Lean Manufacturing Consultants
“Lean production” or “Lean manufacturing,” is widely considered the next big step in the evolution of manufacturing beyond mass production techniques. Lean Manufacturing is all about continuously identifying and eliminating MUDA (Waste) from all processes, thus improving utilization of all resources i.e. Man, Machine, Material, Space. Lean production results in optimum utilization of all resources thus reduces costs and shortens Lead time between order receipt date and ship date.
Some of the Key Principles of Lean Manufacturing are:
Specify value: Value can only be defined by the ultimate customer. And is expressed in terms of a specific product (a good or a service, and often both at once) which meets the customer’s needs at a specific price at a specific time. In most of the organizations, value is defined by the engineers designing the products and lot of features built in products are actually not desired by the customer and yet customer ends up paying for such features. First step in Lean manufacturing is to define Value terms of specific products with specific capabilities offered at specific prices, through a dialogue with customers. The way to do this is to ignore existing assets and technologies and to rethink firms on a product-line basis with strong, dedicated product teams.
Identify the value stream: exposes the enormous amounts of waste. The value stream is the set of all the specific actions required to bring a specific product (whether a good, a service, or, increasingly, a combination of the two) through the three critical management tasks of any business:
- the problem-solving task running from concept through detailed design and engineering to production launch, the information management task running from order-taking through detailed scheduling to delivery, and the physical transformation task proceeding from raw materials to a finished product in the hands of the customer.
Identifying the entire value stream for each product is 2nd Key step in Lean Manufacturing implementation, a step which most organizations rarely attempt, but a step which always exposes enormous amounts of Muda.
Create flow: Once value has been precisely specified, the value stream for a specific product fully mapped next steps is to Create flow in value stream by eliminating wastes and ensuring all Value-added steps are performed without any interruptions. Material and information should be flowing in factory like water flows in a river. Wherever material & information flow stops or flow is not as per demand rates of customers, there will extra costs and losses. Flow can be achieved by reducing wastes from all the processes and requires reduction in batch size and WIP.
Let the customer pull product through the value stream: make only what the customer has ordered. Overproduction is considered mother of all other MUDAs (wastes) and Pull system helps minimize waste of overproduction.
Seek perfection: continuously improve quality and eliminate waste.
Key Benefits of Lean Manufacturing are:
Reduces costs not just selling price
- Reduces delivery time, cycle time, set-up time
- Eliminates waste
- Seeks continuous improvement
- Improves quality
- Improves customer ratings and perceptions
- Increases overall customer satisfaction
- Improves employee involvement, morale, and company culture
Comparing Lean Manufacturing with traditional manufacturing, following are the results which have been achieved by several organisations around the world
Half the hours of engineering effort
- Half the product development time
- Half the investment in machinery, tools and equipment
- Half the hours of human effort in the factory
- Half the defects in the finished product
- Half the factory space for the same output
- A tenth or less of in-process inventories
To Implement Lean Manufacturing following are key elements:
- Gain top Management “Buy In” and Support
- Perform overall company assessment tied to company strategic, operational, and marketing plans
- Develop strategic lean deployment plan
- Integrate customized training with lean to improve specific skill sets, leverage training resources
- Conduct “Kaizen blitz” high impact events with help of Lean Manufacturing consultants
As Lean requires lot of changes in the existing manufacturing systems, change management becomes key to successful implementation of Lean. Lean Manufacturing consultant plays a major role in change management and implementation of Lean Manufacturing program.
Lean Manufacturing consultant can help you in:
- Setting the right vision and direction for Lean Implementation
- Identifying right Lean tools to be implemented for your organization
- Training team members to build right mindset and sensitization on Lean
- Conducting Lean Kaizen events for rapid implementation of Lean Manufacturing program
- Establishing Reward & Recognition program to motivate employees and build structure for positive change
Our Lean Manufacturing consultants can help you implement Lean manufacturing program so that you achieve maximum benefits in minimum time.
Progress on Lean can be seen, if you start seeing following results in your organization
- Smaller lot sizes
- Increased capacity / throughput
- Higher inventory turns
- More available floor space
- Improved workplace organization
- Improved quality: reduced scrap / re-work
- Reduced inventories: raw, WIP, FG
- Reduced lead times
- Greater gross margin
- Improved participation & morale