Lean manufacturing is a way of life for many companies. You may never get a strict definition of what lean actually means in the business world — if you ask five different people, you’ll get five different answers. The core is clear, though — lean is all about cutting costs and eliminating waste while increasing manufacturing efficiency. It’s great in theory, but it’s not easy to keep on track. What can you do to keep your lean manufacturing on track, or get it back where it needs to be if it derails?
Identify Your Lean Management Type
What type of lean management program are you working with? As we’ve mentioned already, there are many different opinions on what exactly constitutes a lean management program, but it will probably fall under one of four categories:- Fixed State: Constantly maintaining a state of being lean.
- Continuous Improvement Process: Taking steps to initialize a lean manufacturing process.
- Working Methods: Learning to move toward a lean manufacturing process.
- Application Philosophy: Using some lean methodology without transitioning entirely to lean manufacturing.
Technical Upgrades First, Then Training
Chances are that your hardware upgrades are going to take longer than training your employees, so the best place to start is with your equipment. Look at Toyota, which is often held up as the ideal lean manufacturing example. Lean manufacturing should be about 80 percent action and 20 percent training. Toyota is also known for tossing its employees into the deep end to see if they can swim — they’re placed in challenging situations and told to puzzle their way out. Whether or not this works for you will depend on your crew, but it is a good example of how to make your way into lean manufacturing. Once your hardware and practices are in place, it’s time to start training and ensuring all your employees, from the newest higher-up to the CEO, are on the same page. Training will be constant and ongoing while you establish your lean manufacturing protocols. Lean manufacturing, once established, can translate into a lot of benefits. The goal here is to reduce costs, as well as get rid of waste while improving efficiency and eventually product quality. Just upgrading your air compressor systems to make them more efficient can save you more than $25,000 a year, according to Quincy Compressor.
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