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Hoshin Kanri for Lean Manufacturing: The Essential Strategic Planning Guide

Hoshin Kanri for Lean Manufacturing: The Essential Strategic Planning Guide

Lean manufacturing isn't just about cutting costs — it's a philosophy of continuous improvement and strategic planning that transforms the entire production process. Among the many lean tools, Hoshin Kanri stands out as a methodical approach to aligning company goals with practical, on-the-ground operations. This guide explores how manufacturing engineers can apply Hoshin Kanri to achieve operational excellence.

What is Hoshin Kanri?

Hoshin Kanri, originating from the Japanese business management system, is a strategic planning process that integrates Lean principles to ensure that every employee is working towards the same objectives. It translates to "direction management" or "policy deployment." By focusing on KPIs, cross-functional teamwork, and the PDCA cycle, Hoshin Kanri empowers engineers and managers alike to steer their teams toward common goals effectively.

The PDCA method or the Deming cycle

This disciplined approach involves several key steps:

Identifying Key Business Objectives: It starts with the vision of the company and breaks it down into clear, actionable steps. 

Developing Strategies for Goals: It involves devising strategies to achieve these objectives, often with the help of cross-functional teams. 

Implementing Action Plans: These strategies are translated into action plans, which are then carried out by employees at all levels of the organization. 

Reviewing and Adjusting: Regular reviews are essential to assess progress and make necessary adjustments.

Benefits for Manufacturing Engineers:

Manufacturing engineers who employ Hoshin Kanri can expect several tangible benefits:

Improved focus on value-added activities. 

Enhanced process efficiency and waste reduction. 

Better resource allocation and inventory management through JIT principles. 

Stronger alignment between management objectives and operational activities.

Planning and online Tools for Hoshin Kanri

The digital transformation of the manufacturing industry has introduced a suite of online tools tailored to support strategic planning and the Hoshin Kanri process. These tools offer a multitude of features that support the various stages of the Hoshin planning cycle, from conception to completion. Here's a curated list of tools that can facilitate each phase of your Hoshin plan: 

Trello: A visual tool that's perfect for monitoring the progress of Hoshin initiatives. 

Asana: Streamlines task assignment and tracking related to strategic actions. 

Monday.com: Offers templates for creating an X-Matrix, a fundamental Hoshin Kanri document. 

Smartsheet: Provides robust planning capabilities for complex strategic documents. 

i-nexus: Tailored for strategy execution, ensuring goal alignment and tracking. 

businessmap: Delivers advanced Kanban boards and analytics to support the Catchball process. 

Lucidchart: Ideal for process visualization, crucial for A3 reports and strategy mapping. 

Understanding the X-Matrix: The Planning Backbone of Hoshin Kanri

A cornerstone of Hoshin Kanri is the X-Matrix, a comprehensive planning matrix that visually maps out the strategic plan, aligning long-term goals with tactics, metrics, and responsible parties. This tool is invaluable for ensuring transparency and coherence in your strategy. This kind of tool facilitate the creation and tracking of the X-Matrix, allowing teams to see how their efforts contribute to overarching company objectives in real time. By leveraging such platforms, engineers and managers gain a birds-eye view of their strategy's execution, ensuring that all actions are purpose-driven and results-oriented.

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Leveraging Online Tools for Strategic Planning

Incorporating these online tools into your Hoshin Kanri strategy can yield transformative results. 

Ensure Alignment: Use the tools to align individual and team activities with strategic objectives. 

Foster Collaboration: Enhance collaboration across departments by providing a common platform for sharing progress and feedback. 

Monitor Performance: Keep track of performance metrics to ensure strategic outcomes are being met. 

Hoshin Kanri is a powerful lean methodology that, when supported by the right set of online tools, can help manufacturing engineers and organizations ensure that every team member is working towards the same goals. By integrating these tools into your Hoshin Kanri framework, your team can work more efficiently, adapt to changes quickly, and achieve strategic objectives with greater precision. 

We're eager to hear about your experiences with Hoshin Kanri and these online tools. Leave a comment below to join the conversation and help others in the lean manufacturing community find the best strategies for success.

Heijunka: A Comprehensive Guide to Leveling Production

Heijunka: A Comprehensive Guide to Leveling Production

In the manufacturing realm, optimizing for efficiency while meeting ever-evolving market demands is critical. Enter Heijunka, a Japanese technique of "leveling production". Renowned as the backbone of the Toyota Production System (TPS) and the foundation of Lean methodology, Heijunka serves as a beacon for operational excellence.

Understanding Heijunka

Toyota Motor Corporation designed their production system to deliver superior quality, optimal cost, and minimized lead time by eradicating waste. The foundation of TPS rests on two main tenets: just-in-time and jidoka. This concept is frequently depicted with the "house" illustration.

Heijunka, pronounced "hey-june-kuh", is more than just leveling production; it represents a philosophy to combat waste, align production with actual demand, and ultimately, streamline operations. Originating as an essential pillar of the TPS, Heijunka's inception was aimed at addressing the unpredictabilities and inefficiencies resulting from erratic production schedules and fluctuating customer demands. 

By integrating the principles of Heijunka, manufacturers are empowered to craft a balanced and rhythmic production cadence. This harmonized approach reduces lead times, ensures high-quality output, and optimizes resource allocation, thus bolstering overall operational efficiency.

Principles of Heijunka

The Heijunka is the solution to the Mura problematic.

Demand Smoothing: Central to Heijunka is the principle of demand smoothing, ensuring production orders are evenly spaced, mitigating the risks of abrupt demand fluctuations. It addresses challenges like overproduction during demand peaks or resource underutilization during lulls. 

Mixed-Model Production: Unlike traditional manufacturing that emphasizes large batches of a single product, Heijunka promotes mixed-model production. It's a holistic approach, producing varied products in small batches, aligning with changing customer preferences without accumulating unnecessary inventory.

Through Heijunka, the goal is to combat inefficiencies born from inconsistent production times.

Takt Time Integration: Central to Lean methodology, takt time — the rate at which a product must be produced to meet customer demand — is interwoven into Heijunka. This synchronization ensures that manufacturing processes are consistently paced and optimized.

