Managing your manufacturing project sets up certain expectations that need to be accomplished, and it’s often tough to implement a brand new set of tools or communication systems within your department or plant-wide when a job is time-sensitive, or the workforce is resistant to change. Keep in mind that your choice of best practices doesn’t necessarily need to be directly taken from your current plant’s playbook, though. …
Mike Wilson | October 3, 2012 | Training | Lean Manufacturing
The other day, I wrote a post about an article I read by Bruce Hamilton on whether to start a lean program by using 5S. Today, I noticed Jamie Flinchbaugh’s lean blog, in which he cites his comments on that Old Lean Guy, Hamilton’s article, and he offers his concept that lean is more of a roadmap than a recipe, and, to me, that is more or…
Mike Wilson | October 1, 2012 | 5S | 5S, Lean, Lean Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing consists of various techniques and tools that help businesses achieve improved quality and productivity. One of these tools is called VSM or Value Stream Mapping. It is a proven tool that is perfect for a wide range of processes and industries. It is ideal to create positive changes in any organization as long as utilized properly. Using this tool can help business develop efficient states…
Mike Wilson | September 28, 2012 | Value Stream | Lean Manufacturing
You hop in your car and get moving. You’ve got to get from Boston to New York, but your car is on fire. You haven’t had a drink of water in two days, and your fuel gauge is low. Oh, and where is your roadmap? Sounds like a fun trip, doesn’t it? So, which problem do you take care of first? Do you put out the fire,…
Mike Wilson | September 25, 2012 | Lean | 5S, Kaizen, Kanban, Lean Manufacturing
On the National Semiconductor website, they explained their process of utilizing 8D, which is also known as the “Eight Disciplines,” for problem solving and process improvement. They believe the 8 disciplines are structured so as to rely on team collaboration: The team as a whole is better and smarter than the quality sum of the individuals. Each discipline is supported by a checklist of assessment questions, such…
Mike Wilson | September 21, 2012 | Safety Solutions | Facility Efficiency, Lean Manufacturing
Six Sigma is a technique of improving the output and performance of a process by identifying and eliminating causes of defects and ultimately finding the new methods to develop the process. The main hindrances to a quality process are the root causes behind all the defects which lead to wastage and low quality output. Six Sigma technique is mainly adopted in large organizations, however, its implementation can…
Mike Wilson | September 21, 2012 | Lean | Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma
Optimum utilization of the available resource is a key goal in all organizations. The main objective is to ensure each and every available resource is channeled towards adding value to the set processes in order to improve the productivity of the organization. Lean manufacturing is geared towards this and its basic tenets include the need to carry out perpetual improvements and adjustments to eliminate any wastage in…
Mike Wilson | September 19, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing
I had an amusing read this morning. A young Seth Godin acolyte named Luke Rumley wrote an article titled “Lean vs. growth” on his blog last week, stepping on some thin ice regarding his views on Lean. Almost immediately, Rumley inadvertently provoked the online lean gods, who sent down efficient thunder and waste-free lightning via response comments by Mark Graban of leanblog.org and Michel Baudin of michelbaudin.com.…
Mike Wilson | September 17, 2012 | Lean | Lean Manufacturing
The Lean Edge, a website which touts itself as a “dialogue between business leaders and lean authors” offers some neat perspectives of lean, and inspired me to write an article about a post by Tracey Richardson. She talks about the lean term, nemawashi, which she says means “prepping the soil” or “digging around the roots” in Japanese, and is a metaphor for laying the groundwork, like in gaining…
Mike Wilson | September 12, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing
Ron Pereira, of LSS Academy, wrote a recent post titled “3 Things You Can Do When Your Manager Doesn’t Support Continuous Improvement,” and I like his proactive attitude. Face it, sometimes, your “higher-ups” don’t always back your ideas. They may have several reasons for this: maybe they don’t want you to steal their thunder or think your efforts may fail and make the department look bad. But,…
Mike Wilson | September 10, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing
On Joe Dager’s Lean-based website, Business901.com, he and David Veech of The Lean Way produced a podcast in which they conversed about the two “over-arching drivers” that should be inherent in any successful lean implementation: respect for people and continuous improvement. In the podcast, Veech makes the point that the technicality of continuous improvement and the use of its tools are usually utilized, but goes on to…
Mike Wilson | September 7, 2012 | Lean | Lean, Lean Manufacturing
Attempting to implement and sustain any new plan, including Lean, in a factory or even an office can meet a lot of resistance or bitterness, depending on the climate of your work environment and the attitudes of your employees or coworkers. Management almost always needs to be involved and educated on both the production processes of your particular workplace, the complexities of the new system, and anticipate…
Mike Wilson | September 4, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Kaizen, Lean Culture, Lean Manufacturing
Every workshop has an inventory where records of all tools purchased are recorded. A look through the inventory indicates that most of the small tools and implements are usually recorded missing, broken or damaged beyond repair. While these may seem like negligible losses an accumulation in a number of years results into huge amounts that may never be recovered. However, the good news is that these losses…
Mike Wilson | August 30, 2012 | Safety Products | 5S, Facility Efficiency, Lean Manufacturing, Organized Workplace, Tool Organization
Some of the folks over at the Lean Forums were expressing their need for value stream mapping (vsm) simulation games, so lean consultant and author, Bob Petruska, explained the “Pizza Game” which he plays with his Schwan coworkers (he uses this analogy because one of the Schwan plants makes frozen pizzas). According to Petruska, they draw the factory to scale on a table with grid paper, and…
Mike Wilson | August 29, 2012 | Lean | Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing
In relation to modern management systems, especially lean, the amount of components that go into it are almost innumerable. Although I am much more familiar with 5S, kaizen, and many of the other integral building blocks of the total lean package, I have to say that I am enjoying reading up on the more obscure (but no less important) 3P lean, also known as the Production Preparation…
Mike Wilson | August 28, 2012 | Lean | 5S, Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing
