Article 1

Do You Have What It Takes to be

Lean?
Everyone talks, talks, talks about lean manufacturing. Now, some guidelines for actually achieving success. by William Feld, CPIM

Much has been written about lean manufacturing. Many in

the field of manufacturing management have presented a multitude of approaches with similar sounding labels: cellular manufacturing, agile manufacturing, the Toyota production system (TPS), flow manufacturing, demand flow technology (DFT), and so on. All are very effective methodologies when implemented properly. All have generated substantial benefits to many organizations. And all have been used in some form or another across multiple industries. So what is the difference between these approaches and this topic called lean manufacturing? To the seasoned practitioner, nothing. Besides semantics, there is no substantive difference. What is critically important however, is that few companies have ever actually deployed these approaches. Many talk a good story. Some point to the showcase cell they implemented on the shop floor two years ago. Several can provide computerized presentations of their plans for the year (often the same presentation they used last year with a revised date). In reality, few companies can demonstrate hard evidence of actual implementation across their production areas, let alone the entire company. Why do so many companies struggle to achieve benefits that have been so well documented in publications and business periodicals? Why do so many manufacturers initiate improvement programs, but never bring them to completion? A common reason is not that they dont know what to do, but that they dont know how. This article provides a roadmap for implementing 1

lean manufacturing, illustrating some basic fundamental steps used in preparing, planning, and deploying a lean manufacturing program.

At-a-Glance
After years of discussion about lean manufacturing, its clear many companies remain unable to successfully use this vital tool to achieve improvement. Although early efforts may provide discouraging, lean manufacturing requires constant tweaking to avoid backslidingor worse, analysis paralysis. Labels aside, lean manufacturing requires a steady hand, a good road map, and a company-wide commitment to continuous improvement. Five primary elements form the foundation of lean manufacturing: manufacturing flow, organization, process control, metrics, and logistics.

More than redesigning the shop floor

LEAN MANUFACTURING INVOLVES A great deal more than just rearranging equipment into a U-shape, enacting a pull

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system, and pushing inventory back onto suppliers. In order to secure lasting benefits and continuous improvement, this initiative must be handled like a change program. Lean techniques and new ways of working are only part of the process. A successful implementation requires people, partnerships, motivation, rewards, the understanding of fundamentals, and a consistent direction. Some of the topics that must be addressed as part of a lean manufacturing implementation include crossfunctional teams, formal problem solving, line balance, continuous flow, customer/supplier relationships, reward and recognition, consistent performance, line-stop authority, defect

prevention, and kanban signals. While not complete, this list provides some insight into the breadth of topics that must be addressed if lasting change is to be sustained. In order for a lean manufacturing program to be completely successful, it must become institutionalized within the organization. When a company redesigns an areaand comes back 12 months laterthe area should not have slipped backward to the old ways of working. In addition, the lean program must focus on a wide array of topics that can be segregated into groups or elements. Figure 1 identifies the five primary elements used to categorize the focus for a lean manufacturing implementation.

Article 1. Do You Have What It Takes to be Lean? Before getting too involved with how these elements are deployed, companies must understand why they are changing in the first place. Because many manufacturers are not currently in pain, they may be unmotivated to change their environment. What must take place is a recognized need for change. In other words, holding up a mirror to see reality. This can be accomplished by hiring a consultant to provide an outside perspective, hiring employees from the competition, or benchmarking against the best in the industry. Figure 2 provides a template for conducting a self-assessment benchmark of organizations based on the five primary elements outlined above. Using this template may be just the ticket for awakening a sleeping giant, alerting an organization to the fact that to avoid future pain, something must change and now. The lean manufacturing road map described in Figure 3 provides a general guide, as well as a structure for the next steps in a lean manufacturing program. Organizations going through change often find the course to be difficult, loaded with land mines and uncertainty. This fear of the unknown causes most organizations to waffle. The lack of knowing whats next compounds the problem. By achieving a clear direction, an understanding of where to go next, and an insight as to what is coming, companies can go far in alleviating fear of change. Once a company creates its lean roadmap, establishing implementation sequence and identifying fundamental building blocks comes next. As with the prerequisites required for difficult classes in school, the five primary elements of lean manufacturing must be deployed through a series of fundamental steps or stages. These stages are considered complete only when specific physical principles are in place and targeted performance levels are consistently achieved. Like building blocks, each stage has certain principles that must be in place before succeeding principles can be deployed.

