Lean Manufacturing

How to introduce 5S concept in the work environment?

As a concept, 5S is intended to produce the best results in any given work environment. This includes things like productivity and wasted time, the happiness and safety of employees, and of course the overall profitability of your business. The S’s themselves stand for sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. Unfortunately, 5S and other lean concepts are often implemented in an inefficient manner, which is…

Mike Wilson | November 15, 2012 | 5S | 5S, Facility Efficiency, Labeling, Lean Manufacturing, Organized Workplace, Tool Organization

Lean Manufacturing Can Enforce Safety Standards

Lean manufacturing has become a very important concept in business improvement. Most large organizations have devised tools and systems to help align their businesses towards lean enterprise and reap the benefits of improved efficiency and waste reduction. Most people associate lean manufacturing with business production unaware that it is a broad concept that can also be used in other sectors within an organization. Lean methodologies can be…

Mike Wilson | November 2, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing

Kaizen – An Organizations Journey towards Perfection

Quality and productivity in an ideal situation should always go hand in hand. However, where there is a pressure to perform they are always pitted against each other. Business managers are always under a lot of pressure to hit targets and increase their output; this has a resultant effect of compromised productivity. Customers, due to low prices may not complain but this situation prevails as long as…

Mike Wilson | October 29, 2012 | Kaizen | Continuous Improvement, Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing

Who Is Interested in Lean Manufacturing?

Matt Wrye of Beyond Lean set up a poll to see who was interested in reading about lean. According to Wrye, the majority of folks reading about lean on his blog were in middle management: “Who is reading Beyond Lean? 1. Mid-Level Managers = 40% 2.Senior Level Managers = 20% 3. Consultants = 20%” This came as no surprise to Wrye, as he himself is a self-described…

Mike Wilson | October 25, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing

Trashing the Top 5 Myths About Lean Manufacturing

Tim McMahon at A Lean Journey, added a blog post about what he considers to be 5 misconceptions and myths about lean. He notes that they are these: 1. Lean is only about cost reduction. 2. Lean makes employees feel like robots. 3. Lean is just about applying tools. 4. Lean is something you do in addition. 5. Lean means no inventory. Although Tim does his best…

Mike Wilson | October 18, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing

What is Lean Manufacturing? Watch this Cartoon

While scouring the web looking for relevant material to share with you about how to implement lean manufacturing in your company, I came across this quick little free cartoon that explains what is lean manufacturing. I love things that are able to boil more complex ideas down into much more digestible bites. I particularly like how animations have a way of simplifying and summarizing visuals so…

Mike Wilson | October 17, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing

Trying to Implement Lean Manufacturing? Educate Yourself First.

I find that, when it comes to manufacturing, office, or healthcare implementations, folks don’t really understand lean when they’re first shopping the concept. That’s why it’s a good idea to invest a fraction of your time and money right out of the box toward quality education and consultation to help you get the right info before you spend the larger portion of time and money in creating…

Mike Wilson | October 16, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing

Understanding the Kanban System and Its Applications

Kanban is a system that was developed long ago by a very well known company, Toyota. It is very popular in the world of business and is widely used due to its uniqueness and ease in use. This system has brought modern planning, working conditions, management and other aspects of business. Due to these, Kanban system produced most of the successful business globally. With this system, time…

Mike Wilson | October 16, 2012 | Kanban | Continuous Improvement, Kanban, Lean Manufacturing

Lean Book Reviews: How to Implement Lean Manufacturing

I’m trying to keep up with my lean thinking, and with that comes lean reading. This stuff can be dry sometimes, but I always come away with some nugget of gold from each book I read on the subject. Lonnie Wilson’s book, “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing” is a great one to add to the library. Like most good teachers, Wilson adds loads of practical advice and…

Mike Wilson | October 15, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean, Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing Just In Time : The Ultimate Inventory System

Lean manufacturing is a powerful type of production system that was created by Toyota after the World War II. It involves 5 tools and principles that contribute to its success such as 5’S, Kaizen, JIT or Just in Time, Value Stream Mapping and Kanban. The focus of this article is about just-in-time that works excellently in manufacturing industries. Just In Time – A Smart Approach The many…

Mike Wilson | October 12, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean, Lean Manufacturing

A3 for Lean Implementation

A3 image via Reliableplant.com Today, I was looking for a decent A3 problem-solving template for an engineering friend who was planning on implementing a lean program for his company, and I came across a helpful article on ReliablePlant.com by Larry Rubrick and a cool A3 powerpoint presentation at PowerShow.com (don’t hit download, just hit play). As many people may know, the A3 format originated around the type…

Mike Wilson | October 11, 2012 | Lean | A3, Continuous Improvement, Lean, Lean Manufacturing

Henry Ford and Steve Jobs : A Comparison Between Two Titans of Industry

I was reading an article titled “Was Steve Lean?” by John Shook on A Lean Enterprise today in which he ponders whether Steve Jobs’ leadership of Apple could have been considered “Lean.” Using parallels to Henry Ford, who some say was one of the first innovators of what we now call lean thinking (which I think Shook takes some issue with), he seems to arrive at the…

Mike Wilson | October 10, 2012 | Lean | Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing Ideas : Know What Is Worth Your Time

I like Tim McMahon. I mean, we’ve never met, but his blog and writing style is loose and informative at the same time. He’s a thoughtful and hard-working guy. I’d guess. Right now, Tim has a series of posts he returns to every week called “Daily Lean Tips,” and he gives a few ideas of things to keep in mind when you’re implementing or sustaining your lean…

Mike Wilson | October 9, 2012 | Lean | Lean Manufacturing

Six Sigma Manufacturing : Waste Reduction and Process Enhancements

Are you familiar about the Six Sigma manufacturing system? In actuality, this is a very well known method used by many businesses or companies in order to enhance their productivity. It is a very vital strategy which is why a lot of companies are resorting to this method in order to obtain positive results when it comes to manufacturing of goods and services. What Is Six Sigma…

Mike Wilson | October 8, 2012 | Lean | Lean, Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing Training : Key to Many Opportunities

The lean manufacturing system is a being employed in a great number of companies these days. But then, this is not a new thing at all since it has been in existence for more than two decades. Due to its reported success, this system has been adopted by many corporations hoping to obtain the same success of other companies who have used the system long ago. In…

Mike Wilson | October 4, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing