Redwood Consulting & Training
Lean Manufacturing
Achieving top performance in manufacturing is a prerequisite for British manufacturing businesses today and for the future. There have been many Guru's over the years who have put forward how this can be achieved and these have culminated in recent times with the 'Lean' principles.
These focus on creating a more competitive organisation that
- Understands what its customer’s value,
- Streamlining those processes that deliver the product/service,
- Eliminating/preventing non-value adding activities, and then
- Seeking on-going improvement
- Awareness training in LEAN principles and tools.
- Facilitate implementation programme.
Specific training in areas such as
:
- Team leader development
- Process Mapping
- Value added and Non-value added
- Zero Defect Manufacture(poka-yoke methods)
- Visual management methods
- Just-in-time game (stickle brick factory!) and use of Kanbans
- Set-up reduction (Single Minute Exchange of Dies SMED)
- Cause and Effect
- Improvement Facilator skills
No two businesses are the same, but a general approach would involve the following:
- Raising management's awareness of the 'Lean' approach,
the principles, methods and what these should achieve in terms of improved client stisfaction, lead-time, productivity and profitability.
- To
assess the opportunities for improvement within the business and whether to cover the whole businees or to focus on one specific business
unit/product line initially.
- Select and train a team of champions who will lead the initiative to ensure they understand the
approach and techniques to be applied.
- Task the above team to undertake a self-audit on the chosen areas, mapping processes
and tracking information to identify opportunities for improvement and set our an implementation plan.
- Communicate the plan by
briefing those in the areas to be involved and implement the improvements.
- Review and refine improvements, establish revised
working practices where necessary and move on to other parts of the business.
