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What can you expect when you hire the most competent lean consulting firm?

The process of identifying the best lean Consulting firm has become a complicated task in these days. Various types of consultancy firms have come up with different types of offers and choosing the best one from the plethora of consultants available definitely needs great preparation and planning. When you become successful in identifying the best lean consulting firm, the business potential of the operational environment will undergo tremendous transformation. Achieving sustainable advances will become a reality and the operational cost will come down significantly as well.

The existing corporate landscape has become really complex and several factors contribute towards this situation. Shareholders always look for more profit and customers are always on the lookout for best products and services. Employees always search for increased job satisfaction and the authorities always lay down highly complicated rules and regulations as well. In such a situation, a competent lean consulting firm will offer these benefits: 

1) Businesses will be able to enjoy optimized inventory. 

2) Improvements in productivity will become a reality.

3) Cost reduction can be achieved with great efficiency.

4) Planning stabilization will become a hassle free process.

5) Businesses will come to know how to balance workload in the best manner.

6) Reduced lead time can be achieved.

7) Changeover time will get reduced in a significant manner. 

8) The underlying reason of every problem will be analyzed to make the process of problem solving uncomplicated. 

9) Employee engagement will reach new heights. 

10) Procurement optimization will become a hassle process.

11) Optimal improvement in customer satisfaction can be achieved.

All these benefits will lead to improved overall efficiency and businesses will be able to enjoy increased profitability as well. Most businesses have realized that hiring the best lean consulting firm will equip them to handle all complications associated with the present corporate landscape because quality professionals will always ensure meaningful improvement in any type of business organization.  

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The Top 5 Lean Management Principles

All companies started from scratch at some point. The difference between the ones that succeeded and the ones that fail is their internal Lean management principles, reducing costs, improving product value and maximizing the profit margin. To make the most of it, five major principles need to be strictly applied in all organization.

1. Motivation Trough Vision An idea must not be taken for granted. It there is reason to believe that it can be improved then it must be improved. It needs to be discussed with others, elaborated, detailed and changed to suit the business needs. The more people know about it the better. 2. Set Objectives Objectively Everyone should be involved in the project if it is relevant for them. Ideas should not be stolen, competition should not be spied on and creative and original think should be heavily endorsed and rewarded. 3. Conversion Measurement No improvement can be taken seriously into consideration if there are no metrics that can track it. There needs to be a measurable way of proving that the Lean project can save time or money in one way or another. 4. Experimental Development Taking an idea directly off the paper and onto the live production process is not a recommended practice. The performance of an improvement needs to be tracked, measured and compared with previous results before it was tested. 5. Team Involvement The team needs to be actively involved in the development process. Everyone needs to be informed, they should test and even come with ideas for the improvement. Each contribution can be reflected in the final result and measured with the aid of metrics of KPIs. Lean projects are generally highly appreciated throughout all companies that adopted this philosophy. Most of them developed special incentive programs to reward the ones that can help the company eliminate waste. Lean management is an important part of the process and without it, nobody would even bother to find an improvement idea.

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Understanding The Kaizen Philosophy

For the Japanese, Kaizen stands for “change for the better” or “improvement”. This Asian word turned into a global philosophy across most small, medium and large organization as its principles can be applied in almost every industry, every type of organization and every environment. Part of the Lean methodology, these smaller projects focus more on the human aspect of a process. It endorses the participation of more individuals into the improvement process, rewarding and stimulating creative thinking and humanizing the workplace in an attempt to eliminate hard work and waste. Organizations that focus on this business philosophy, employees are encouraged to experiment and try different things on their work using various scientific methods, documenting the entire improvement process. Every single idea that manages to save money, reduce work time on certain tasks or just minimize errors can be considered a Kaizen project. There are no restrictions in terms of level of organization as anyone can create such a project.

In general, such small projects tend to have smaller impact over a business. It can be an improvement that affects only a process, a department or a small part of a company location. When the project moves up in scale and proves to be applicable at an organization-wide level, it can be converted into a Lean project. In modern usage, these projects tend to address various issues over a period of seven days or a full working week. As a good practice, such projects should be properly documented. Each change that can improve a process and reduce waste should be paired with a detailed business case and analysis that provides a clear picture of the gains of moving the improvement from the testing stage to the live production environment. This can be translated into money saved, work hours saved or even manpower reduction. Kaizen projects can be used to fee up the load which can lead to reallocation of human resources to other projects.

