It’s really rather simple: Lean, also commonly known as Lean Manufacturing, is a combination of management methods and process improvement tools companies use to maximize output while minimizing waste, downtime, and ineffective, unproductive processes.
With Lean, your company will deliver superior productivity and profits in an effective manner.
While each company will have a different Lean solution – flow for a compressor manufacturer is going to look different to flow for a brewery; pull will be implemented differently in a design office compared to machine shop – the basic journey is the same as it relies on 6 key steps.
No matter which industry, stability is an organized workplace and standard ways of working should create easily repeatable processes and a platform for continuous improvement
Knowing what the end customer values enables you to see what process steps are value adding and which are ‘waste’ to be eliminated
Most companies try to improve productivity by making local changes. However, the big question that isn’t being asked is: does this actually improve the company’s overall performance? Lean helps assess where the real changes need to be made, rather than applying band-aid fixes to select issues. Learn more about streamlining your business!
Applying Lean is unique to each organization as flow looks different for different businesses. For a compressor manufacturer flow will be about material and man power to a job, for an engineering firm flow will be the movement of information and so forth. What flow is breaking down and slowing your productivity from one process to the next?
Just in time and Pull is not just about reducing inventory. Rather, it’s about having the right people, parts and information available when needed – no sooner, no later. The more you can reduce and stabilize your supply lead times, internal and external, the smaller the inventories you will need to hold.
Continuous improvement is the pursuit of excellence. What was is often regarded as world class one day will later be considered as standard in the market place. By pursuing excellence we continue to push the boundaries of what can be achieved and keep ourselves ahead of the competition. We look at small, continuous improvements, to keep you ahead of your competitor.
To customize your own Lean journey, Applied Performance uses a number of Lean Manufacturing tools to identify and remove the clutter within your organization:
To learn more about Applied Performance and how our consulting can help improve your organization, call us today at 403-470-1659, or email info@appliedperformance.ca.