Documented Expectations to Sustain Lean
You and your company have been implementing Lean for the last 12 months and things are starting to look good. We have begun to define the new roles at each level in the organisation and how we want our new production system to be run and to sustain lean actions. Our challenge now is to sustain lean actions and continue to build on them.
I find it common for people to tell me that “Chinese quality” is bad. If I were to ask the same people about their perception of products such as the iPhone, the Airbus A320 or the Mercedes E-class, they would tell me that they are all high quality products. Yet they are all made in “poor quality” China. So what is going on here?
Implementing Lean is Hard; Sustaining Lean is Harder
As we look back over the last 12 months, can you seen where you’ve been? Continuous improvement and implementing Lean methodologies have been our focus. We’ve had workshops and done factory layouts, moved cells and stores around, cleaned up, implemented a kanban system, put in visual controls. We’ve had a good year; production numbers up, respectable profits in the current climate, quality not too bad. But what about our “Lean numbers”; how did we go there?
Lean Manufacturing Goes Hand In Hand with Quality Improvement
How do we use Lean Manufacturing methods improve quality systems? Over the years, while introducing Lean programs into manufacturing companies, the Lean programs overall results has a lot to do with how well the company’s quality process/system is performing.
If you are serious about your lean journey, you will need to jump into a Parts Quantity Analysis (PQA), also referred to as a Product Routing Matrix. This is often a huge undertaking, regardless of the type of MRP or ERP system you are running. There are times when it just has to be completed and there is no easy way to do it to get reliable results that we are confident we can make good assumptions with.
Making My Workplace More Visual
Making our work flows and daily metrics visible is a key to implementing lean and getting our team involved. We want to make our workplace more visual so it is easy to see how we are going. It also highlights problems or errors so they are easy to detect; once we discover problems we can take steps to fix them. If we can’t fix it ourselves, we need to signal for help.
TXM Lean Case Study – Lean Sales – Beechworth Bakery
The Beechworth Bakery is a major tourist destination serving over 1 million customers per year with a wide range of cakes, pastries and breads. Beechworth Bakery was becoming a victim of its own success as it struggled to cope with the high volume of customers at peak times. This was particularly the case with tourist coaches and other large groups. Poor client flow and a lack of standard process behind the counter lead to long wait times and disgruntled customers. Following an Enterprise Connect Business Review, TXM was engaged to improve “Front of House” processes in order to transform the customer experience at Beechworth Bakery.
TXM Lean Case Study – Streamlining Accounting Processes
TXM worked with a Global Technology company to use Lean Business Process approaches to streamline end of month accounting processes. The result was a 40% reduction in turnaround time and a dramatic reduction in report queries from the US Corporate Office
Improving your Factory Capacity On the Cheap
As TXM Consultants, we venture into MANY factories around Melbourne Instead of talking about new machinery there is SO much opportunity to improve the business’s output without the capital expense. Here we will look at three simple ways to improve your factory capacity, without the need for capital expenditure.
Getting Lean to Stick – The Lean Champion
TXM consultants work across many industries; when tools are mastered getting lean to stick is the next big hurdle. Here we will look at The Lean Champion to help you sustain your Lean implementation.
TXM Achieves Lead Time Breakthrough for Beckers Guangzhou
Beckers Group is a leading global manufacturer of high quality industrial coatings. TXM has worked with Beckers over the past two years to use lean manufacturing techniques to improve their lead time and reduce their inventory. Beckers now can consistently offer the best service in the market with a 60% reduction in lead time from their previous level. Even better the reduced lead time has allowed Beckers to reduce their inventory by 50%.
The Seven Habits of a Highly Effective Lean Leader
We hear a lot about leadership. Hundreds of books (including Mr Coveys, seminars and experts telling you how you should be a better leader). So what is special about a Lean Leader and how do you become a Lean Leader”? Firstly, you can’t change who you are as a person – your underlying values, your personality. A lot of managers attempt this and end up simply coming across as unconvincing or worse, untrustworthy. So you can’t change who you are, but you can change what you do. That is, you can change your behaviours, which is where habits come in.
All businesses are under pressure at the moment. We’re trying to do more with less people and as a result have less time to focus on the things we know we should be doing, the important long-term activities rather than the day to day firefighting. Here we will discuss three elements to help us get more things done and achieve our long-term goals.
