Tool Tips March 2019

Do more with less. Manufacture more faster. Be better. Be quicker. Be leaner. When VPs, CEOs, and CFOs start talking about being lean, to those who are not familiar with the system, it might ring alarm bells. Images of budget cuts, staff losses and running operations on nothing come to mind. But go a bit deeper and the true meaning of lean is about more than just creating efficiencies and reducing costs, it’s about providing opportunities for the people in your organisation to use the skills and knowledge to improve their work space, the overall business, and their lives.

A brief history of lean manufacturing
 

Lean manufacturing is about aligning people and processes, and supporting them, when necessary, with the right technology. It uses guiding principles based on the Toyota Production System (TPS) which was created by Toyota between 1948 and 1975. It’s since been adopted by businesses across most verticals in some form.
 

The objectives of the TPS are to:

• Reduce costs by eliminating waste (this includes time and materials).
• Make it easier to guarantee your customers good quality.
• Create a culture of teamwork, respect for human life and an environment where everyone can fulfill their potential.
• Build a production system that can respond immediately to changes in the market.

So far you’ll notice there’s not much there about slashing costs and replacing humans with machines.
 

TPS has 14 underlying principles:

1. Continuous improvement.
2. Adopt a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals.
3. The right process will produce the right results.
4. Develop your people.
5. Respect your partners.
6. Learn through reflection.
7. Use ‘pull’ system to avoid over production – only produce what is needed next in the process.
8. Level out the workload.
9. Stop production to fix problems – don’t continue if the product isn’t right.
10. Standardize tasks.
11. Use visual controls for transparency.
12. Use technology to serve people and processes.
13. Make decisions by cross-functional consensus.
14. See the problem yourself, go to the root.

Why go lean
 

Adopting lean manufacturing methods can mean increased efficiency, reduced costs and reduced waste. Sounds good, right? But the real gems come from an increased focus on your customer. This means the whole process of ordering, invoicing, receiving, servicing, and disposing of a product should be considered. Simple things like how a product is delivered to the customer, how easy it is to unpack, set up and service are all opportunities to provide a customer with an improved experience.
 

Lean is not the same as technology
 

One common misconception is that lean is all about adopting new technology. It’s not. Technology is simply a tool used by lean manufacturers to reach their goals. For example, the use of robots in lean manufacturing is not about replacing jobs, it’s about making people’s jobs easier, or freeing up their time on mundane tasks allowing them to add value elsewhere. Technology doesn’t drive lean, it simply makes it easier.
 

So, how do we do lean?
 

Being lean is being committed to a process of constant improvement. Start by analyzing your down times, audit your machines and see how often they’re adding or not adding value. Look to your entire supply chain and see where the blockages are. Technology, especially management suite software can help give you this overview.
 

The next step is to pick two or three of the most important issues you’ve identified and create some time lines to fix them, using the knowledge you already have within your business.
 

Once each is addressed, check the data to ensure it is truly solved, then move on to the next problem.
 

To succeed you’ll need to keep coming back to the people involved – remember, this is a people problem, not a technology problem. Have good housekeeping, good job instructions and ensure there is a sense of ownership. On the floor give the operator machines which are theirs to ‘own’ – empower your employees to make decisions.
 

Simply put:
 

1. Decide how you want to do things (and what’s stopping you from doing it that way).
2. Align the relevant people.
3. Use technology to support your changes where necessary.

 

How long until we see results?
 

Even simple changes can help you see differences straight away, but once you’ve dealt with the low-hanging fruit you need to create a plan for what you want to your whole manufacturing process to look like. Use this as a base for a strategic 1,3 or even 5-year plan.
 

Lean manufacturing is not just a case of doing more with less. It’s about doing away with unnecessary and supporting the necessary. It is human-focused and requires dedication to continuous improvement.
 

What else do you need?
 

Ensure you have buy in from top management. This will only work if everyone is committed. The saying “Old habits die hard” was never truer than when trying to shift a company-wide culture of “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
 

Another essential point is to use technology to solve the problems, not identifying technology you think you need and shoe-horning the problems to fit. Problem first, solution second.
 

Lean is more about helping humans than reducing costs. Although reducing costs is a natural benefit of going lean. It is about doing things better. Lean is about constantly improving to create better products and making businesses, internally and externally, more efficient.

 

20 June 2019