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Why Adopting The Six Sigma Doctrine Is A Must

After an economical melt down just a few years ago, cost reduction is the main problem on every manager’s agenda. Six Sigma methodologies started to become a must for all organizations that want to survive. Before the economical collapse, everyone was making a profit and nobody cared about the waste created by inefficient processes but this bad habit has to change in order to be able to survive. Even if there would not be any financial concerns regarding wasteful operations, there is no reason why not to adopt the Six Sigma doctrine. Developed in 1981 by Motorola, the methodology focuses on achieving measurable and quantifiable financial returns from every project approved. To aid and stimulate everyone to contribute and develop their own projects, the philosophy behind emphasizes on the importance of passionate management teams, good leadership and continuous support.

The infrastructure and design of the doctrine involves multiple rankings that are awarded to the ones that develop successful projects such as “Green Belt”, “Black Belt”, “Master Black Belt”, “Champions” and so on. Higher rankings are usually awarded to the ones that developed multiple projects and have the skills to guide others are well. Their commitment and decision making skills facilitates the communication and innovation of the ones who are still developing their projects. Also, they have the ability to make the right calls in terms of how viable a project is and the financial benefits of putting it in practice. To achieve this, Six Sigma projects are measured using two tools bearing different acronyms. DMAIC and DMADV define the phases of evaluation and implementation of a project from start to finish. Both models include data analysis, definition of the goals, measurement or data, improvements and optimizations, implementation and verification of the results. These two development and implementation phases of all Six Sigma projects are usually detailed in seminars and research books.

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Chevy Spark EV: Greener, faster, better - CNNMoney

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Lean Manufacturing Described By “The Machine That Changed The World”

The very first time that the term “Lean” was introduced was back in 1988 when John Karfcik covered an article about manufacturing based on his experience as a quality engineer for Toyota. The methodology was detailed for the first time in the book called “The Machine That Changed the World” and since then, manufacturing changed completely in both vision and execution of products and services. At the very foundation of this philosophy, two main principles stand as standard for all production environments. The JIT or Just-in-time concept focuses on building a seamless system in which one stage of a production is never stopped because the previous one is stalling. Also, no excess material is produced during any given stage.

The second pillar of the Lean philosophy is “automation”. All business entities have to deal with the human error factor. In most situations, the reason for stalling of a system, waste and excess material is the human error. When a production system begins to implement more automated processes, error occurrences start to diminish. Intelligent systems need to be developed to monitor abnormal behaviors of equipments or anomalies in production. This approach causes the human resources to intervene only when something malfunctions instead of monitoring when production is normal. More recent papers on Lean manufacturing talk about the true essence of the philosophy and the wrong turn it can take. A company’s management should not consider wage cuts or worker discharges as part of a Lean project as this can have negative consequences. Workers can lose faith and abandon their loyalty to the company which can backfire and reduce productivity thus voiding the entire effort to implement a Lean project. Most of these approaches, dos and don’ts and general philosophy ideas are detailed in “The Machine That Changed The World”. The book itself managed to get Lean manufacturing spread on a worldwide level with millions of copies.

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Low-cost smartphones set to boost Taiwan’s manufacturing sector

The rising popularity of low-cost smartphones worldwide is expected to boost sales at local…

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Creating A Custom A3 Report

A3 reports are more than a mere tool. Some might go as far as to call it a simplified DMAIC process, turning into an invaluable tool to evaluate improvement opportunities. It can be used to define and fix problems, instruct managers how to become better coaches, develop a systematic way of thinking and stimulate the involvement of the team to share their ideas.

Even if there is no designated template, there are a few models available for free but the best practice would be to create a new custom one. The report itself needs to include several elements: 1. Background & Importance. This section will define in simple words what the problem is and why it is important to fix it. 2. Current Conditions. For this section it is recommended the use of graphs that show the As-It-Is state of the process. 3. Root Cause Analysis. This section answers why the problem is present. In other words it defines the exact part that needs to be changed in order to improve the process. Again, this needs to be explained in simple words. 4. Target Condition. Targets will be used to the gap between the current state and the desired one. Based on the scenario, graphs or text can be used to show the two states. 5. Countermeasures. Problems tend to have more than one solution. Countermeasures will focus on listing all the ideas of how to eliminate the root cause of the problem. Out of all of them, the team needs to choose the simplest one. 6. Implementation. In this short section, all the essential steps of the implementation need to be listed such as trainings, action plans, changes and so on. 7. Effect Confirmation. This final section will be used to gather data and results and compare them with the Current Conditions. These 7 sections need to display only essential information. The A3 report needs to be easy to read and require only a few minutes to read. For some it might look like a simple storyboard by a 2 page A3 report can turn into an action plan that can save a lot of money.

[supplyside]

The Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant (DATP) was the first manufacturing plant ever built for the mass production of tanks in the United States

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Understanding The DMAIC Measure Phase In Two Minutes

The DMAIC measure phase cannot be detailed in just a few words but its principles can share the basic level of understanding of how it works. Part of the Six Sigma philosophy, the system is used as a tool to evaluate an improvement opportunity but it is not exclusively used for this process.

