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    Lean Manufacturing Essentials: Hands-on help for small manufacturers and smart technical people: No Nonsence Manuals, #1
    Lean Manufacturing Essentials: Hands-on help for small manufacturers and smart technical people: No Nonsence Manuals, #1
    Lean Manufacturing Essentials: Hands-on help for small manufacturers and smart technical people: No Nonsence Manuals, #1
    Ebook105 pages1 hour

    Lean Manufacturing Essentials: Hands-on help for small manufacturers and smart technical people: No Nonsence Manuals, #1

    By Mark Lynch

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    About this ebook

    This great guide has been developed specifically for small manufacturing businesses that need a simple, flexible way of implementing Lean Manufacturing ideas relevant to them. The subject is explained clearly and plainly with minimal jargon. Practical application is fundamental.

    The focus is very much on straightforward implementation in the workplace, so you can quickly obtain benefits in costs, quality and productivity.

    This has been written for engineers who simply want to get on. It provides a clear concise description of all the key proven tools and techniques (over 15 of them), together with the principles that underpin Lean Manufacturing.

    Importantly, the guide comes into its own with the 'people' aspects of embedding and sustaining a lean culture for small manufacturing businesses.

    Additionally, helpful guidance is provided for 'make v buy' decision making for small businesses looking to make the best use of resources, funds and capacity, as well as concentrate on what they do best. Also, see how automation and robotics can dramatically improve production processes for small manufacturers.

    Key themes include: Why Lean Manufacturing is commercially essential; Powerful Lean Manufacturing techniques - simply explained and quickly applied; Lean leadership - getting the best out of your people for the long-term; Make or buy? Outsourcing considerations for small manufacturers; How automation can dramatically improve your production processes: Making it happen: Lean Manufacturing action plan.

    Lean Manufacturing Essentials works because it distils what the best performers do and sets out a hands-on, practical way to apply these great ideas in the workplace. Now you and your small manufacturing business have the opportunity to significantly benefit, by conveniently applying these powerful techniques on your terms.

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMark Lynch
    Release dateAug 11, 2014
    ISBN9781501470578
    Lean Manufacturing Essentials: Hands-on help for small manufacturers and smart technical people: No Nonsence Manuals, #1

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      Book preview

      Lean Manufacturing Essentials - Mark Lynch

      1. Introduction

      Welcome to Lean Manufacturing Essentials – a straight talking guide written for genuine improvements, aimed at manufacturers who simply want to get things done. By keeping it simple, the information below lays out how your manufacturing business can benefit from lean techniques successfully applied by others. The focus is very much on results. All information is based on sound theory and practical experience. However what matters to you is actions and improvements – so this is where the emphasis lies.

      2. Why Lean Manufacturing is Essential for Small Manufacturing Businesses

      Why the Need for Lean Manufacturing Essentials?

      Nearly all manufacturers want to improve to remain competitive, particularly small and medium-sized businesses. However, often many are not sure how to. Many have heard of lean manufacturing but quite frankly the day job of getting the orders in, keeping production going and balancing cash-flow is more than enough. In the mean-time numerous official reports have identified improved ways of working, such as lean, can deliver significant bottom line improvements. Moreover, small manufacturers often find the cost of current training solutions and consultants prohibitive, sometimes with dubious results.

      What small manufacturing businesses need is a simple, flexible way of implementing the parts of lean that are applicable to them. Concepts and ideas need to be relevant and easy to understand, such that they can be applied quickly in the workplace when convenient. What’s more, everybody knows how tough it is out there financially. So options need to be low cost.

      Well we’re so passionate about the application of lean to small manufacturing businesses, we’ve supplied bundles of info for very low cost or for free! Simple explanation and real world application, made as convenient as possible – this is the only way lean manufacturing techniques are going to trickle down to the hard pressed small businesses that underpin manufacturing industry. Of course, there is rightly a place for consultant-led (more expensive) lean programmes. However small hard pressed manufacturers now have an opportunity to explore lean and witness its benefits at their convenience and on their terms.

      In short – this is a great source of information to help you improve the operation and profitability of your manufacturing business. The flexibility, low cost, and convenience have been developed especially for the needs of small manufacturers.

      Now is the best time to make improvements. We keep it simple, to help you get the benefits more quickly.

      So what is this ‘Lean’ all about then?

      One of the fundamental ideas behind lean is to ruthlessly remove waste from your manufacturing process. Waste is anything that doesn’t add value, from the point of view of the customer. As such, another central theme of lean is to deliver more value, from your customers’ perspective.

      In lean organisations the drive to remove waste and so add value, is continuous – it doesn’t stop. Processes can always improve; you can always find ways to do things better, cheaper and faster. As such, a third principle of lean is to continually improve your processes. In short then, lean is all about doing more for less, continually reducing waste, adding value and constantly improving your processes.

      To help you achieve this, lean includes a range of tools and techniques to assist you practically improve and reduce waste. We’ll cover some of these later. However lean is more than just a set of tools. It is more a way of thinking, a philosophy, where the tools assist the application of the ideas so as to reap the benefits.

      Significant Benefits of Lean Manufacturing

      Dramatic cost reduction to improve your cash flow

      • Substantial savings through targeted cost reduction activities.

      • Reduced work-in-progress and money tied up in stock.

      • Get rid of waste in all its forms and therefore the cash going down the drain with it.

      • Get out of the habit of ‘throwing money at the problem’ when issues occur, by getting better control of your processes.

      • Spend less, by getting the best value for money out of your plant and people.

      Big falls in lead-times

      • Understand your processes and how long they take. Then optimise them to drive down their overall duration.

      • Identify and eliminate the time delays in your processes.

      • Promote one piece flow and get rid of queues and delays.

      • Get suppliers involved so they deliver when and where you need them to.

      • Let demand drive your delivery. Move towards just-in-time and kanban-based supply, where parts are delivered when and where they are required.

      Significant improvement in quality with fewer defects

      • Standardise the way you do things. Understand where and how errors may occur, then eliminate them.

      • Train your workforce to undertake tasks in a standardised, error-free way.

      • Get employees to be quality conscious; a different way of thinking that aims to improve processes and stop and rectify issues before they become problems.

      • Deploy tools and techniques to improve quality, based on visibility and a common sense approach.

      • Embed a culture of continuous improvement.

      Improved customer service and satisfaction

      • Truly understand what the customer considers as value. Then focus all your efforts on delivering this. Customer defined quality and value, over internal needs

      • Focus on the delivery of defect-free products and outstanding customer service to generate repeat business.

      • Make it easy for customers to feedback and use this to drive internal improvements.

      • Delight customers with outstanding service. Use this in your marketing and receive new referral business.

      Impressive improvement in employee moral

      • Dramatically increase employee interest by acknowledging those close to the action are best qualified to make improvements.

      • Get employees involved with lean training, problem solving and waste reduction tasks.

      • Use targets and rewards to build momentum and change the staff culture.

      • Increase staff satisfaction, as they see the dramatic benefits that result from their problem solving ideas and efforts.

      • Share the rewards such as an improved working environment, potential bonuses through savings and less stress.

      Boost your profitability

      • More profits due to all the points above – a leaner, lower cost business model.

      • Profits are available for reinvestment and growth.

      Lean Theory and Principles

      To gain a decent understanding of the thinking behind lean, it’s worth touching on some of the principles that underpin the philosophy.

      The legendary Womack and Jones (founders of the Lean Institute) describe 5 principles in their best-selling book Lean Thinking.

      • Value – Identify what value is from the customer’s viewpoint.

      • The Value Steam – Identify and understand what the process steps are, by value stream mapping, for example. Understand the flow of information, material and products to the customer. Identify which activities add value and which do not. Improve tasks and reduce waste accordingly.

      • Flow – Aim for a process as close to smooth continuous flow as possible. Try to avoid batches that queue up. Instead aim for

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