Implementing Lean Production

Improvement Journey at Bizmanualz

At Bizmanualz, our mission is to help businesses and organizations improve through helping them implement innovative techniques and proven best practices. That philosophy carries through our manuals, our training classes, and our consulting efforts.

What kind of business improvement company would we be if we never applied this philosophy to our own organization?

In this series of articles we will discuss several things we have done as part of our “Improvement Journey.?? We feel that this phrase really describes our improvement philosophy: improvement is not a single event or action: improvement is a continual process that is part of everyone’s daily job and responsibility.

Envisioning a Lean Machine

Our manual series is a key product line at Bizmanualz. Our manuals provide policies, procedures, and forms addressing functions that exist in virtually any business – Accounting, Human Resources, Sales & Marketing, Computer and Networking, etc;. A CD containing procedures and forms in Microsoft Word format is included with each manual, so you can easily edit and modify our procedures to fit your needs. We produce these manuals and CDs in-house.

Sometime ago it was apparent that there was room for improvement in the production area, where the manuals and CD are produced, stored, and packaged. A period of growth had left the production area somewhat inefficient and unorganized. While we consistently met our goal of same day shipping; the time, effort, and inventory needed to achieve that goal did not truly align with the philosophy of a “lean production?? environment.

Involvement and Buy-In

Such a focused improvement project begins by involving those who work in the area every day. An ethnographic approach is useful – observe and interview. Take meticulous notes on what you find, and then organize and highlight the notes to look for recurrent themes and important issues. Talk to the department or section suppliers and customers, both internal and external. Then review what you have learned with the associates who work in the area.

Be particularly sensitive to the fact that you are tinkering with what they do on a daily basis. Don’t make them feel that what they have been doing was wrong or bad. Put the focus on improving in ways that will make their job easier and more enjoyable.

Remember that the people who work in the area will know the best ways to improve it, plus they will be the ones using (or not using) the new system daily. By spending time and talking with them you will learn their ideas to make their job easier and more productive, and those discussions will likely be the foundation for any positive contribution you may have. Directly involving the people who work in the area not only reveals the best approaches for reorganization, but it also improves buy-in to give the improvements a chance to stick over the long haul. (The odds are that after a fly-by re-engineering, once the turbulence and roar of the engines subside, the old way of doing things will return.)

In-Depth Evaluation and Clear Goals

After deciding the production area needed a focused improvement project, the improvement coordinator spent 3 days in the production area before suggesting or touching anything. First, a current state map was produced, which was used to identify clear goals that included eliminating excess work in process and inventory, reducing production errors, and improving machine effectiveness and reliability.

After information was collected and clear goals were set, a future map was drawn identifying the lean improvement principles that could be applied to achieve our goals. This included using leans tools such as;

• Five S & Visual Workplace
• Kanban
• Value Stream Mapping
• Poka Yoke
• TPM
• Facility Design
• Standard Work

The Benefits of Improvement

The positive effects of the focus on improving the production were noticeable and measurable. Benefits not only included a clean, inviting workplace and more satisfied employees, the lean improvement results included:

• A 75% reduction in finished product inventory (from 17 days to 4.5 days stock)
• A 50% reduction in production time
• Increased machine reliably from 83% to 95%
• Reduced transportation effort and time by 80%
• A virtual elimination of packaging errors and rework

While a focused project can bring noticeable improvements, the activity does not stop there. Continual improvement mechanisms like training, Kaizens, corrective action teams, and management review meetings will reinforce the improvements and keep the improvement efforts flowing.

Now the focus of improvement at Bizmanualz is on the Sales and Marketing pipeline, and that will be followed-up with a focus on Development functions. After all, improvement and quality should not be just about the production line. Lean tends to be focused on production because waste and inefficiency is so obvious in the form of inventory, scrap, rework, and work in process. Waste and inefficiency exist in the office area as well; it is just not as easy to see.

If you are interested in lean philosophies and tools, then attend our Lean Thinking class. In the meantime, Bizmanualz continues on its improvement journey. Next week we will talk about the Bizmanualz Kaizen process.

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Posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 under Business Process Improvement

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Originally published by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title Implementing Lean Production.

This and more articles like this can be found at www.bizmanualz.com. This article may be reprinted freely as long as this resource box is left intact.