DMAIC relies on several steps and each one of them corresponds to one letter from its name. 1. Define. All problems need to be identified. Improvement opportunities need to be identified by looking at the customer, the targets, boundaries, scope and problem that can stop the goal from being reached. 2. Measure. One the definition is done it is important to measure and evaluate the current results of the process. These measurements will serve as a baseline for the improvement and will end up being used in the end as a means to compare the efficiency of the change. 3. Analyze. This step focuses on finding the root cause of the problem. If multiple are identified, the most important ones need to be selected based on their impact on the process. 4. Improve. This process requires the identification of the solution for the problem and its implementation and testing phase. In this phase, the project owner will focus on delivering the easiest solutions, create the plan for implementation and mitigate eventual risks. 5. Control. Once the improvements are in place it is time to monitor and measure the results. The entire purpose of a DMAIC phase plan is to obtain and sustain gains trough change of faulty processes. Documents, processes and training materials need to be updated or created to ensure continuity after the improvements have been implemented. During all five steps, documentation is mandatory. A project can be rejected during the approval process by the management team if the data recorded is not coherent. All gains and changes need to have a solid backup in terms of documentation and result comparison. In the end, everyone will look at the numbers and not at the DMAIC phazes to judge if the project is successful or not.

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Day 268: Field trip to General Foundry today; got to watch industrial manufacturing processes. They’re pouring molten aluminum into a sand-cast mold here and it is on FIAH

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What is Hoshin Kanri?

Some might be tempted to think that this is a person but Hoshin Kanri it is actually an improvement process used within business organizations worldwide. It is a seven step method that focuses on strategic planning and efficiency based on cooperation between organizational entities and business functions. The first step of the method is the identification of key issues that are currently affecting the organization. Once pinned down, objectives need to be defined in such a manner that they can be measured. The third step involves the development of a vision and goals. However, these goals have no value without a plan or strategy to achieve them. If the organization also uses the Lean philosophy, Hoshin can make use of this to develop the strategies. Endorsed by detailed tactics and objectives to enforce the strategy, the project gets closer and closer to the implementation stage. During the implementation phase, measurable metrics and methods need to be added in order to track the results as a final step.

All these steps need to be properly documented with sections for each phase, graphs, measurement tables, action plans and ownership of the project. As a standard, the process needs to be reviewed periodically during all stages. Progress needs to be properly recorded and compared with the Hoshin plan. This will make it easier to track eventual discrepancies between what has been planned and what is actually being done as sometimes, what is written on paper is not properly deployed. At its core, Hoshin is a cyclic process and has to be reviewed every year. The performance of a company has to be monitored constantly as in changing environments there is always something that can be improved. Plan ownership needs to be properly assigned and the results of the review will need to be tracked and accounted for. It something goes wrong with the plan, the owner should act upon it and fix any kind of irregularities in execution and final results. During the evaluation period, the management team can determine if the actions taken have fixed the problem or not or if new ones appeared. It is also their responsibility to reverse an ongoing Hoshin project if the results lead to losses.

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Raving Rabbids Radio Control Washing Machine Designed & Developed By Unbox For Together Plus.

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Understanding The Heijunka Methodology In Production Environments

The Heijunka philosophy cannot be detailed in just a few words but the basics of this revolutionary method. Its basic principles and ideas on the other hand are easy to understand. Developed in Japan and used initially in the Toyota Production System and included in lean manufacturing, the term mainly refers to production smoothing. All manufacturing environments tend to have fluctuations and generate unnecessary waste. This bad habit is linked to the equipment, workers and inventory that have moments when they stop from production or prepare for peak time. To even the load and reduce fluctuations both the production and the demand needs to be leveled.

Such a challenging goal can be achieved by reducing the size of the batches and using one line for multiple products. When a batch for an order is finished, the line can continue working by switching to a different product that is also scheduled for production. This also requires the implementation of SMED or Single-Minute Exchange of Die which refers to the production line’s ability to switch from one product to a different one. Properly optimized production processes can make this switch in a couple of minutes since the last batch ended and until the other model starts being assembled on the same line. From a mathematical perspective this method can be explained fairly simple. If for example a line produces a product and suffers a demand drop of 30%, the variation is recorded at 30%. If four models are being assembled on the same line and one of them experiences a 30% drop, the line is actually affected by ¼ time 30% resulting an exact average of 7.5% total production drop. This example clearly shows how this method can be used to improve the production process, have less downtimes or moments when the line is on stand-by and due to reduced batch sizes, the inventory is easier to maintain and less money is being frozen in finished goods that are being warehoused for stock. The Heijunka philosophy focuses on building less stock by alternating the assembly of multiple products on the same line which improves the continuity of the production and freezes less money on finished goods.

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