Many manufacturers recognize the benefit of Lean Manufacturing and have ventured into Lean territory to apply a specific tool to a specific problem. And while that often yields positive benefits, managers are sometimes left wondering why they didn’t get the big results they’ve heard about from Lean implementation.

“That’s a common situation for companies new to Lean,” said Steve Straub, WMEP manufacturing specialist. “They don’t always take a systematic approach. It’s more of a shotgun approach.” For example, a company might hire an out-of-town consultant who comes in for a week of intense activity, and then is gone. That kind of “drive-by Kaizen” may leave people wondering where the real benefit is.

Other companies try to do too much, overwhelming their resources. Still others start a project, but the discipline to finish it isn’t there. “The project creeps and takes too long,” said Rick Ray, WMEP manufacturing specialist. “The momentum is lost.”

Implementing Lean in a more thoughtful way can greatly increase its benefits. Lean Transformation is a superior, comprehensive approach to Lean implementation that produces immediate, dramatic results. Developed over a period of years, Lean Transformation is a proven method that combines multiple Lean tools and creates a Lean Culture in the company so that improvements are sustained.

“If companies just do one of the Lean tools, they get some return on their effort,” said Ray. “But when the Lean tools are used in combination with each other in a coordinated program, it really magnifies the results.”

Lean Transformation, unlike other approaches, truly addresses resistance to change. First, it helps you tackle the fear of the unknown by educating all employees about Lean. This demystifies Lean and corrects faulty assumptions – that they will lose their jobs or will now be working with someone constantly looking over their shoulders. “We have employees learn what Lean is all about so that everyone is on the same page and people aren’t trying to figure it out through the rumor mill,” said Straub. “That way, they understand how it applies to their work.”

Next, but most important, Lean Transformation establishes Lean Culture to actively address resistance to change through employee involvement. A Lean Culture is a specific company culture focused entirely on the customer, totally committed to continuous improvement and that sets clear expectations of employees. The Lean Culture infrastructure consists of a core team, which removes roadblocks to implementation; a steering team, which drives Lean implementation; and project teams,
which work to improve efficiency.

The new culture also helps employees understand the company’s new direction and gives them the opportunity to become actively involved in finding solutions. “If I stood out in the parking lot of a company during shift change and asked the employees, ‘What are the vision and objectives of this company?’ Could they tell me? If the answer is no, we’ve got some work to do. If the answer is yes, there’s a lot of power in that, having everyone striving toward the same goal,” said Straub.

Lean Culture helps you set improvement goals and communicate them to the entire organization, then move forward with implementation. “It’s extremely important to  involve everyone in the company,” said Ray. “People at all levels have to be involved if it’s going to work.” The change in culture creates employee support so that gains are sustained.

Once a Lean Culture is in place, attention can be turned to deciding which Lean tools will be used and where they will be applied. The first step here is Value Stream Mapping, a technique that reveals where waste is occurring by mapping a particular process. Once the company selects a value stream or process, this quickly reveals where the inefficiencies are.

Using Value Stream Mapping “helps develop a prioritized, coordinated plan that shows which Lean tool should be implemented first to get the best results,” said Ray. Multiple Lean projects, such as 5S/Visual Workplace, Cellular Flow, Pull/Kanban and Standardized Work are then used to clear production bottlenecks, increase productivity and quality, reduce lead times and inventory and improve on-time delivery.

The benefits from Lean Transformation include greater responsiveness when dealing with changing delivery dates, designs or order quantities. “A Lean company can accommodate those requests and still be profitable,” said Straub. “Other companies can do that, but it eats into their profits and other orders in the plant suffer because of it.”

Lean Transformation also can pay for itself with higher ROI than other methods. “It’s not unusual for a company to get a return of $10 for every $1 spent to implement Lean using this approach,” said Ray.

One company struggling with long lead times and work flow issues, Vogel Wood Products Corp. in Monona, used Lean Transformation to clean up the shop floor, remove unnecessary items and implement First-In First-Out processing of orders. They cut their lead times in half and reduced WIP by 70%. A Peshtigo seating manufacturer, DeCrane Aircraft Seating Company, reduced cycle time by 80% with a Cell Flow project. Other examples include $100,000 in cost savings for a Middleton manufacturer and a Prairie du Chien facility that went from losing money to becoming a top profit center.

In fact, it’s not uncommon for lead times to drop 25 to 50% after six to 12 months of Lean Transformation work. Other typical results include:
• 50% reduction in inventory
• Increased on-time deliveries to 98-99%
• 50% reduction in setup time
• First-pass yields increased 50-100%
• Increased production capacity of 300% using existing assets (using Cell Flow)
• Positive cash flow

“The beauty of Lean Transformation is that it gives you a sustainable strategy for continuous improvement,” said Straub. “When you really understand Lean, it becomes a way of doing business.”

Establishing a Lean Culture and using Value Stream Mapping to develop a coordinated plan using multiple Lean tools are the elements that give Lean Transformation its power. “Putting all of that together, you get very dynamic results with a greater return on your investment,” said Ray. “When implemented properly, we don’t know of a company that’s lost on this model.

Successful Keys to the Lean Transformation
• Educate employees on Lean so they understand it
• Establish a Lean Culture to get employee involvement and sustained gains over time
• Apply Value Stream Mapping to identify the tools that will yield the highest ROI
• Implement a prioritized improvement plan to get significant results

To find out more about our Lean Services, please call WMEP at Ph. 877-800-2085.