Lean Manufacturing Is No Less Important

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), additive manufacturing and collaborative robotics are emerging technologies that will change the nature of how manufacturers make parts. In a growing number of instances, they already are changing the nature of how manufacturers make parts. That’s why it is important that we cover these topics in our magazine; our blog; our various social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; and so on.

That said, the concept of lean manufacturing should remain at the top of mind for all parts producers out there. In fact, I plan to revisit this topic in a story for an upcoming issue, describing how one shop’s efforts in cultivating a lean culture is enabling it to grow and win a greater amount of aerospace work.

The title of this article might be something like “What Comes after 5S?” Many shops start their lean journey by implementing 5S workplace organization tactics, as did the shop I’m hoping to profile. (For most, 5S stands for sort, shine, simplify, standardize and sustain.) Unfortunately, some shops I’ve visited have seemingly stopped there. That’s why I’d like this article to describe the next steps this particular shop took after 5S as it worked to establish its lean-manufacturing mindset.

From the limited information I currently have about the shop, applying specific lean concepts was important as evidenced by holding kaizen events, identifying ways to reduce setup times, etc. However, it seems true value came only after instilling a culture of continuous improvement, and continually seeking ways to improve work flow and the value stream.

In addition to appearing in our magazine, the story will be added to our website’s Lean Manufacturing Zone, which contains stories and videos about other machining facilities that have made similar lean transformations. For example:

• This story describes how a job shop used lean manufacturing to become effective at low-volume work, in part, by identifying a more efficient machine-layout based on part-routing patterns.
• This story explains how a contract shop leveraged lean as a means to help it manageably control growth, ultimately recognizing that lean is scalable.
• This story shows that a machining cell that seeks to optimize product flow may look very different from a cell that seeks to optimize a machining process.
• This story suggests that the most valuable resource for lean is the people, because it wasn’t until every employee at the profiled shop got involved that lean really started to have the desired effect.

So if lean means more than 5S for your shop as it did for the ones above, what were your next steps following workplace organization? I’d be interested in finding out where you are on your lean manufacturing journey. Send me an email.