Advancing Office Productivity with 3 Lean Principles
The Lean principles are so often attached to the manufacturing of goods such as cars, white goods and furniture however when we look at and office or an individual at a desk producing reports,budgets or plans. Lean principles are often not applied, Why not?
Setting Practical 5S Standards
Setting Practical 5S Standards At the beginning many people find the idea of a 5S program to be as a daunting undertaking. Poorly designed and executed 5S program can indeed be stifling to a organisation because it requires items to be Sorted and then Set. This involves decisions about how things are to be sorted …
Sustaining Practical 5S Workplace Organisation
In preforming 5S activities on site I often see that the initial efforts go well and gains are quickly made to production areas. Over time this may begin to slide as the initial drive gives way to normal changing demands of manufacturing. To prevent these effects ….
We hear time and time (and time and time) again that people “Can’t find time” for lean, every day is too busy with customer inquiries, machine breakdown, people issues and just getting the job done. Ironically, it’s finding time to implement a few of the lean philosophies with will actually create more time in your day to implement further initiatives. So then how do we get started?
Knowing What to Make and When to Make it – The Role of Forecasting in Lean Enterprise
Knowing the future has been a human fascination since the beginning of time. In business, information about the future is essential for decision making. However, as we all know humans cannot see in to the future. The best we can do is make an estimate of the most likely outcomes in the future based on a set of assumptions. This is called a forecast and there is a virtual mountain of literature written on the subject of business forecasting. I am therefore going to try to provide a brief overview of our experience in developing a forecast.
Implementing Lean – When and How to Start?
A common question we are asked is when should a business start implementing lean and how should it get started. Many people (particularly fellow consultants and trainers) would say that everyone needs to start to implement lean right away and implement across the whole organisation with a business wide, top down roll out program. However, from experience, this is usually not the answer we find that fits most businesses.
What Personality Type is Best Suited to Problem Solving
Most of us, at some point in recent memory will have been subjected to a personality test. Most likely it will be the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI), which is the most widely used tool in this area. These tools are somewhat overused, but nevertheless can provide us with some useful insights in to our own personality and how we are likely to interact with other people and situations in our daily lives. So, is there a personality type best suited to solving problems and, more to the point, is there a personality type that is unsuited to solving problems??
January is a funny month as we wind up work mode while the weather is still warming up outside and our thoughts are drift back to the fun of the summer holidays. But there is no time to lose! The day are already growing shorter and we don’t want miss a minute of opportunity along our lean journey for the New Year.
How “Losing Face” Might be the Key to Your Continuous Improvement Journey in Asia
One of the first things that westerners learn about Asian culture is importance of keeping face. Public embarrassment or humiliation, which is what it means to lose face, is something people in any culture try to avoid, but in Asia it is an absolute imperative to keep face. The more senior you are the more important it is to keep face and the easier it is to loose it. In many ways this is a very positive cultural value. It means that people will work hard to live up to commitments they have made and keep their word. However to create a true lean continuous improvement culture sometimes you need to be prepared to loose face. This means accepting and embracing problems and failings in your organisation. It also means listening to junior staff when they highlight problems or deficiencies in your business and it means admitting when you are wrong or when you do not know the answer.
Sykes Racing Corporate Video Shows What Lean Manufacturing is All About
One of our long time customers, Sykes Racing has put together a new corporate video featuring their factory and interviews with gold medal winning Olympic Rower, Drew Ginn. To me, the Sykes guys epitomize what manufacturing is all about – the customer. They are rowers first, boat builders second and this comes through in the passion that one of their most famous customers has for their boats.
Click here to view the video.
TXM Lean Case Study – Lean Transformation – Schutz Australia
TXM Lean Case Study – Lean Transformation – Schutz Australia The Challenge SCHÜTZ DSL is a respected leader in reuseable industrial packaging throughout Australia and South East Asia. The business manufactures and supplies the world renowned SCHÜTZ ECOBULK range of IBCs (Intermediate Bulk Containers), large plastic drums, and provides a comprehensive range of bulk packaging …
Learning to Define the “Problem”
To improve our problem solving skills we need to begin by clearly defining the “problem”. Those involved in the problem need to agree that this is what the problem actually is. If we can’t agree on the problem, you can bet we won’t agree on the solution as each person will be expecting a different problem to be solved, ensuring the solution won’t even work.
The Lean Manager – Management Mindset
There are three sentiments that are repeated throughout “The Lean Manager”, as well as a reminder that lean systems must be supported by management.
