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Manufacturer Takes Steps To Be More Customer-Centric
Foremost Manufacturing, located in Union, New Jersey, is one of those companies that recognize that being “good enough” just isn't good enough. With this in mind, Foremost has embarked on a program to transform itself into a manufacturing enterprise with an unwavering focus on customer service.
Read MoreLean Implementations Don’t Fail
Having worked with many companies that are trying to improve their processes using lean manufacturing techniques, I am more convinced than ever that there is no such thing as a lean implementation that fails. Instead, the failures happen when companies have every intention of implementing lean techniques that will help their businesses, but they do not actually implement the techniques.
Read MorePlanning Improvements: A Fable
The following “fable” illustrates divergent approaches taken by two companies to improve their operations. Alpha Company started its improvement initiative with a series of departmental meetings, in which time, representatives of its management met with each employee and provided an update on business conditions, upcoming challenges, customer feedback and other areas that needed improvement.
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FIFO Lane Helps Job Shops Regulate Work Flow
In last month's column, I discussed how supermarkets can help companies maintain flexibility by regulating the work flow of critical processes. Supermarkets do a great job of aligning demand and production capacity, which is key to a lean flow.
Read MoreUsing A Supermarket To Regulate Your Work Flow
The key to an effective, streamlined manufacturing operation is aligning production capacity with customer demand. Whether you run a custom job shop or manufacture repetitive parts, you can benefit from using a supermarket concept to manage your flow of work.
Read MoreAre You Getting The Most From Lean Implementation?
So you have learned about the benefits of lean manufacturing, trained many of your employees on lean concepts and rolled out some process improvement events in you operation. Yet you have not, thus far, seen the benefits you had hoped for.
Read MoreNew Roles Of Workers In The Lean Environment
Traditionally, supervisors identified and solved problems, made critical decisions and ensured all work was completed in a timely and accurate manner. But today’s supervisors must spend more time planning the improvements required to make their organizations leaner and more responsive.
Read MoreThe New Role Of Supervisors In The Lean Enterprise
As companies transition toward lean enterprises, in which resources are committed to identifying and eliminating waste to better service their customers, many traditional roles within the organization need to change. One such role is that of the front-line supervisor.
Read MoreMaking 5S Stick In Your Shop
I am often asked for suggestions on how to make a 5S program (the sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain program for improving workplace organization) really work as opposed to becoming just another “program of the month. ” It’s an interesting question.
Read MoreSuccess In Setup Reduction Efforts
In recent columns I have described what companies have been doing to improve their operations. Recognizing that maintaining the status quo is a recipe for disaster in this competitive environment, companies have been employing techniques such as value stream mapping (visually depicting the flow of information and material through an operation) and the 5S system of workplace organization (sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain) to discover opportunities to eliminate activities that do not add value.
Read MoreSuccess In Workplace Organization Efforts
In last month’s column, I discussed some of the successes companies were experiencing using the value stream mapping technique. Value stream mapping is one of the first steps a company should take when looking for opportunities to improve its operation.
Read MoreCompanies Are Learning From Value Stream Mapping
Value stream mapping is gaining acceptance as a valuable tool for manufacturers of all types. This is because it is simple to use, yet it will accurately depict the relationship between value-added time (represented as the sum total of the cycle times of all processes in the value stream) and process waste (represented as the sum total of all inventory in the value stream).
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