Each of these primary elements has a sublisting of techniques or principles that must be deployed as part of a lean manufacturing program. A brief definition of each follows: 1. Manufacturing flowthe area addressing physical changes and the work standards deployed as part of the cell design. 2. Organizationthe area focusing on the identification of peoples roles/functions and training in the new ways of working and communication. 3. Process controlthe area directed at monitoring, controlling, stabilizing, and pursuing ways to improve the process. 4. Metricsthe area addressing visible, results-based performance measures, targeted improvement, and team rewards/ recognition. 5. Logisticsthe area providing definition for operating rules and mechanisms for planning and controlling the flow of material.

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Measuring performance is vital

MANUFACTURERS CANNOT EXPECT TO IMPLEMENT CROSStraining or set-up reduction unless they have identified the standard work content for a product or designed a cell to operate at the level of customer demand (takt time). Each stage contains a distinct set of performance measures and these measures can change as a company progresses through the different stages of an implementation. Figure 4 shows a set of lean manufacturing principles with different stages and various measures. When deploying these principles, not only is it important to satisfy the prerequisite steps, a company should mitigate risk

and apply any lessons learned. This accomplished through the use of pilot implementation and gaining management buy-in. The first production area identified for implementation should be considered a pilot. Just like the flight test phase in an aircraft development program, expect some things to break. Then apply any lessons learned to the next area. Above all, management expectations must be understood before deploying the pilot cell. Only after Stage One requirements have been satisfied can the company move on to Stage Two or begin with a second cell. Figure 5 shows a sequence of events and the path for a typical implementation. Notice that the second stage or the next cell is not started until management has approved the previous area.

Article 1. Do You Have What It Takes to be Lean? Each stage is expected to take two months. This is a generic number depending on product complexity, cell size, receptivity for change, number of people involved, and so on. However, the checkpoints and the staggering of cells remain the same. Four specific activities (kaizen event, adjustments, stabilization, and audit) are part of the implementation of each stage. These activities represent substeps in the process. The term kaizen, or continuous improvement, is used throughout the implementation. But it is not a loose, unstructured event. It is a time-boxes event with specific activities to be addressed and deployed during a particular stage. The training and knowledge transfer used with each kaizen is timely and spoon-fed for direct application. Knowledge is transferred first thing in the morning and deployed in the afternoon. Figure 6 depicts a template for conducting a Stage One kaizen event. One of the philosophies used by those implementing lean manufacturing is that of RR/PW (roughly right/precisely wrong). The idea: a company can spend two weeks trying to be precisely right or spend a day to get close and do something. Companies often find that after rearranging the equipment, something was done incorrectly. It is common to adjust and then adjust again. A committed company continues to adjust and improve the areathis is not a one-time event. Above all, an organization must avoid analysis paralysis. It must get close to the numbers in the design phase, and go with it. After the first week of the event is over, the implementation team must spend the next week tweaking and adjusting the process. After everything has been documented, communicated, and understood by all the people in the cell, the company must stabilize it and perform. By the end of six weeks of stabilizing and improving the performance of the process, it is time to audit the implementation to secure passage either to Stage Two or the deployment of the next cell. The idea is to get the ball moving and roll out the implementation across the rest of the factory floor. Many companies have deployed several of these principles and received substantial operational benefits. Others have attempted to deploy some of these principles and not been successful. This loss in directionand the inability to recognize what the next steps must behinders their progress. Using the information presented here may provide some insight as to how a company can plan and implement a successful lean manufacturing program.

William Feld, CPIM, is currently a lean manufacturing consultant working with Invensys plc. He can be reached at 314/422-9768, via email at william.feld@worldnet.att.net, or at www.wmfeld.com.

From APICSThe Performance Advantage, May 2000, pp. 61-63. 2000 by APICS, the American Production and Inventory Control Society. Reprinted by permission.