Lean For Manufacturing
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To compete successfully in today’s economy, you need to be at least as good as any of your global competitors, if not better. This is true not only regarding quality, but also for costs and for lead, processing, delivery, setup, response and other cycle times. Lean for manufacturing emphasizes such things as teamwork, continuous training and learning, producing to demand (pull), mass customization and batch size, education, cellular production, quick changeover and total productive maintenance. Not surprisingly, lean implementation uses both incremental and breakthrough improvement approaches.
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The reasons Lean is a particularly important winning strategy today include:
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Ever increasing customer expectations.
OEM requirements that suppliers conform to quality standards such as ISO 9000:2000 or QS-9000 and ISO/TS 16949. |
Pressure from customers for price reductions.
Original equipment manufacturers’ (OEMs) holding on to their core competencies and outsourcing the rest. |
Fast paced technological changes.
The need to compete effectively in the global economy. |
Continued marketplace focus on quality, cost and on-time delivery.
Lean Manufacturing facilitates simple, small and continuous improvements in your business’s manufacturing processes—such as changing tool placement, or situating two workstations closer to each other. Many small improvements added together lead to a higher level of efficiency throughout your entire manufacturing system (change). This helps your business achieve and sustain decreased production time, elimination of material and product overstock, increased worker productivity, increased profit margin.
Lean Manufacturing facilitates simple, small and continuous improvements in your business’s manufacturing processes—such as changing tool placement, or situating two workstations closer to each other. Many small improvements added together lead to a higher level of efficiency throughout your entire manufacturing system (change). This helps your business achieve and sustain decreased production time, elimination of material and product overstock, increased worker productivity, increased profit margin.
“Lean for Manufacturing is a deliberate streamlining of the production process—from the procurement of raw materials to the delivery of the final product or service to the customer. The goal of Lean Manufacturing is to eliminate unnecessary time, materials and labor, or waste, thereby increasing both the efficiency of the manufacturing process, as well as the profitability of the final product" says Pat Lucansky, CSSMBB, CLS, CMC, Executive Director, VIP Group.
Lean is a manufacturing philosophy that shortens the lead time between a customer order and the shipment of the products or parts through the elimination of all forms of waste. Lean helps firms reduce costs, cycle times and unnecessary, non-value added activities, resulting in a more competitive, agile and market responsive company.
Lean is a manufacturing philosophy that shortens the lead time between a customer order and the shipment of the products or parts through the elimination of all forms of waste. Lean helps firms reduce costs, cycle times and unnecessary, non-value added activities, resulting in a more competitive, agile and market responsive company.
The VIP Lean Manufacturing team understands that no two businesses function the same. Because of this, every program we design and implement is personalized and customized to the business in question. This includes internal value adding activities that facilitate a personal growth resulting in a total buy-in of your lean culture. Therefore, when working to design and implement a Lean Manufacturing culture in your business, our team helps ensure:
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VIPGroup engagements are organized to provide the least disruptions to ongoing operations.
The timing of the interactions with your personnel is planned and organized with your senior management before any work begins.
Providing growth for your employees, as well as personal accountability of implemented processes and product.
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That cash flow, production and profitability must be retained during any engagement.
That throughout every engagement, our Lean Manufacturing team provides continual updates to your senior management on the progress made.
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The VIPGroup 4-Step Approach to Lean for Manufacturing Implementation
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Our Lean Manufacturing project management team is always looking for ways to help maximize your business’s efficiency and effectiveness by streamlining your manufacturing processes.
To accomplish this, we employ a proven and reliable 4-Step approach beginning with an Assessment and Implementation then moving through sustaining the improvements in the Normalization and Continuous improvement stages to implement a lean culture into your business’s production processes: 1. In-depth operational assessment evaluates your operations, systems, processes and functionality to identify opportunities to address these factors.
2. The VIP Group incorporates disciplined project management tools and techniques, visible performance tracking systems and formal project reviews.
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3. Stabilize the changes implemented and track the progress to plan. Cross-functional teams adjust approaches and plans accordingly.
4. The VIP Group develops an on-going client care program that includes pre-determined on-site follow up visits from our staff. While on site, we provide additional training, evaluation and consultations.
The Building Blocks of Lean Manufacturing
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5S
The five steps that go into this system for workplace organization and standardization are sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain. |
Visual Controls
All tooling, parts, production activities and indicators are in view so everyone involved can understand the status of the system at a glance. |
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Teams
In the lean environment, the emphasis is on working in teams, whether improvement teams or daily work teams. |
Streamlined Layout
Plant layout is designed according to optimum operational sequence. |
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Standard Work
Performance of tasks in a consistent manor according to prescribed methods, without waste and focused on human movement (ergonomics). |
Batch Size Reduction
The best batch size is one-piece flow. If one-piece flow is not appropriate, reduce the batch to the smallest size possible. |
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Point of Use Storage
Raw materials, parts, information, tooling, work standards and procedures are stored where they are needed. |
Pull and Kan-ban
The upstream supplier does not produce until the downstream customer signals a need, using a Kan-Ban system. |
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Quick Changeover
The ability to change tooling and fixtures rapidly (usually in minutes) allows for multiple products in smaller batches that can be run on the same equipment. Total Productive Maintenance
This lean equipment maintenance strategy maximizes overall equipment effectiveness. |
Cellular or Flow
The aim of one-piece flow is to physically link and arrange manual and machine process steps into the most efficient combination. |
About VIPGroup’s Lean Manufacturing Experts
Value Innovation Partners, Ltd. is an operations improvement firm specializing in Lean Enterprise, Lean Manufacturing, Lean Supply Chain Management, Six Sigma,Regulatory & Compliance, Lean Healthcare, and Pharmacovigilance. We serve a variety of industries from discrete parts to continuous flow, from basic manufacturing to complex assembly/packaging operations and from pharmaceuticals to bio-techs to medical devices (The Life Sciences). Our approach is based on a structured process with benefits at each stage. Contact us to learn more or schedule a consultation today.