Benefits of Heijunka

When implemented properly, the system ensures consistency by balancing demand, adaptability by reducing the time it takes to switch tasks, and steadiness by maintaining a consistent production volume and variety over an extended period.

Waste Reduction: Heijunka's strategic distribution of production orders significantly trims waste. This includes overstock, overproduction, and the mismanagement of resources. By eliminating these inefficiencies, businesses can realize cost savings and enhanced resource stewardship. 

Enhanced Flexibility: The mixed-model production championed by Heijunka enables manufacturers to rapidly pivot in response to market shifts or evolving customer preferences. This dynamism ensures production remains in sync with real-time demand. 

Employee Empowerment: A predictable Heijunka-driven rhythm reduces the chaos and stress stemming from sudden production shifts, fostering a healthier, more engaged workspace.

Implementing Heijunka with the Kanban System

A successful Heijunka implementation can be further enhanced with the integration of the Kanban system, a visualization tool to improve workflow and manage work-in-progress. 

Demand Forecasting: Start by analyzing past demand trends and market trajectories to craft an accurate production roadmap.

This table represents a mass producer (without Heijunka)

Standardized Work: Create consistent work procedures. This uniformity ensures tasks are executed uniformly, promoting a consistent production flow. 

Kanban System Integration: Meld the Kanban system for material resupply. It complements Heijunka by ensuring the smooth flow of materials and matching production rhythm. Kanban visualizes the workflow, makes policies explicit, and fosters continuous improvement — all aligned with Heijunka's goals.

Lean manufacturers who embraced the concept of balancing both volume and variety required an efficient scheduling system to manage production.

Collaboration and Communication: Foster effective intra-departmental communication. This synchronization is key to aligning production plans and swiftly responding to any changes.

In our rapidly evolving manufacturing landscape, Heijunka stands out as a robust tool for optimizing production workflows. Combined with the Kanban system, this synergy offers unparalleled potential to transform manufacturing practices. As businesses worldwide strive for operational excellence, Heijunka and Kanban might be the duo driving them to new efficiency frontiers.

How Ekanbans Optimize Your Material Replenishment Process

How Ekanbans Optimize Your Material Replenishment Process

When companies think about Kanban, the image of a Kanban board and Kanban cue cards often come to mind. This simple lean manufacturing scheduling system summarizes workflow on a board, showing individual steps required to complete a given project, work, or operation.

The Kanban board is the repository for the Kanban cards. The board outlines a given manufacturing process or defines each stage of a product or project’s step-by-step process. The cards are then placed on the board outlining what tasks need completion.

Aerospace producibility board – Source: planview.com

Cards define what work has been requested, what is currently being worked on, and what work is completed. They represent what remains to be done before moving to the next process step. These cards are also used to outline different ideas and approaches to help move the process along.

The Origins of Kanban

In its simplest form, Kanban is a method of tracking manufacturing workflow or a project’s history. It is a highly effective scheduling method for lean manufacturing, helping to define how much inventory is needed to support current workloads.

Its origins can be traced back to Taiichi Ohno, who – along with Sakichi Toyoda and his son Kiichiro Toyoda – are responsible for developing the Toyota Production System (TPS) and its many lean and continuous improvement methodologies.

Toyota Production System Kanban board. Source: toyota-global.com

Like many lean methodologies emerging from Toyota, Kanban relies upon simple visual cues. The word Kanban is Japanese and literally translates to “card you can see.” It is considered the core tool for managing Just-in-Time (JIT) manufacturing, another lean pillar of TPS. Toyota introduced JIT and Kanban during the 1940s.

JIT is considered a pull system where customer demand is the driving force behind manufacturing. This customer demand essentially “pulls” products to be made, unlike the North American manufacturing processes at that time that relied on pushing products to the market to spur customers to buy those products.  

Kanban is seen as an innovation in that it follows similar TPS guidelines; minimizing costs, eliminating waste, and shortening lead times is the best way to add value for customers.

Kanban in Today’s Business Environment

Companies still use Kanban boards and even post-it notes as a convenient replacement for the Kanban cards. Other companies have moved away from this manual process. They have instead adopted digital, SaaS, cloud-based, and mobile-optimized software solutions that provide granular data and up-to-the-instant feedback on workflow and production volumes.

This adoption of real-time platforms has given rise to multiple Ekanban (electronic Kanban) systems that are quickly replacing the visual cue systems of the past. These systems provide invaluable details to line-side operators, managers, project managers, employees, and technicians in manufacturing environments.

Having a system that tracks production data and a project’s progress in real-time is invaluable. It shortens the time it takes to make critical decisions and course corrections. It identifies areas of concern and provides pinpoint accuracy on issues that impact workflow. It allows companies to determine when inventory needs replenishment to keep up with demand.

Ekanban systems can be accessed from any laptop, mobile phone, or desktop with an internet or Wifi connection. This means designated employees can easily track production throughput no matter where or when they work. Employees no longer have to view the Kanban board to get a breakdown of production throughput, and nobody has to spend any time updating that board. Instead, everyone merely accesses the information on their own.

Simple, Scalable, and Modular EKanban Systems

One of the drawbacks for manufacturers is the cost of fully implementing an Ekanban system alongside its existing software, like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Material Requirements Planning (MPR), and other production or inventory management systems. However, like Flexpipe’s tube and joint system, there are modular and scalable solutions that allow you to gradually introduce EKanban without breaking the bank.

Steute Technology’s NEXY Digital Shop Floor Solution is one of these modular and scalable systems. Rob Hargis of Steute USA outlines some simple ways the company’s Ekanban system works.

Watch Ian Johnson from Flexpipe and Rob Hargis of Steute USA outlining some simple ways the NEXY Digital Shop Floor Ekanban’s system is working.

https://youtu.be/9HfLjpqFenE

1. What is the NEXY Digital Shop Floor Solution?

Simply put, NEXY is an industrial wireless solution that streamlines the inventory replenishment process by leveraging Steute Technology’s wireless sensor technology.

