination. When its founders created the company they had a certain vision in mind. Their vision defined how the company would be organized, who would manage it, what type of customers it would serve and where they would take the business in the future. Hopefully it’s heading in the same direction they wanted it to go. Strategy Deployment helps to define the destination and how to get there! We start the process by creating a road map to chart the journey, clearly identify any potential problems and define the best route for your business to reach its destination.

Everyone in the organization needs to understand the task at hand and what’s expected of them. It’s of the utmost importance to have total alignment between all sectors of an organization. You will start the process by asking questions. Where does the company need to be in the next 3 to 5 years? Where does your company need to focus first to achieve major breakthrough? Answer these questions and you’ll discover a pot of gold. Yes, that’s right, gold, and its hidden away deep inside your business processes. I know what question you’re asking at this point. How can I know this for sure? Well, because I have experienced it many times. It’s really simple, if your business paradigm had allowed you to see the amount of money that’s wasted by maintaining non-value activities hidden inside your business model, you would have removed them long ago. You need to breakthrough your current business paradigm and create a new one that embraces positive change.

Strategy Deployment is a great tool to help you create and manage change by strategically aligning your Continuous Process Improvement process with your business goals and objectives. By doing this you give a clear message, purpose and create leverage for all levels of management to get fully engaged in the change process. If a CPI implementation is not aligned with business goals and objectives it will be very difficult to sustain it.

Leadership has five obligations to manage effectively:

1. To clearly define goals and expectations to all employees.
2. To make available the necessary resources for everyone to do their job. People can only become successful at work, when they are given the best training, right equipment, and are allocated the correct amount of time to perform a task, etc.
3. To remove barriers, allowing employees to stay focused on the task at hand. It’s not value added for employees to get embroiled in political or personal agendas which forces them to take time away from their job or involvement in the improvement process.
4. To create and maintain a system for tracking and trending critical process data.
5. To create a system for reporting Key Performance Metrics (KPM’s) to give feedback to all employees.

If any one of these five obligations is not followed, then Strategy Deployment or Lean Implementation will be a much more difficult process.
Strategy Deployment utilizes the Deming or PDCA Cycle ( Plan. Do, Check, Act). This is very helpful to ensure all necessary aspects have been incorporated into the Strategy Deployment process. The model itself is a relatively simple concept; however it’s much more difficult in its application:

Plan: Identify focus areas, prioritize improvements, create an implementation plan
Do: Implement the plan. Follow the requirements of the plan.
Check: Gather feedback/data from the process to determine if the plan is working.
Act: Plan not working. Identify corrective action and change the plan.

The cycle is repeated over and over to improve, standardize and sustain a process.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

Lean Enterprise! What’s it all about?

Is your company meeting the demands of customers while increasing market share and profits?
It’s amazing how many companies actually gloss over the obvious. Many businesses are moving through each day, dealing with one crisis after the next. They’ve become addicted to using fire fighting techniques to maintain the status quo, Anyone who can consistently step up to put out the fire to save the day is declared a hero. However, the same problems still occur day after day.

How many companies are willing to admit they're failing to meet customer expectations? I’ve not found many who will say it outright during my years of experience. Most are happy to live in absolute denial and oblivious to the facts until they hit that "pain point of realization". Many companies are facing the most crucial challenge to their very survival. Business and manufacturing technologies of the 20th century are no longer capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. Customers are now demanding more from their suppliers. There are many more choices available when deciding if a company is capable of meeting their supply needs.

Many organizations still hold fast to the belief that if they just work harder, they can improve things. This belief is not true. Hard work alone will not cut it in today’s global economy. Only when an organization starts to energize its employees, by unleashing their creativity to work smarter will they start to see massive change. Companies, who continue to focus their most valuable resource on survival tactics, by forcing them to work harder, will lose them faster.

Finding solutions to challenges requires a business to find answers to these key questions:

• What is the core skills capability within your company that sets it apart from others in your field?
• How can you best utilize these core skills to focus your business processes?
• How does a company grow in a highly volatile world market and still meet customer demand?
• How do you deliver a product or service faster and still maintain an acceptable level of quality?
• How do you reduce excessive inventory levels and continue to maintain customer satisfaction?
• How do you reduce operating costs, allowing you to become more competitive?
  

There is a simple solution to address all of the above questions and it can put your business way ahead of the competition: Become a Lean Enterprise by implementing and integrating lean techniques into your business model. It does not matter if you’re a manufacturing or non-manufacturing company. Anyone can use lean techniques to improve their business processes.Lean is a journey. Enjoy the trip.

Chris Turner

Lean Enterprise in 10 Easy Steps

The way to successfully implement some thing is to break it down into smaller chunks of activity. In doing this the brain can come to terms with what is being asked of it and how it all fits together. Implementing Lean principles falls under the same process. It's to big for most people to get their heads around, so I break it down into easily understood steps. Here are the 10 implementation steps to become a Lean Enterprise.

Step 1 - Strategy Deployment.
Step 2 - Value Stream Mapping.
Step 3 - Workplace Organization.
Step 4 - Process Flow.
Step 5 - Quick Changeover.
Step 6 - Pull System.
Step 7 - Balanced Workload.
Step 8 - Standard Work
Step 9 - Continuous Improvement.
Step 10 - Extend Lean into Supply Chain.

Over the coming weeks I will be going into more detail with each step. Enjoy the blog. Don't forget to visit our website...click here

Sharing idea's

It's great to share ideas about how to improve day to day activities so we create a positive experience every time we do them. It's always great to receive advice from someone who has already experienced a problem and found a way to overcome it. It could be advice from a friend about a special recipe, gardening technique or an ideal vacation spot. It could be advice from a professional about retirement, investing or financial issues. We really appreciate hearing from other people and learning from their personal experiences.

In a business environment, it’s even more important to share ideas. It's really important to find ways to improve your processes on a consistent basis. It’s the only way to stay ahead of the competition. How do you do this? Well, here are two simple ideas to get you started:

1. When your employees turn up for work every day, encourage them to turn on their creativity at the same time. So many companies have underutilized people sitting around focusing their skills on unnecessary tasks. In many cases employees are not allowed to express innovation or ideas about how to improve their work environment. An organization that can't integrate great ideas from its own employees is doomed to failure in the long term. These people experience real operational issues day in, day out and they understand there’s a need for change. It’s the responsibility of executive management to implement a process that allows these great ideas to be collected, investigated and converted into breakthrough improvements which positively affect bottom line results.

2. Develop a clear understanding of the connection between customer satisfaction and profit. Many companies focus their valuable resources on improving their own internal business functions. However, this does nothing for their customers. If your improvements don’t increase value by reducing costs, lead time, and quality issues, the customer will end up paying more for your products. Improve customer satisfaction and create happy customers, who will continue to do repeat business. Increasing profits are the reward for high customer satisfaction. Unhappy customers on the other hand will only continue to do business until they find a better alternative. They could eventually be directed towards one of your competitors which will reduce market share and profits. Focus your resources on becoming a more effective supplier and improving customer satisfaction, not on efficiency.

Does your company follow these two very simple ideas? If they don’t, then every day they’re losing out to other companies who are using them. Doing nothing, changes nothing, implementing small changes over time deliver greater results.
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw.