UK

What is the true cost of your purchasing decisions? Hi I’m Tim Scurlock and welcome to this TXM Lean Minute.

When your buying stock and think you have a good deal consider first the consequences in terms not just of the purchase price but also the cost of holding the stock and the storage costs and the space.

Doing a deal on the price of an item you need may seem like a good idea at the time but taking a holistic view point might make you reconsider and this is even more compelling if you are in a 3PL or make an internal charge for storage.

Here, at Hazchem Safety the purchasing department negotiate a great deal on safety gloves but with a warehouse capacity of 100 pallet spaces found that as a consequence it was 17 pallets overstocked, not only does this tie up valuable capital but also takes up space for other items, preventing easy and regular access and it was affecting the pick pack efficiency.

So don’t be tempted by special deals from your suppliers if it means stuffing your facility with slow moving or unwanted goods it may seem like a bargain at the time but considered along with the money tied up, the storage space required and the double handling of goods working around the excess stock means it means its just not worth it.

Instead, negotiate longer term supply arrangements preferably with draw down agreements that way you can keep the inventory you need and not pay the price of excess. Contact us at TXM to learn more about how to improve your business culture and drive improved performance.

Thank you for watching this TXM Lean Minute.

Tim is one of our Senior Lean Consultants in the UK.

TXM Lean Minute – Make Stock Checks Part of Your Daily Routine

TXM Lean Minute – Start Your Day with a Stand Up Meeting

TXM UK Lean Case Study – Broadfix

TXM UK Lean Case Study – Hazchem Safety

In this Lean Minute, TXM UK Senior Lean Consultant, Lee Candy explains the principles behind Kanban to connect processes. This Lean Minute was filmed at Broadfix UK

Read the Video Transcript

One of the requirements of Lean is to link processes together, by doing this you avoid the waste of over production as well as reducing the need to spend excessive amounts of time planning production and figuring out what’s next.

In highly repetitive processes this requirement should be like clockwork, your production planning should work with relatively little thought and planning on the things that just churn repeatedly.

So how do we link processes together? Well one of the tools to do this is through Kanban.

Kanban stands for visual trigger, it’s a tool to replenish only what you just consumed and do it in a visual & easily understood way. In Kanban when one element of a process takes a product from the previous process it signals to that step to make more of what’s just been consumed.

The simplest Kanban is in the form of a visual card. The card displays what the product is and also how much to resupply. Downstream in the process when the product is taken the kanban card is then placed on the supplying process telling them to make more of what’s just been consumed.

there is no discussing out things and figuring things out its a simple visual trigger to show what needs working on next and when.

This concept of kanban allows you to control the amount of work produced between the two processes and therefore links them together. Simple yet very powerful and in the right environment this concept can be used for all your regular moving products and therefore ensures what’s being produced is for only what’s being consumed and no more.

Here are some simple steps to get you started:

1. Identify the products that your business regularly processes.
2. Define how many should be processed every week or day.
3. Create Kanban cards to link into this
4. Use Kanban to control the daily or weekly output rather than forward planning or forecasting
5. By using a well designed Kanban System you will always have the right part in the right place when you need it.

Call us at TXM to find out how you can implement Kanban in your business.

TXM Lean Minute: Learn How to Get the Right Inventory Level for Your Business

TXM Lean Minute: Start your Day with a Stand Up Meeting

TXM Lean Minute: Make Stock Checks Part of your Daily Routine

Client Hazchem Safety

Location Brackley, UK

Falling Inventory & Improving OTIF brings Increased Sales

Hazchem Safety in Brackley are the UK’s leading supplier of safety clothing and equipment for the transport and handling of dangerous goods. Hazchem Safety are celebrating 40 years of protecting people transporting hazardous goods.

The business offers a complete range of clothing personal protective equipment, ADR signs equipment. When TXM UK Senior Consultant, Tim Scurlock, first visited Hazchem Safety they were growing fast, but running out of warehouse space and struggling with fast growing inventory costs and poor on time in full delivery (OTIF).

Learn how Tim helped the team at Hazchem Safety turn this around so that they now boast, the “trifecta” of rising sales, falling inventory and improving OTIF.

TXM can help SME’s Achieve Their Vision, Contact Our UK Business Manager Lester Troughton. Learn more about TXM’s lean solutions in the UK.

TXM UK Lean Case Study: Broadfix

TXM Lean Case Study: Ferguson Plarre Bakery

In this Lean Minute, TXM UK Senior Lean Consultant, Lee Candy explains the principles behind reducing stock and increasing frequency can help you manage you supplier relationships more effectively. This Lean Minute was filmed at Broadfix UK

Read the Video Transcript

The problem many manufacturing, and warehouses businesses face is how they manage their stock especially from long lead time suppliers.

Hi I’m Lee Candy and this is a TXM Lean Minute. Does your business often receive large delivery quantities from suppliers where by its much more than you can consume in a given month. This is a common problem that many companies face, and this is a by-product of not being in control of your supply chain.

You’ll typically find that you’ll have too much stock at certain times and not enough stock on other occasions and if you these same effects its more often the result of your ordering pattern.

If you order infrequent and sporadically your delivery will be longer, and your shipment quantities will be higher. Now if we look at it from your suppliers’ point of view, how can they plan a slot in their production if they don’t know when the order is coming.

To mitigate this, they may increase their lead times and also their MOQ’s to you. Now a Lean supply chain means a controlled supply chain where both you and your supplier work together in more of a partnership basis.

Your goal naturally is to increase the order frequency and reduce the delivery quantities’ as much as you can. So, treat your supplier as a partner look to consolidate suppliers and give your preferred ones more work. Share visibility with them, agree how often you’ll place orders on them and when, agree higher frequency drops and lower quantity and work together to identify creative solutions to challenges you may face.

And with increased frequency and reduced order sizes you’ll not need as much space, the time it takes to unload and process each delivery is reduced, the stocktake time is reduced and there is less cash tied up in stock.

Call us at TXM to find out how we can help you reduce your stock and improve your on-time delivery. I’m Lee Candy and thank you for watching this Lean Minute.

TXM Lean Minute: Learn How to Get the Right Inventory Level for Your Business

TXM Lean Minute: Start your Day with a Stand Up Meeting

TXM Lean Minute: Make Stock Checks Part of your Daily Routine

 

Do you shut your facility for your annual stock checks? This can cause unnecessary disruption to your organisation. Getting the right level of stock is a science take the guess work out by conducting daily stock checks for greater accuracy. The aim is to ensure that you have the right stock levels to fulfill orders on-time and in full. You need stock in the right quantities when your customers need them. At the same time you need to minimise excess and obsolete stock that can weigh down your balance sheet, fill up your warehouse and lead to huge future write offs.

In this Lean minute Video, TXM UK Senior Lean Consultant, Tim Scurlock explains the principles behind making stock checks part of your daily routine. This video was shot at Hazchem Safety in Brackley. Learn how Tim has applied these principles to help Hazchem Safety keep daily track of stock levels.

TXM Lean Minute: Learn More About Stock Control and Levels

View more TXM Lean Minute Videos

 

 

Kaizen roughly means, “change for the better.” This is the terminology we often use to describe our approach to continuous improvement. Many people get caught up with lean and kaizen as being just small improvements that happen every day across the organization. The real recipe for making lasting change with a big impact, is to ensure that you link these small, daily improvements to a shared goal or mission.

Learn More about Kaizen and What it Means

If we all work towards a common goal, we can all contribute to small improvements towards that goal. For example, if your business’ goal might be to deliver your product next day to all customers. Set this as your over-arching goal and focus on making small daily improvements to help achieve this. You will find that you can get real traction and results across the business. Improvement efforts will be much more co-ordinated when aimed at a common goal.

Try these simple steps:

  • Focus on what value you could offer your customers. If you deliver that value it will have your customers raving about your business even more
  • Share this goal with everyone in the business
  • Make sure everyone makes small daily improvements to their own processes and work environments. Everyone should try to move a tiny step closer to this goal every day.
  • Track your results and celebrate each person’s achievements

Learn About the TXM Approach to Lean Leadership

Getting the right inventory in the right quantity at the right time is critical to your business success. Calculating the right level of inventory is a science, not guesswork or gut feel. The aim is to ensure that you have the products you need in stock in the right quantities when your customers need them. At the same time you need to minimise excess and obsolete stock that can weigh down your balance sheet, fill up your warehouse and lead to huge future write offs.

In this Lean minute Video, TXM UK Senior Lean Consultant, Tim Scurlock explains the principles behind getting your inventory right. This video was shot at Hazchem Safety in Brackley.

Learn how TXM used these principles to help Hazchem Safety in this Lean Case Study Video

Find out Why Slashing Inventory the Wrong Way can Actually End Up Costing Your Business Cash

Learn More about Inventory Management in Tim McLean’s Book “On Time In Full”

 

PackagingPOac

Packaging process is the “forgotten process” in many manufacturing operations learn the benefits from streamlining your packing process. Companies make heavy investment and apply considerable thought to the processes that actually manufacture the product.

However, when it comes to packaging the product for shipment, less focus is applied. Packaging processes usually involve large amounts of space, labour, materials and, of course cost.

Today, many companies look to robotics and expensive automation as a solution for packaging problems. This video shows that with minimal investment and some Lean thinking you can dramatically improve your packaging process.

View an Interview with the General Manager of this Business and Learn the Benefits One Piece Flow Delivered

Level Production is the Key to Successful One Piece Flow – Learn the Five Steps to Level Production in this Lean Minute Video

Client Broadfix

Location Hereford, Herefordshire, UK

Lean Leads to Increased Sales & Falling Inventory

Based in Hereford, Broadfix are the UK’s leading manufacturer of plastic shims for construction. Broadfix were facing rising manufacturing costs, high inventory, and five pages of back orders.

It seemed that the only way out of the problem was to invest in more injection moulding machines and perhaps larger premises.

The Senior Managers of Broadfix, Richard Jenner and Clive Haughton, did not know what to expect when they attended a free “Lean for Small and Medium Enterprise” workshop presented by TXM.

However they were inspired by this event and saw a possible pathway out of the business challenges they faced. They therefore asked TXM UK Senior Consultant Lee Candy to visit their site and conduct an initial review. Lee saw huge potential in the Broadfix operation and the resulting Lean deployment has delivered some spectacular results.

In fact, Broadfix’s investment in TXM services was fully paid back in six weeks through reductions in agency labour. On top of that Broadfix have seen a 25% reduction in inventory and their backorders and WIP have fallen by 80%.

As well, the business is easily keeping up with demand with their existing injection moulding machines due to lower downtime and faster changeovers and has created space in the factory to keep growing.

Watch as Richard Jenner explains the benefits of having TXM Senior Lean Consultant Lee Candy provide expert advice and coaching to staff increasing output, reducing inventory whilst fulfilling loads backorders.

View More TXM Video Case Studies

Learn More About How TXM Works With Small and Medium Sized Businesses