Lean Manufacturing

Safety Walk – Gemba Style

Have You Done Your Safety Walk? One of the most important goals of any facility should be to keep the employees and the company as safe as possible. In most cases, all the basic safety requirements will already be in place, including things like fire suppression systems, evacuation routes, safety signs and more. When a facility is in compliance with all the main regulatory requirements related to…

Tony Ferraro | February 4, 2015 | Gemba | Gemba, Lean Manufacturing, Regulations & Compliance, Safety

Eliminating Waste using these 5 Steps

Eliminating Waste in the Workplace Waste is a productivity killer. Physical waste gets in the way of your workers and takes up space that could be allocated toward other production activities. And that’s just physical. Waste also comes in a number of different forms that might be outside of the scope of our colloquial, layman’s definition. The elimination of waste can create a safer and more efficient…

Tony Ferraro | December 17, 2014 | 5S | Lean Manufacturing, Safety, Six Sigma

Obeya – Introducing the Lean War Room

You Must Obeya Welcome to today’s dose of Lean, on the agenda is Obeya. If you haven’t heard of Obeya, you might still have used it, or you may know about the concept but never have put it into action. In any event, it’s best to know and to act, and that’s exactly what we’re going to focus on today with this Lean planning concept. Obeya, coming from the…

Tony Ferraro | November 7, 2014 | Lean | Facility Efficiency, Lean, Lean Manufacturing, Obeya, Organized Workplace, Six Sigma

Quality, Value, & Grade – An Exploration

Is Higher Quality Always Better? You don’t have to be in the business world to feel that, intuitively, that better quality, is, well better. Phrases like “quality over quantity” and “you get what you pay for” drive this point home for just about everyone from a young age, but have we ever stopped to think about cases in which higher quality might not actually be the best…

Tony Ferraro | September 19, 2014 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Facility Efficiency, Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing

Foam for Tool Boxes

Exploring the Benefits of Foam for Tool Boxes Most facilities have dozens, if not hundreds, of different tools that are used on a regular basis. In addition to being very valuable, these tools are also essential for getting work done efficiently. When the tools are not properly taken care of, it can result in major delays and a lot of wasted time. One of the best ways…

Tony Ferraro | July 8, 2014 | Safety Products | 5S, Facility Efficiency, Labeling, Lean Manufacturing, Organized Workplace, Safety, Tool Organization

5 Tips for Reducing Downtime

How to Reduce Downtime in Your Facility When managing any facility, one of the biggest problems you need to overcome is downtime. Whether it is a full work stoppage where nothing is getting done, or just one machine that isn’t working properly, downtime can cause a wide range of different problems throughout the facility. Of course, downtime will also affect the bottom line of the facility, since…

Tony Ferraro | July 2, 2014 | Lean | 5S, Facility Efficiency, Lean Manufacturing, Reducing Downtime

Foam Tool Organizers in the Garage

Along with the flowers, and outdoor runners, the warmer weather of spring brings out all the car enthusiasts from their winter slumber. The cold weather of winter often puts car repair projects on hold. Each spring, however, millions of people regain their interest in vehicles of all types, and get back to work on their cars. Whether this means spending hours in the garage working, or taking…

Tony Ferraro | April 18, 2014 | Safety Products | Lean Manufacturing, Organized Workplace, Tool Organization

Internet Usage – Does it Hurt Employee Productivity?

Internet and cell phone usage are to our most recent generations what smoking was to those in the past. You’ve got people getting hired left and right who use the Internet on a daily basis, and then are asked to completely abstain from such activity from 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday (barring lunch breaks). There have even been multiple debates in recent years over the legitimacy…

Tony Ferraro | February 14, 2014 | Lean | Facility Efficiency, Lean Manufacturing

Five Steps to Starting LEAN Successfully

In LEAN methodology, businesses become more efficient, more profitable, and less wasteful through a plethora of time-tested strategies. However, many of the strategies might not be immediately intuitive, and may therefore not have made their way into your original business plans. Many people find themselves in this position, and want to figure out how they can make a peaceful, positive transition into LEAN within their business. In…

Tony Ferraro | February 6, 2014 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Kanban, Lean Manufacturing

8 LEAN Tools You Should Already Be Using

LEAN tools and strategies focus on improving production efficiency and reducing waste, both in terms of time and physical inputs. While the term LEAN and the thinking behind it is fairly well-known, there is still a natural (though somewhat perplexing) resistance to change that keeps business owners from implementing these strategies once they’re set in their ways. The reality is that a scientific, LEAN approach is almost…

Tony Ferraro | January 21, 2014 | Lean | 5S, Continuous Improvement, Kaizen, Kanban, Lean Manufacturing

5S Supplies Improve Safety and Organization in Auto Repair Shops

A few months ago Creative Safety Supply donated a variety of 5S supplies to an auto shop at Portland Community College. CSS also worked with the college to help make their facility safer and more efficient. You can read more about the changes made here. After I seen the success of this project I decided to work with a fairly large auto repair shop to assist in…

Tony Ferraro | January 16, 2014 | 5S | Facility Efficiency, Facility Marking, Labeling, Lean Manufacturing, Organized Workplace, Rack Labeling, Safety, Safety Signs, Tool Organization, Workplace Safety

Kaizen Event Reduces Transport Waste & Optimizes Efficiency

I was recently brought in to assist in a Lean event for a large manufacturing facility, with the goal of eliminating waste, and completing the implementation of Lean strategies. The facility had already begun the process over the past 18 months, and had done quite an impressive job. When they consulted with me, I was asked to put the ‘finishing touches’ on an already effective Lean system,…

Tony Ferraro | January 2, 2014 | Kaizen | Facility Efficiency, Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing in a Nutshell

Lean manufacturing is a topic which has been talked about a lot over the past few years, and it continues to get more attention almost every day. While there can be no doubt that lean strategies in manufacturing and other industries are extremely important, and effective, they can also be confusing. It is impossible to sum up the whole of the philosophy of lean manufacturing in a…

Tony Ferraro | November 15, 2013 | Lean | Lean, Lean Manufacturing

Chaku Chaku & Other Lean Terms You Should Know

We’re constantly told that change is a good thing, and, depending on the details of your current operation, most lean experts would also agree with that sentiment. Take the concept of Kaizen, for example. Kaizen is the environment of constant improvement and elimination of waste – in both time and materials – that lean operations seek to promote. Kaizen is generally achieved, or at least pursued, through…

Tony Ferraro | November 11, 2013 | Lean | Chaku Chaku, Kaizen, Lean, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma

Yokoten: From In Theory to Implanted

Most of the Japanese terms that have arrived in the American business world have their roots in lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing sprouted up out of Toyota’s re-tooling of it’s operations some decades ago and continues to be adopted by more and more companies today. “Yokoten” is no different. A lean term meaning “horizontal deployment,” Yokoten is all about level communication across the scope of a business or…

Tony Ferraro | October 24, 2013 | Lean | Lean Manufacturing