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Call it lean. Call it just-in-time. Or a more controlled way of getting the job done. Or just call it a better way of clearing out the obstacles that once stood between your order intake and the end customer.
Semantics aside, it's getting harder to tell lean implementation from just-in-time, and harder to define the lines separating lean, JIT and other approaches and processes that aim to improve company performance.
"Lean is a complete way of thinking, an overall global look at manufacturing in general," says Jason Withrow, wood manufacturing specialist at Kansas-based MAMTC (The Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center). "You're trying to trim out every step to get things done just-in-time."
Lean's more recent moves are expanding along the entire supply chain from purchasing materials and selling the product to the shipping dock.
That means buying materials just in time to use them for specific jobs, Withrow says, "instead of putting them in storage and then looking for them." MAMTC works hands-on with small to mid-size businesses on helping them become more profitable. Lean is a major focus, with pull from the customer, rather than a push from the front end, driving the process.
"Your sales drive the production levels," says Russ Wilson, production manager for Midwest Cabinet Co., Inc. Midwest designs and makes interior furnishings and millwork for restaurants, hotels and other commercial and institutional customers. It has 65,000 sq.ft. of manufacturing space in two facilities and a total of about 150 to 160 employees.
Wilson sees lean as an idea. "That idea is to eliminate as many steps and as many obstacles as you can," he says. Midwest Cabinet worked with MAMTC in developing and implementing its transition to lean some five years ago (see box below). "We work to production needs," Wilson says. "We're not an inventory company."
Company management is looking at the big picture. Each station focuses on controlling throughput on its part of the overall job. Everyone is thinking lean, but different departments and different stations on the plant floor see different parts of the process.
"We are all thinking lean, but we may not all have the processes throughout the company. That's why continuous improvement is central to lean," Wilson says.
"The more you look through your supply chain, the more you see in both directions — where your supplies and materials come from and who wants what," says Joseph DeFeo, president of the Connecticut-based Juran Institute and executive coach.
Doing lean
"Lean is making its way into the strategic, design and control processes of the company," DeFeo says.
"True lean practitioners understand that lean is about understanding demand and the processes that deliver demand," DeFeo says. "You're pulling information from your supply chain rather than just pushing product out the door."
That also affects relationships with customers. "The closer your feedback loop is to your target, the better off you are," says DeFeo.
Lean is seen as a business system, rather than just another toolbox. Front offices are now applying lean accounting, says Ralph Keller, present of the Illinois-based Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME).
Rather than classic accounting methods that tend to reward production for inventory, lean accounting supports production for sale, Keller says. Lean and related methods also factor into selecting the plant systems that deliver the customized products consumers now demand.
"Lean is becoming the way we do business now. It's no longer the fad of the month," Keller says.
Going lean involves combining tools and using them to plan the transition and continuing improvement processes. Software, DeFeo says, is one of the tools that has put more essential information in the hands of people throughout the company supply chain.
Getting started in lean means taking a good, hard look at "all the activities that occur in your business, and then determine if they're value-added from the customer perspective. If they're not value-added, they're not helping your business," Keller says.
"Value stream mapping is one of the first things you do in getting to where you want to be," Withrow says. This maps out current work processes to see how long they take, with an eye to locating problems and slowdowns.
Withrow works with wood manufacturers at his shop at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan. on lean, product development, CNC implementation and other process improvement upgrades.
Value stream mapping helps everyone along the supply and deliver chain — from management and purchasing through the plant and out the door — identify wasted time and ineffective processes. On paper or in the computer, Withrow says, it provides a permanent record of the company's current state and defines the future state and the best way to get there.
"What's going to be the best bang for your buck? Start with what you have the time and the money for," says Withrow. "Identify your biggest problem and fix that first."
After that, it's all but essential to move on to other departments in the company and to other steps in the manufacturing process.
"Lean almost has to be contagious," Wilson says. "It has to start somewhere, but once you start it, it has to spread. The whole company has to be lean-driven, or lean doesn't work."
Midwest began its lean conversion with the restaurant booth shop, and has been expanding lean operations through the company. Lean now starts with ordering the raw materials.
"When you first implement lean, you see big changes, huge changes," Wilson says. "As you go further, you're shaving minutes, not hours."
author: By Lisa Harbatkin