Information & Training. | Lean Manufacturing. Just In Time Processing.
Lean Improvement
There are three foundations upon which a lean improvement effort is developed.#1: Lean is focused on involving everyone. It requires buy-in, acceptance and active participation by all. It is not a methodology imposed by management. This requires the development and promotion of a culture which facilitates and promotes employee involvement.
#2: Lean is orientated towards continual improvement across aspects of an organization. For example, lean will seek to improve product quality and reliability, improve process efficiency, reduce equipment downtime, will reduce administrative delays, improve the quality of report data, etc. etc.. Across the full spectrum of operation, lean will seek to drive continuous improvement.
#3: Lean is focused on the identification and elimination of waste. Some waste can be readily identified, for example, scrap, rework, product returns, … other waste is less obvious, for example, time spent internally transporting in-process inventory, employee time focused on testing and inspection, staff engaged in talking to customers explaining about delivery delays, etc.. Any activity that is not actively adding value in the eyes of the end customer can be considered waste. Here the end customer can be a person buying a product or service, alternatively the end customer may be a regulatory agency, or a government body. For example, the payment of taxes are “value added” activities from the viewpoint of the government, therefore must be performed and should be performed in the most administratively efficiently manner possible.
The tools and techniques of Lean & JIT:
– Basic working practices
– Total Productive Maintenance
– Design for manufacture
– Set-up reduction
– Operations focus
– Total staff involvement
– Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
– Visual management
– Flow layout
– Just-In-Time Supply
– Pull scheduling & Push systems of control
– Kanban control
– 5S method of control
– Levelled scheduling
– Etc. Etc..
Information & Training presentation >>>
When considering waste, an organization needs to identify all its customers, determine their customer requirements and provide those products and services which are required. Only activities which add value to customer should be performed. Activities which are not adding value, need to be carefully examined and minimized where possible.
The objective of the lean model.
In developing a lean model, an organization needs to identify and understand its customers and involve everyone on a continuous basis towards adding customer value in the most efficient manner possible.How to develop and implement a lean improvement model?
The first step is management commitment. Without active and determined management involvement, any lean project will not succeed. The second step will be to define a lean strategy. Will the strategy be to implement lean across the entire organization or across specific areas of operation as a first step? What will be the timeline for implementation? What will be the strategic value in achieving successful lean implementation?The next stage will be to ascertain the status between the current situation versus the end vision as defined in the strategy? A gap analysis will show the scale of the project required for successful and beneficial lean implementation.
Once the gap is defined, then a plan can be developed to move from the current situation towards the end vision. The plan will consider cultural change, will look at the competence of staff in terms of capabilities to implement various lean improvement tools and techniques, will examine and seek to define customer value, will seek to establish measures of value delivery. The plan to outline how the different customers perceive the value they receive currently from the business and how the customer experience can be improved. Ultimately the plan will aim to develop a roll-out strategy for integrating lean into the organization.
Summary.
Lean can bring significant benefits, however needs to be carefully considered. Lean can be applied to local areas of operation or across the entire organization. A necessary step, is to ensure a solid knowledge of lean among those required to be involved in lean development and an ongoing commitment to the lean project(s) by management.“Lean” & “Just-In-Time”.
The tools and techniques of Lean & JIT:
– Basic working practices
– Total Productive Maintenance
– Design for manufacture
– Set-up reduction
– Operations focus
– Total staff involvement
– Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
– Visual management
– Flow layout
– Just-In-Time Supply
– Pull scheduling & Push systems of control
– Kanban control
– 5S method of control
– Levelled scheduling
– Etc. Etc..
Baldridge Performance Excellence Program
European Foundation for Quality Management