TXM Lean Minute – Containing A Problem With An Interim Fix

When something goes wrong you usually need to take action to ensure that work can be continued and customers supplied. We call this the interim fix or containment action. Learn how to develop an effective interim fix when things go wrong in your business.

TXM Lean Case Study – Production Outsourcing Project Management

The Challenge Our client was a major global high technology manufacturer. Their operation was highly vertically integrated with in-house sheet metal fabrication and machining. The sheet-metal operation was highly efficient, but needed major new investment to remain viable and support the growth of the business. The client had decided not to invest further in this …

TXM Lean Case Study – Regional Lean Supply Chain Development

The Challenge Our client’s plant in China produces a limited range of products in high volumes for the Chinese market. The consolidation of regional capacity meant that the China plant was to be established as a regional manufacturing hub. This greatly increased the complexity of the China operation from a supplier of a few dozen …

TXM Lean Case Study – Multi Site Packaging Supplier Lean Transformation

TXM Lean Case Study – Multi Site Packaging Supplier Lean Transformation The Challenge Our client is the leading supplier of packaging to global electronics manufacturers and subcontractors who demand “Just In Time” supply at short lead times. Our client’s businesses were struggling to meet the demanding quality and supply requirements of their customers leading to …

TXM Lean Case Study – Reducing Lead Time by 60%

TXM Lean Case Study – Reducing Lead Time by 60% The Challenge Our client is a global coatings manufacturer. Their Guangzhou operation produces a range of high-quality colour matched coatings for consumer electronics, primarily mobile phones. Mobile phones are an extremely dynamic market. Model lives are extremely short and colours and designs change constantly. The …

TXM Lean Case Study – Value Stream Mapping to Drive Transformation

The Challenge Sony Chemicals is a leading manufacturer of LCD touch screens displays for mobile phones, cameras and other devices. Sony has decades of experience in implementing process improvement through Kaizen while Sony Suzhou factory has a highly skilled and experienced lean experts team. The improvements made were mainly in points level, not in whole …

Green Manufacturing Case Study in Lean Manufacturing: Automotive Green Plant

The Challenge This case study on Lean Manufacturing focuses on a new green plant. The client, Futuris is a global leading manufacturer of automotive components, providing seating and interior systems. Futuris had established a new green plant in Wuxi to provide high-quality seating systems to SAIC, GMC and Tesla. The management team in Wuxi wanted …

TXM Lean Case Study – Implementing Lean to Meet the Challenge of Sales Surge

The Challenge Taizhou Henry Technologies is a leading manufacturer of industrial refrigeration components. Its sales grew from 50,000 units in 2012 to 360,000 in 2013. In the following few years, the sales were expected to increase to 750,000 units per year. Meeting this large increase in volume was a significant challenge for Taizhou Henry Technologies. …

TXM Lean Case Study – Funwick Manufacturing Lean Improvements

The Challenge Funwick Manufacturing is a successful private company focused on manufacturing high quality products for global leading companies, including fire extinguishers, automotive components and metal parts. Like other Chinese private companies, Funwick was experiencing more pressure from clients and competitors in terms of lead time and cost. Funwick’s chairman recognised that Lean could work …

TXM Lean Case Study – Global Pneumatic Manufacturer

The Challenge Our client is a worldwide leader in automation technology, its Jinan plant located in north of China, includes die casting, machining, assembly and distribution. The lead time and cost to Europe was worse than Poland, thus German headquarters were planning to shift all orders of die casting to Poland. Our Client expected TXM …

TXM Lean Case Study – Improve IT help desk support processes through Lean Implementation

The Challenge Our client is a world leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. A core team in China with IT professionals are divided in care teams (such as hardware, network, telecoms and applications). …

TXM Lean Case Study – Implementation of TPM for a PVC Floor Manufacturer

The Challenge Our client is a global leading indoor PVC floor manufacturer. The reliability of the equipment is critical in the process industry. Our client had established a good foundation for maintenance, however, the Changshu plant realised that it was not enough to achieve high reliability as dust in the production area was a critical …

TXM Lean Case Study – Lean Supplier Development

The Challenge Our client is a leading supplier of everyday brands in Oceania, with products ranging from footwear, home wear, underwear to hosiery and work wear. Facing fierce competition, our client aimed to reduce the costs and the lead time through the implementation of the Lean management of their suppliers. Jiangyin Harvest was a key …

TXM Lean Case Study – Business Process Optimisation

The Challenge Our client is a world-leading solution provider of steel belts and processing systems. Our client success focused on meeting rapidly growing product demand while maintaining the highest standards of product quality. The business supplied its global customers on a make to order basis. Senior management identified unacceptable long lead times as a result …

Avoiding a “Bad” Improvement Project

We’ve all seen those improvement projects that look out of place and not aligned with the company direction. So, how do you ensure your improvement project doesn’t look like something that’s been tacked on? Let’s look at starting with a clear roadmap, getting the basics in place, then keep moving with more advanced lean tools.

Branach Manufacturing Case Study – Increasing Sales Growth by 100% for SME

Branach Manufacturing Case Study: How to Stay One Step Ahead of the Competition Branach Manufacturing is perhaps the best Lean Transformation we have seen in a Small or Medium Sized Enterprise (SME). Branach have driven rapid growth through outstanding customer service and value delivered through a world class Lean production system. In this TXM video, …

OEE Improvement in Pharmaceuticals Case Study

THE CHALLENGE Our client is a leading global pharmaceutical manufacturer. A key line produces a terminally sterilised liquid pharmaceutical for global markets. This line was expecting over 20% sales growth. However the expiry of patents meant that the cost of production needed to be substantially reduced. To achieve this cost reduction the business had decided …

What Makes a Great Operations Manager?