The Lean Manager: Standard Work
The book “The Lean Manager”, by Michael Balle and Freddy Balle is a novel come textbook on understanding Lean and implementing it into our everyday working situations. It contains come great quotes and over the next few posts we will choose a few and discuss their implications in your manufacturing environment.
The Lean Manager: Solving your own Problems
The book “The Lean Manager”, by Michael Balle and Freddy Balle is a novel come textbook on understanding Lean. Today we focus on Problem Solving.
Total Productive Maintenance is like Servicing the Company Car
Do you often face breakdowns on critical production machines? This condition leads to lengthy delays in production or madding rush to try a reschedule. The key lean tool we use to address this is Total Preventive Maintenance (TPM).
TXM Lean Manufacturing Tip – Couple Manufacturing processes
Traditional improvement programs focus on optimising individual pieces of equipment. Anyone with a new machine will understands the accountants desire to get it working to its maximum efficiency. However, a key principle of Lean Manufacturing is understanding customer requirements and how these flow through the factory in “value streams”. To optimise the flow of parts we need to consider how we couple (join) our manufacturing processes to create this flow
Getting Results with Lean Manufacturing
A popular way to implement lean across the world is through implementing a training program. This is often driven by the HR or Training departments and the idea is that by providing the company’s managers and team members with structured training in a range of lean tools and techniques that they will then go and apply those techniques to improve the business. I have personally visited dozens of companies where their leadership and, in many cases, all their employees have completed these qualifications. While, in every case the courses have delivered skills and knowledge that meet the formal requirements of the qualification, I seen very few examples of this training lead to actual lasting change in the workplace.
5S and a Visual Workplace – Essential for Sustaining Lean Manufacturing
Many lean experts are critical of 5S and think it is a superficial tool. However while, 5S and Visual Workplace are not “the solution” for creating a lean culture, it is an essential factors in sustaining any lean production system.
Practical 5S: Lean Begins With a Well Organised Workplace
Where ever you are in your Lean Manufacturing implementation, using 5S as your workplace organisation tool ensures you are keeping on track and involving every person in your factory. If you are a little lost or have fallen behind, then start the process again; get back to Sorting and Setting in order. This is the foundation of your Lean production system and you can make it work.
TXM Lean Case Study – Daily Management in Mining
Daily Management in Mining Management in mining is a hard task to accomplish well. Being able to coordinate a mining, refining, or processing plant requires simple, timely, and consistent communication. The Approach The system was defined after bench-marking sites in Western Australia, Queensland, and Northern Territory of Australia. The first meeting to get working was …
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a performance measure commonly used to monitor successful improvements to a process
Andons – The Bright Lights of Lean
Andon is a term referring to a system that provides notification to management, maintenance, and other workers of a quality or process problems. It works by well when an issue is found in process, the team members has the ability to immediately notify the support staff so that the problem can be taken care of
Doing 5S Workplace Organisation Effectively
These common pitfalls are often seen as failures and lead to poor ongoing implementation of 5S practises. However, the benefits of the 5S methodology is something that companies desire to obtain. Then why do we always fall short?
Learning to use Manufacturing Visual Work Instructions
Visual Work instructions (VWIs) are a tool that transfer knowledge of standard work practises through the use of visual aids. Their graphic nature allows users to see what the end product looks like and what steps they need to complete. The Visual work instructions not only reduce setup time, they reduce mistakes and allow for the transfer of information from one operator to the next. As the standard is develop and maintained, the benefits for reducing variational great as there is a baseline for improvements and a wider understanding to the task is generated within the organisation. Visual work instructions also increase flexibility of staff assignments, eliminating downtime and reducing the monotony of repetitive tasks on the line.
Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement – Lessons from Elite Sport
Many companies that approach TXM tell us that they want to create a “culture of continuous improvement. Some people tell us that “Continuous Improvement” and Lean Manufacturing are two different things. So what is a “culture of continuous improvement”, what does it mean and how does it differ from Lean Manufacturing? The behaviour of elite sporting teams provides a good model of continuous improvement that can be adapted to manufacturing and other businesses.
Lean Leadership: You Can’t Recruit Your Way to Success
One of the most important skills in business is the ability to attract and select good people. In fact, in my time as a manager I decided that the single most important decision I would ever make is whom I gave a job do. The importance of this decision may lead some to think that the answer to a business’ problems is simply to recruit the best people and actively manage out people who do not perform. Sadly in our experience, this approach is frequently a root cause of business failure rather than success.