So what are the signs that you have hired a really effective Operations Manager or General Manager in your business?The challenge is that some of these seem counter-intuitive and you might not recognise them as positive behaviours, or worse, see them as negatives. Here are 10 things that will show that your Operations Manager is a top performer.

Combining Lean Tools and Safety Standards for Improvements

The practice of providing a safe workplace and implementing Lean production systems have been kept separate in most manufacturing sites. It is not uncommon to find these two essential functions being slightly out of alignment due to their seemingly opposite objectives. There are three excellent lean tools that you can implement into processes to create a safer and incident-free workplace

Broaden your Horizons with these Great Lean Books

As the days are dark and cold, there is nothing like sitting down with a good book to feed your brain and get you ready for the challenging week ahead. Here are four good reads to get you started.

How to Avoid the Senior Management Revolving Door in Your Business

The “management revolving door” is a disaster for your business. Apart from the direct recruitment and severance costs of hiring and firing manager after manager, the revolving door will stall your business’ progress and prevent you from growing successfully. Learn why the revolving door happens and how to stop it spinning.

WHAT and then WHO: the Delicate Balance of Office Process Design

Office process design starts with using the lean principles to understand the current situation then develop a future state, along with a implementation plan to close the gap between the two situations. Here we will look at how to develop an office process and determining WHAT tasks are needed, then look at how we determine WHO we get to do these tasks. Developing a robust implementation plan, including the checking and auditing, will help us be successful in implementing our change and meet our goal.

Stop Start Continue – a Lean Feedback Tool

A strong component of TXMs Lean Philosophy is about engaging our team and get them thinking about improving our company, together. Identifying wastes is a great way to start and using simple feedback tools can help get our team warmed up and into thinking mode. Today we will look at the Stop – Start – Continue model.

Rosebank Engineering Consolidates its Operations in Melbourne with New Ultra Precision Machining Centre

Rosebank Engineering Consolidates its Operations in Melbourne with New Ultra Precision Machining Centre THE CHALLENGE Rosebank Engineering is an Australian-owned high technology small-to-medium enterprise that provides Defence with specialised services relating to fine mechanisms and precision hydraulics used in aircraft mechanical and structural components. The company relocated from an older facility in Port Melbourne to …

The Importance of the Senior Leadership Workshop

While holding a senior leadership workshop may feel like a huge burden of time and resources, at TXM we find the investment of time is hugely rewarded. We check the understanding of both teams with the project aims and objectives. We review the TXM process and check we have the key elements in place for a successful improvement project. And we highlight potential barriers to change before they become a major problem and slow down the improvement project.

Business Health Check: The Three Key Indicators For Your Daily Gemba Walk Around

Active leadership is important to continuous improvement and a daily walk around to determine the health of your business can be very beneficial. We considered the three key points for checking in on the health of your business with business equivalents of the heart rate, the blood pressure and the temperature of our factories.

TXM Lean Minute – The Data is in the Computer

Learn how to use data that is in the computer and talk about it every day in stand up meetings. The challenge is to understand the data, know what is says, know why, and share the discussion in the daily meeting. Just posting computer print outs on your visual board can reduce meeting effectiveness and value.

What Does Your China Supply Chain Cost You and How do You Improve it?

China is no longer the low cost manufacturing paradise it once was. However the problems of long lead times, dodgy suppliers and suspect quality still exists, even as Chinese manufacturing moves in to more complex and higher value added sectors. TXM China Consulting Director, Justin Tao has spent his whole career working in Chinese manufacturing from his first days in Toyota’s forging plant in Tianjin. Justin believes that the key to supply chain success in China is to get the right support – from a local.

Improve Buy In with a Visual Action Plan

We want to improve team buy in and take your action plan to the next level by making it visual. We’ll go into what is a visual action plan, with examples and why it’s important for team buy in while rolling out the plan to achieve your goals.

Developing an Action Plan for Real World Improvements

This article is to remind you of the importance of thinking through the creation of an action plan, making sure your plan is as good as it can be with the time and information you have at the time, and then GETTING IT DONE! And then remember to review and make changes as you need to, to achieve your goal.

TXM Lean Minute – How to Start a Visual Management Board

We all know visual management boards are an important part of a Lean Management System, but how do you start. This Lean Minute video provides some practical tips on how to get your visual management board started in a way that engages your people.

“Lean Won’t Work Here”, Try the “Quick Wins” Approach Instead

Is there a way for people not to “roll their eyes” when the “lean” word is out of the bag? Let’s start with the view that a “lean” business is ultimately trying to improve, focussing on growing people and working together. That’s where the quick wins approach can work well. Then we can start with defining the big goals and how using Lean tools to reach those objectives.

How Poor Product Management Can Damage Your Reputation and Cost You Millions

The decision about what products to sell and what products not to sell is one of the most important marketing decision that most manufacturing and distribution businesses will make. Unfortunately, in many cases, I find that businesses have no formal process for product management. This inevitably leads to excessive stock, write offs, losses and poor on time delivery performance.

TXM Lean Minute – Using Lean Visual Controls in the Office

This Lean Minute focuses is on lean visual controls in the office, with a particular focus on how the work flows.The challenge is to achieve the customer satisfaction that is desired by the business leaders. In the office this is often to ensure that the work flow is visual.

TXM Lean Innovation Recognized at Kmart Supplier Awards

TXM Lean Solutions were delighted to be selected from over 200 suppliers as finalists for the Innovation Award at the Kmart Supplier of the Year Awards. These were presented at the Zinc Function Centre in Melbourne’s Federation Square last month.