NEXY’s flow rack sensor is a robust, sturdy, and easy-to-install device that fits easily on any Flexpipe Flow Rack. It operates at 915 MHz, so it doesn’t interfere with other WiFi signals. This is especially important given the number of Wifi sources on today’s production floors.

The flow rack sensor easily snaps in pace on any roller and does away with operators using barcode/RFI scanners to register inventory at a given work cell.

2. What are the Main Benefits?

One common source of waste in manufacturing includes inventory replenishment. In a lean manufacturing work cell, this often involves an operator leaving the cell, walking to inventory, waiting to get the parts, consumables, or materials they need, and then walking back to their work cell. This is all wasted time.

The further the inventory is away from the lean cell, the longer the transit times and the more time is wasted. Some companies ignore this wasted time. However, calculating how often a given work cell needs replenishment each day, week, or month and how many cells are on the shop floor quickly amounts to a considerable amount of motion waste and non-value tasks.

Water Spider is the go-to person who can make the bridge between the lean cell and the supermarket.

In other instances, operators must go outside the cell to register the inventory with an RFID/barcode scanner. Again, depending on how often the replenishment occurs, this time quickly adds up. For cells with high inventory replenishment throughout the day, this wastes time and ultimately affects production throughput for a single cell.

Even companies that still use the manual Kanban processes on a Kanban board with Kanban cards can save considerable time and achieve significant cost reductions with NEXY. Operators can stay in the cell and focus on completing work tasks while NEXY operates behind the scenes.

No more time filling out Kanban cards or updating Kanban boards. No need for RFID/barcode scanners. No need to leave the work cell to replenish inventory. No more long transit times walking to and from inventory/stores.

No RFID/barcode scanners

No time wasted on inventory replenishment

No Wifi interference

No Noise (low sound always)

No more manual Kanban cards and Kanban Boards

“Everything is done behind the scenes. All the operator or employee has to do is focus on their work. They will never notice when inventory is replaced.”

3. Where is the Data Stored?

Once actuated, the flow rack sensor immediately sends wireless signals to Steute Technology’s access point. From there, the access point sends the data to the sensor bridge – a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) housed in a cabinet on the shop floor.

The PLC then takes all the data and creates an Application Programming Interface (API), which can either be sent to a shop floor server or a cloud-based server. The wireless solution is 128-bit encrypted and works with multiple IT cyber-security protocols.

Wireless tilting sensor RF RW-NET

sWave.NET® wireless technology

eKanban software module

Sensor Bridge

4. How Easy is it to get Started?

The simplicity of NEXY is that companies alone decide how much to buy and when. The system isn’t dependent upon immediate adoption across a company’s shop floor. Companies can start small, learn, improve, and then progress at their own pace adding new flow rack sensors and increasing scalability when they see fit.

“Getting up and running is easy. Customers who buy Flexpipe Flow Racks simply reach out to Flexpipe, and we’ll get involved… We start with a simple consultation to determine their needs and current process and then discuss their goals. After that, it’s simply a matter of doing what the customer asks.”

A Simple Solution to Ease Into Manufacturing 4.0

Nowadays, every manufacturer has heard of “manufacturing 4.0” or “industry 4.0.” Both are the same thing. They simply refer to The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the adoption of automated technologies, and their synchronization with digital data solutions and networks.

The first industrial revolution used water and steam to power machines and equipment. The second included improved communication with the telegraph and the installation of railway lines to transport materials and products. The third occurred during the 1950s with the early adoption of digital solutions that improved communication.

The fourth is simply a natural progression from the third; improved digital solutions linked to automated and robotic equipment ensure a steady stream of real-time data.

NEXY is the simplest way for a manufacturer to be introduced to this all-important fourth industrial revolution. This is especially the case for labor-intensive manufacturers who want to manage their transition at their own pace.

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Rob Hargis

Rob Hargis is a seasoned Brand Manager with the NEXY division of Steute Technologies, providing wireless eKanban, Andon, and AGV integrated sensor networks for manufacturing, assembly and industrial workflow processes in automotive, white goods, and other complex-assembly environments.

Modular, Scalable, and Affordable Material Handling with Flexpipe

Flexpipe is an innovator, supplier, and designer of modular and scalable steel tubes and joints that help companies reduce material handling costs. Based out of Montreal, the company provides multiple products, training, and insight to companies wanting to adopt lean manufacturing.

The company offers a full-service solution that includes its free software add-on SketchUp, multiple outlines and assembly designs, and design and cutting services to help companies build their own material handling structures and reduce costs. 

If you would like to see how Flexpipe can help, contact us now. 

Kaizen Event: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

Kaizen Event: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

When manufacturers need to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, shorten lead times, and eliminate waste, they turn to the well-established continuous improvement methodology known as Kaizen. The word is Japanese for improvement, yet this one word means so much to those who adopt its principles. So, how does Kaizen work, its methodologies, and how does this relatively simple process eliminate waste and turn losses into profits? Read on to find out.

The Culture of Kaizen 

Source: Wikipedia: The Japanese word kaizen means 'change for better' (from 改 kai - change, revision; and 善 zen - virtue, goodness) with the inherent meaning of either 'continuous' or 'philosophy' in Japanese dictionaries and in everyday use.

Kaizen is a mindset as much as it is a methodology. For Kaizen to truly succeed, a company’s entire workforce must be indoctrinated into its guiding principles. It is not part of a company’s culture; it is the culture. Managers, supervisors, office workers, and production employees must fully adopt Kaizen. The goal of kaizen is to eliminate every single form of waste. That waste can include overproduction, product defects, wasted movements, repetitive tasks, unnecessary approvals, redundant processes, machine downtime, excessive inventory, and idle time – to name a few. 

When employees or operators are in “waiting” mode, it represents a significant waste of time and does not bring any added value to the customer.

Anything that inhibits, interrupts, delays, or stalls the natural flow of work is waste, and everyone’s responsibility – from managers to supervisors to shop floor employees – is to identify and eliminate that waste. Proper training is critical. A Kaizen workforce is one where all employees are involved in the continuous improvement process. Everyone is making suggestions and offering solutions. Everyone is doing what they can to eliminate waste, and everyone has a role in improving how work is performed.  

The Kaizen Concept, Its Origin, and Foundations 

Kaizen is an amalgamation of several different business concepts. No one person can lay claim to coming up with Kaizen. Kaizen is a mixture of statistical process control (SPC), statistical quality control (SQC), procedure optimization, and repeatability.  

The Shewhart Cycle 

Source: Wikipedia - Walter Andrew Shewhart was an American physicist, engineer and statistician, sometimes known as the father of statistical quality control and also related to the Shewhart cycle. 

While most immediately associate Kaizen with the Toyota Production System (TPS), its origins start with Walter Shewhart, an American engineer, physicist, statistician, and businessman who worked for Bell Labs during the 1930s. Shewhart ushered in the age of statistical process control. He believed that waste could only be eliminated after a process was controlled.

The Shewhart Cycle – commonly referred to as the PDCA Cycle – is a straightforward process widely viewed as Kaizen’s ancestor. PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check and Act. Relatively simple, right? You plan something. You then enact the plan. You check the plan’s results and then act to make the plan better. This simple cause-effect methodology earned Shewhart the moniker of the “father of statistical quality control.” 

Japan After the Second World War 

Edward Deming was an American management consultant, engineer, professor, and statistician. Deming borrowed concepts from Shewhart and expanded upon them. For a while, the two worked together. Deming saw the PDCA Cycle/Shewhart Cycle as critical to creating better quality systems. He was instrumental in these concepts being adopted by the Japanese after the second world war. Deming’s teachings were better received by Japanese companies than by American companies. The United States had built a substantial industrial complex to support the war effort. Once the war ended, the US economy took off. With their large production floor layouts and installed equipment base, American businesses emphasized high production runs and high inventory counts.  

Source: Wikipedia - William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant.

Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, William Edwards Deming helped develop the sampling techniques still used by the U.S. Department of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He is also known as the father of the quality movement and was hugely influential in post-WWII Japan. He is most well-known for his theories of management.

American businesses had little need for Deming’s lean philosophy. The Japanese, on the other hand, were rebuilding both their country and their industries. Japanese companies needed to focus on eliminating waste, minimal inventory counts, lean processes, simple concepts, and cost reduction. 

The Introduction of Kaizen to Western Industries 

One Japanese engineer who took Deming’s principles to the next level was Taiichi Ohno, who eventually developed the Toyota Production System (TPS) alongside Sakichi Toyoda and his son Kiichiro Toyoda. The TPS system was improved throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.  

Source :  Market Business News  - Toyota's origins bring us back to these two men: Sakichi Toyoda (left) and his son Kiichiro Toyoda.

Source: Wikipedia - Masaaki Imai

Eventually, Masaaki Imai – a Japanese management consultant who studied TPS – introduced Kaizen to western businesses in 1985 when he wrote “Kaizen: The key to Japan's Competitive Success.” He would eventually establish the Kaizen Institute and use it to propagate the Kaizen message and teachings worldwide.

In the end, Kaizen became prominent because of Shewhart’s PDCA Cycle, Deming’s push for hands-on production employees, and Ohno’s TPS system. So, how does Kaizen work?  

Kaizen Methodologies

There are four types of Kaizen methodologies. These include Kaizen Teian, Kaizen Events, Kaikaku, and Kakushin. Each one is explained in detail below. 

1. Kaizen Teian 

Kaizen Teian refers to the daily improvements that every employee is responsible for. Every employee must always be trying to improve their work processes and workflow. More importantly, every day, all employees – including supervisors and managers – should be focused on eliminating the following eight forms of waste as defined by Kaizen.  

Waiting: This includes any workers waiting to complete their work. It can be caused by a lack of material or semi-finished parts to work on, idle machines, or anything that causes a worker not to work.

Defects: This includes any defects in raw materials, work-in-process (WIP) parts, or finished goods. The entire process improves when each employee is constantly looking to catch defects.

Overproduction: This includes any lean work cell or machine that produces more than required.

Inventory: Holding excessive inventory counts leads to high financing costs, inventory damage, pilferage, and obsolescence.

Transport: A poorly designed production layout leads to long transport times of materials, WIP, and finished goods.

Excessive Motion: This includes employees who must perform redundant and unnecessary movements during work. Excessive movements make cycles times longer and affect throughput.

Misused Talent: This includes any employee who is not being used to their fullest. It can be an employee with a needed skillset that cannot use that skillset and expertise.  

Overprocessing: Redundant and repetitive work processes and approvals lead to wasted time and bottlenecks.

2. Kaizen Events 

While Kaizen Teian refers to the daily responsibilities of all employees, a Kaizen Event is a scheduled period where a specific work process or task is identified as needing improvement. Kaizen events are focused events where management, supervisors, and front-line employees work to improve a predetermined problem. Ultimately, Kaizen events involve more pre-planning, whereas Kaizen Teian is more about all employees’ daily responsibilities for improving workflow.

3. Kaikaku 

Kaikaku is complementary to Kaizen.  When thinking of Kaikaku, think of those instances where a company initiates a complete redesign of processes or procedures. This is an event where a company adopts an entirely different way of doing things. An example is replacing labor-intensive and time-consuming work processes with automated processes like automated equipment and machinery. This move involves in-depth analysis and a willingness to ensure that all work cells can keep up with the increased throughput.

4. Kakushin: 

When thinking of Kakushin, think about a technology breakthrough that completely changes how work is performed. A Kakushin event is an about-face and complete change. It can best be described as the ultimate brainstorming session where a company charts a path toward a new culture and way of doing work. An example includes a plastic injection molding company modifying equipment to perform thixomolding magnesium alloys. It can consist of a company adopting additive printing or metal-injection molding (MIM) technology.

What You Need to be Ready and Best Practices  

You can’t adopt a half-hearted attempt at Kaizen. It can’t be a flavor-of-the-month strategy. Adopting Kaizen requires a top-down and bottom-up mindset where the entire organization is committed to enacting Kaizen principles. So, what type of mindset and approach does your company need to make Kaizen a success?

Willingness to Adopt Continuous Improvement:  

The entire purpose of Kaizen is continuous improvement. It’s not a one-time event. It’s not just something a company does monthly or quarterly. This is a 24/7 mindset that must be indoctrinated from the highest manager down to the front-line employee. The most significant difference between how North American companies view Kaizen compared to Japanese companies is the idea that Kaizen is a single event for American companies. This is entirely wrong. These companies plan a “Kaizen” event every quarter instead of fully adopting Kaizen every second, minute, and hour of the day.   

Satisfied and Engaged Workforce: 

Your employees must be motivated to change. This means they must be satisfied and buy into the Kaizen mindset. If your workforce isn’t motivated to improve things, then Kaizen is far less likely to improve.  

Total Commitment to Kaizen Principles:

Again, Kaizen requires a company-wide, top-down, and bottom-up commitment to its principles. However, to succeed and become part of a company’s culture, the very top of an organization must push its principles downwards. Once that happens, the entire organization will fully adopt the Kaizen continuous improvement methodology.     

Company-Wide Teamwork is Critical:

Companies must eliminate tribalism and silos. This continuous methodology can only work when teamwork is part of every employee’s mindset. An environment where departments or employees blame each other for lack of progress will never work. The mindset must always be focused on problem-solving. Fostering an environment where teamwork thrives is essential to making Kaizen work.

How to Sell Kaizen to Upper Management 

C-level executives and management rarely make decisions based solely on assumptions. Guesswork is not something they adopt or embrace. They make decisions based on irrefutable facts, numbers, and scrutinized data. Selling Kaizen/lean principles to senior management is ultimately about providing them with that all-important data. It’s about giving them the numbers and evidence they need to pursue Kaizen. For this to succeed involves adopting the three-step process outlined below.

This three-step process involves defining the current waste as it exists right now. You can do this on a small scale with a single manufacturing work cell or workstation. The best way to do that is to demonstrate to senior management how the current causes of waste lower cycle times and production throughput. After this, you should clearly define the causes of waste and how it impacts cycle times.  

The second step involves eliminating that waste. Once that’s done, your cycle times and production throughput should improve. This is the evidence you’ll need to provide to senior management. It’s the data that shows how eliminating waste increases throughput.

The third and final step is showing management the benefit of adopting these principles across the shop floor at every work cell. To learn more about gathering the data, you need to convince senior management to pursue Kaizen/Lean principles; read: How to Sell Continuous Improvement to Senior Management. 

The goal of this approach is to set yourself up for success. Management makes decisions based on data. As a manufacturer, this means how much the company would improve – or produce more – if they adopted Kaizen. For other companies like distributors, it’s about showing how excess inventory erodes profit. 

If you must sell a concept to upper management, focus your argument around solving a problem that matters most to them. Then, position yourself to succeed by showing how adopting Kaizen can eliminate or reduce the impact of that problem.

  

Tips and Tricks 

There are a couple of tips and tricks you can adopt as you start your journey toward a fully-adopted Kaizen culture. These are outlined below. 

Identify Motivated Employees: If you find yourself in a situation where not all employees are sold on the concept of Kaizen, then focus on those who are. Remember, adopting Kaizen can sometimes be a long and arduous process. Not everyone may be willing or ready to accept change. In most instances, a company’s workforce is resistant to change.

Start with Incremental Improvements: As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. Don’t assume that you’ll instantly change everyone’s mind. It does take a while for this continuous improvement methodology to take hold. When you first start to implement Kaizen, start by propagating simple and small successes. This will help get the ball rolling and show how simple improvements can have a significant impact.

Reward Employees: A continuous improvement mindset requires constant reinforcement. Acknowledge and reward employees who go the extra mile. Celebrate minor improvements and make sure all employees are recognized for their efforts. This will help empower those employees to make more improvements. It’s ultimately about building momentum and making change less confrontational and threatening. Once employees see how important it is to improve things and how it benefits them, they’ll be more inclined to pursue new improvements.

Document Everything: How companies capture their improvements is what makes Kaizen work. This means properly documenting and tracking each improvement. Remember, the goal is to improve processes and eliminate waste. You’ll be redefining how work is done and the processes that must be followed. This means documenting those changes and using simple step-by-step descriptions alongside images to convey how the new work process should be followed.

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Examples of Successful Kaizen Events 

You’ll never be wanting in terms of things to improve through Kaizen. Here are some examples of simple Kaizen improvements that provide stable returns.

Lower Inventory Costs: You can reduce your inventory financing costs while eliminating the high costs of inventory obsolescence and damage. Isolating excess inventory on raw materials and spare parts will also help you maximize the square footage of your warehouse.

Reduce Transit Times: Moving parts, materials, and WIP from one location or cell to the next takes time. Poor spacing and long distances increase that time and are, therefore, a waste. Minimizing the transit times to move WIP and materials is a simple way to reduce waste and increase throughput. This simple process creates continuous flow with minimal waste.

Detailed Processes with Images: Employees need well-defined processes. In manufacturing environments, that means using high-quality images demonstrating the correct way to follow a given work process. Use images for each step of the process and always ask for feedback from employees on how it can be improved. Again, Kaizen is a 24/7 improvement process. Employees should constantly be looking to improve everything – as best defined by Kaizen Teian.

The strength of the cart was increased by adding a second tube near the wheels.

Improved Work Cell Layout: Simple changes like making it easier for operators to reach material without overexerting themselves lead to considerable savings in time while reducing absenteeism due to injury. Most motion improvements are made within the work cell, where employees must immediately access tools, materials, and WIP.

Ergonomics: Making the workplace safer helps to reduce the incidence of worker injury. It also demonstrates an investment on the company’s part toward protecting its employees. This is the best way to show employees that you consider them your most important asset. This can include simplifying movements in work cells, using ergonomic and anti-fatigue matting, and establishing proper lifting procedures for employees.

Building an ergonomic workstation reduces absenteeism and unnecessary movements.

Flexpipe Inc: Making Kaizen Adoption a Much Simpler Process 

Flexpipe Inc. is a Montreal-based designer, manufacturer, and integrator of a tube and joint system whose history goes back to the Toyota Production System. The company’s cut-to-length-and-assemble system makes building any material handling or standing structure easy. The company fully embraces Kaizen as a guiding principle, which is demonstrated by every customer the company works with. The tube and joint system empowers companies to build whatever structure – and change that structure – at a fraction of the costs and time of more permanent welded structures. To learn more about how this simple solution works, contact us now. To see how customers have used this scalable and modular system to reduce costs and eliminate waste, please go to Flexpipe Case Studies.

Using Flexpipe for Lean Manufacturing CabinetMakers

Using Flexpipe for Lean Manufacturing CabinetMakers

Implementing lean is a journey in itself. No company goes from 0 to 60 in record time when implementing lean principles. They learn, get better, learn some more and then improve some more. Each step of that journey is made easier when senior management is entirely on board and, in some cases, driving the lean journey.

 

 
ADOPTING LEAN MANUFACTURING
Regardless of your industry, some employees may be reluctant to change, while others may embrace it. For those who resist change, it’s often a question of personal comfort; we’ve always done it this way, so why change? However, with consistent training, constant feedback, daily upgrades, and commitment, you will achieve significant lean improvements using Flexpipe.

Flexpipe is a tool, but the employees drive the improvements

Here are just a few examples of lean improvements using Flexpipe products.

Source: MetCabinet About Us

[caption id="attachment_40677" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Look and feel Lean with clear floor lines.[/caption]
INCREASE PRODUCTION FLOOR SPACE BY REDUCING OVER-PRODUCTION
Several cabinet makers using Flexpipe can decrease over-production while dramatically reducing the square footage of their shop floor. This reduction in floor space saves the company money while making it easier to manage materials, quarantine defective products, collect scrap or refuse, and move semi-finished and finished goods between lean work cells.

We often come across Cabinet makers who have fully adopted batch production. Trying to make different types of products simultaneously, along with redundant work processes and poor material flow, often leads to WIP cabinets, drawers, trims, and sides strewn about the shop floor. We see this quite often. The solution to this issue is provided below

Learn about one-piece flow and how it could be put in place.
Make sure management and owners are on board with the new one-piece flow philosophy.
Be ready and open-minded to adjusting work tasks, departments, and different production and assembly activities.

[caption id="attachment_40681" align="alignnone" width="1280"] The Flexpipe cart holds a day’s worth of nailer boards for final cabinet assembly. Vertical bins for longer parts where different parts are clearly separated and labeled to save time as opposed to searching around aimlessly (nonvalue added). A measurement label is placed alongside the Flexpipe structure to quickly identify and measure parts (visual management).[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_40685" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Color-coded structures help operators and technicians immediately determine the urgency of customer orders. The blue drawer carts are for orders with standard lead times, while the red carts are for urgent or rush orders (visual management). All parts are labeled on the pipes with AL-TAG2 and a non-marking marker is put on the cart for identification.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_40824" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Flexpipe modified 5S Takt board complete with work order instructions, layouts, and plans.[/caption]

This Flexpipe cart in the finishing department is used for cabinet frames, end panels, backs, shelves, etc. Each subcomponent and material is neatly placed in its appropriate slot, making it easy for operators to access a given piece when needed.
OPTIMIZE MACHINE UTILIZATION WITH EFFICIENT CHANGEOVERS
Companies invest a lot of money in automating their machinery and equipment. Unfortunately,   these same companies often ignore the lean structures and material handling solutions critical to maintaining running equipment. They simply don’t invest enough time, energy, or money to ensure that their material handling structures are optimized.

Even the newest automation falls short if the structures around them aren’t properly organized. Not convinced? Take some time to investigate and measure your cutting machine’s productivity and efficiency. You’re likely to find there is far more downtime than you expected. Very often this is due to inefficient changeovers.

Review your loading and unloading procedures. Focus on ergonomics so that operators have easy access to tools and work instructions and never have to wait for one-at-a-time forklift deliveries of raw materials.
Have the next job (complete with material and work orders) ready well in advance to reduce waiting time.
Try to put as much as possible every day on casters to give you flexibility and reduce waiting time.

[caption id="attachment_40739" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Tape storage placed within the work cell allows for immediate replacement of consumables.[/caption]

A Flexpipe cart on the Homag Edgebander machine at Superior Cabinet. It applies matching edge tape of various colors to the sides of the melamine to match the finish on the top and bottom.Source: Superior Cabinet.

[caption id="attachment_40751" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Load or unload materials with a pallet stand on wheels to avoid waiting for a jigger or forklift (non-value added).[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_40755" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Flexpipe Manual cutting table with a 5S shadow board.[/caption]
USING WORKER CREATIVITY TO BUILD A LEAN CULTURE
You will never sustain a lean culture if you don’t engage, train, and spend on your employees. The woodworking industry has so many talented, hard-working, resourceful, and creative people. Unfortunately, there are often underutilized. This unused worker creativity is by far the biggest waste in the industry.

Several companies have highly-skilled and experienced employees who have decades of experience. While experience is important, it can sometimes lead to an unwillingness to adopt change. Again, the mindset becomes, “Why change anything when it has been working for  25 years?’’. Here are some guidelines to make sure all employees are speaking the same language.

Train workers, so they can name and spot the 8 most common causes of waste.
Get employees into a routine by holding a daily meeting where the agenda covers the previous day’s improvements and any KPI.
Engage workers and make them take part in small Kaizen events. This is a great opportunity to test out ideas, modify structures and learn from mistakes.

[caption id="attachment_40764" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Customized Flexpipe cart with multiple slots for easy access to materials.[/caption]

Rack design by Michael Kachur – Continuous Improvement Manager and certified Lean Champion at Superior Cabinets in Saskatoon, Canada.

[caption id="attachment_40829" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Customized Flexpipe structure holding bins and securing semi-finished cabinet glass frames.[/caption]
ELIMINATE WASTED TIME BY INCREASING ASSEMBLY PRODUCTIVITY
Within the woodworking industry, it’s common to devote money and resources to storage, trimming or cutting departments while the packaging department is left with too few resources or focus.

Assembly is a labor-intensive activity where small incremental changes can have a large impact. Most importantly, these changes don’t involve changing the layout of the shop floor.

Creating a custom-made lean work cell or workstation reduces unnecessary movement and excessive walking. When lean work cells are positioned near one another, it reduces transit time for work-in-process parts. 5S and ergonomics are critical requirements for these new lean work cells.

Get employee feedback on what they waste time on. It can be missing tools, instructions or having to walk long distances to move parts or get material.
Celebrate your accomplishments and improvements. Congratulate your employees and be proud of what you’ve accomplished.
Make these small Kaizen events a frequent occurrence.

Wood vs Flexpipe Tube and Joint System
Wood can still be used for cart surfaces or siding. However, your stations and carts should be made from Flexpipe – which is easy to adjust or modify. Flexpipe and wood are similar in price but Flexpipe is far more durable, versatile, and much stronger compared to wood. More importantly, it won’t rot or warp due to humidity and moisture.

[caption id="attachment_40768" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Wood carts can still be used for cart surfaces or siding but other structures should be designed with Flexpipe.[/caption]

Wood cart Feist Cabinets & Woodworks
ALUMINUM EXTRUSION VS FLEXPIPE TUBE AND JOINTS
You can save up to 50% with Flexpipe tubes and joints compared to aluminum material handling systems. Aluminum has the required precision for machines, equipment, and robotic integrations, but it’s far too costly for carts, racks, or workbenches. Another issue with aluminum is the tendency to have water stains over time. Flexpipe is easier for workers to use, far less expensive ($8 per 8 feet of pipe), is available in multiple colors, and will never stain.

STEEL VS FLEXPIPE TUBE AND JOINTS
Steel is a universal material with multiple applications. However, creating material handling equipment with steel requires welders and painters. Changing existing welded structures is even more costly and time-consuming.

With Flexpipe, there’s no need for welders or painters. There’s no need to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to modify an already welded structure. Anyone with a little creativity can cut or assemble pipe and joints in a fraction of the time and costs compared to welded structures.

You can quickly put in place improvements and change your Flexpipe structures every day as ideas and suggestions come forth. No need to scrap old, welded structures. No need to re-weld existing structures. The changes you make to a Flexpipe structure in the afternoon can have you up and running in the morning.

[caption id="attachment_40805" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Bare steel - exposed to the environment - will eventually corrode and rust. Flexpipe's products never corrode or rust and there is never any painting of a Flexpipe structure as the piping is available with multiple colors of plastic coating.[/caption]
SIMPLIFYING LEAN MANUFACTURING ADOPTION WITH FLEXPIPE'S MODULAR SYSTEM
Flexpipe is widely-recognized among North American manufacturers as a modular, scalable, easy-to-use, and inexpensive material handling solution. The company's free design extension for SketchUp allows manufacturers to custom-design and build their own tube and joint material handling structures. Customers rely upon Flexpipe's team for its design acumen, speed of response, and the company's cost-effective solutions.

If you would like to see how Flexpipe can help you adopt lean concepts while reducing your costs of material handling, then contact us now.

How to Sell Continuous Improvement to Senior Management

How to Sell Continuous Improvement to Senior Management

Regardless of the company – or the industry – senior managers in manufacturing enterprises need to make decisions based on cold, hard, irrefutable facts. They need numbers. They need data. They need to ensure that their decision to move forward has a high probability of success.

Senior managers need this critical information to make a go/no-go decision on capital expenditures, hiring, expansion, machine and equipment repairs, or, more aptly, for pursuing continuous improvement projects.

Learn more about the three fundamental principles needed to convince senior managers to pursue continuous improvement initiatives and how Flexpipe structures are critical to that goal with insight from Leslie Pickering and Mark Zeilinger of Quadrant 5.
Pursuing Continuous Improvement Initiatives
In manufacturing environments, waste can take many forms. It can include work stoppages, human error, misaligned or out-of-tolerance parts, poorly assembled parts, machine downtime, redundant tasks, repetitive tasks, or any action or process that inhibits the natural flow of work.

Sometimes, reducing waste in manufacturing can be as simple as reducing the transit times to move work-in-process parts between cells. It could include revamping a workstation so that the assembly process is more seamless and the operator within the workstation has easier access to materials and tools.

Regardless of what approach is taken, these changes initially seem small. However, when repeated across all work cells, these small changes quickly add up until costs are reduced, quality is improved, and more finished goods are produced. Unfortunately, because these small steps seem so inconsequential, senior managers have difficulty viewing the benefits of adopting lean concepts.

As stated by Leslie, “Senior Managers are really good at developing global views – where they can see the end game or the end goal – but they often don’t take a sequential process to how those goals are achieved – what steps need to be taken sequentially to get there. Your job in continuous improvement is explaining the steps to achieve that goal.”
A Simple Three-Step Process
Ultimately, adopting continuous improvement initiatives can be summarized in three overriding steps. Leslie states, “1. This is what is currently happening. 2. This is what we’re trying to do, and 3. These will be the benefits of implementing lean.” So, does that mean you simply verbalize these issues to senior management, and they’ll quickly agree to pursue lean initiatives? No, it does not.

These three steps are merely guidelines. You must gather the hard facts that senior managers need to implement lean. Your goal includes gathering the data and defining the metrics that will help senior managers measure the return on investment (ROI) for enacting continuous improvement across the entire production floor.
Cycle Times and Throughput Volumes Are Key

All work operations or work tasks involved in making a product have a cycle time. Lowering cycle times means you’re manufacturing more products at a lower cost. The question senior managers want to be answered is whether the savings of implementing lean are higher than the cost of implementing lean.

In our example, we’re using a basic cycle diagram (below) showing the steps for manufacturing a product. Our basic cycle diagram defines each work process or manufacturing step involved in making a fictitious product.

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll assume that each of these “steps” represents a single work cell. Each cell has a specific cycle time for a given work operation –the time it takes an operator to complete a work task.

Each cell also has a throughput volume – that volume of semi-finished parts the cell completes before those parts move to the next chain in the process.

This exercise aims to gather data on how lean initiatives can 1) Lower cycle times, 2) Increase throughput, 3) Lower manufacturing costs, and 4) Shorten the lead time to get finished goods to customers.

At the end of the exercise, you’ll have the data you need to show senior management what was happening, what you changed and why, and how making similar changes across all cells will result in lower cycle times, increased throughput, and reduced costs – or to paraphrase Leslie “the benefits of implementing lean.”
Manufacturing / Cell Productivity Rate
While operators might be paid for an 8-hour shift, they do not work a total of 8 hours. You must account for two 15-minute breaks in the morning and afternoon and then lunch. In our example, we’ll assume it’s a one-hour lunch. That leaves 6.5 hours of actual available work time.

Now, nobody can work at 100% efficiency. People go to the bathroom, get called away, or are interrupted for valid reasons. We’ll assume that the operator works at 85% efficiency. This means that the work time is 5 hours and 35 minutes.

We’ll now use that 5 hours and 35 minutes when calculating the work cell’s throughput.
1.“This is What is Currently Happening.”
Every lean process has a beginning, and we’ll assume that beginning includes you focusing on an initial assessment of a single work cell. Start by assessing the cycle times for each work task in your chosen work cell.

Ensure the operator or employee of the cell understands that your goal is to help make their job easier.

Make them feel part of the process, and they will be more than willing to show you some of the issues they come across.

Ensure they understand that this exercise is not about timing them but capturing the causes of work stoppages.

Mark of Q5, “We’re always touching on the human element. How do you get people engaged? That’s where improvements happen. Nobody knows that piece of equipment or machinery better than the operator themselves. So, you really need their input. The approach is to create “an island of excellence,” something people can point to as an example. So, give people recognition – a pat on the back and make them feel part of the continuous improvement process.”

 

Operation
Work Cell #1

Unit of Measure
Cycle Time in Minutes converted to seconds

Product
Widget X

Set Up-Time Minutes
Conversion of Minutes to Seconds
 Number of Work Operations
Cycle Time
Conversion of Minutes to Seconds
Comments / Notes

30
1800
1
7,00
420,00
Missing material (Operator had to search for material)

2
8,00
480,00
Missing assembly instruction

(Operator had to search for instructions)

3
25,00
1500,00
Broken SawBlade / No replacement (Operator had to leave work cell and go to stores to get replacement blade)

4
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

5
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

6
8,50
510,00
Missing assembly instruction

(Operator had to search for instructions)

7
9,00
540,00
Missing tool (lack of tool placement caused delay)

8
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

9
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

10
15,00
900,00
Missing tool (lack of tool placement caused delay)

Averages
9,25
393,90

 

You’re going to create your own “island of excellence” by using these initial cycle times within the cell to show the issues the operator faces daily. You’ll also capture any reasons for delays or work stoppages.

In our example, the cycle times with no issues are done in five minutes or 300 seconds. We’ve converted it to seconds because even the smallest changes that save a couple of seconds can dramatically impact.

Now, the 5-minute cycle time may not be the optimized cycle time, but for this example, it’s the best cycle time this cell produces.

However, the average cycle time at the bottom is skewed by the operations (1,2,3,6,7, and 10) that encountered work stoppages. This means these work stoppages pushed the average cycle time to 9 minutes, 25 seconds, or 555 seconds.

There is no hard and fast rule about how many cycle times you should track. In our above example, we’ve tracked ten cycle times. We’ve converted those times from minutes to seconds to simplify how we calculate how much the work cell produces.

Deduct the 30-minute setup time from our manufacturing productivity rate of 5 hours and 35 minutes.
Take the remaining 5 hours and 5 minutes and convert them to seconds. This gives us 18,300 seconds of available work time.
Now, divide the 18,300 seconds by the cycle time in seconds, which is 555. This gives us a work cell throughput of 33 units.

The table below summarizes the data you’ve gathered from the work cell. Now, it’s more than likely that you already know what a given work cell produces. You may also know what the cycle times are. Plenty of MRP and ERP software solutions provide cycle time data.

However, no software can show you how to reduce the cycle times. It can only report them. It can only provide numbers. You need to see for yourself what causes work stoppages. Only then can you enact strategies to reduce those cycle times and increase throughput.

 

Operation
Average Cycle Time in Minutes
Average Cycle Time in Seconds
Total Number of Seconds (5 hours 5 minutes)
Work Cell Throughput

Work Cell #1
9,25
555,00
18300
33

 

You now have data on a work cell that defines Leslie’s first statement: “This is what is currently happening.” You have a list of the most common delays encountered by the operator in the work cell. You know the causes of higher cycle times and can enact strategies to eliminate those causes.
2.“This Is What We’re Trying to do.”
One of your changes included making a modular and scalable Flexpipe tool storage rack. You then placed this rack immediately outside the work cell, so the operator no longer has to walk to inventory to get replacement saw blades.

Another change included making a Flexpipe workstation where all tools and consumables are easily located. You combined this new workstation with a modular flow rack so that replacement consumables and materials are always readily available.

Finally, you’ve created a modular Flexpipe work center where the operator can easily access assembly instructions.

Storage Rack: Machine Parts (Blades)
Modular Workstation
Modular Flow Rack
Modular Work Center with instructions

After making these changes, you revisit the work cell and take a new set of cycle times.

While there are still operations that encounter some delays, the overall benefit is that you have achieved more operations that meet the desired cycle time.

 

Operation
Work Cell #1

Unit of Measure
Cycle Time in Minutes converted to seconds

Product
Widget X

Set Up-Time Minutes
Conversion of Minutes to Seconds
 Number of Work Operations
Cycle Time
Conversion of Minutes to Seconds
Comments / Notes

30
1800
1
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

2
7,00
420,00
Misaligned part - small adjustment

3
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

4
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

5
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

6
7,35
441,00
Replacement Tool needed - easily found - small delay

7
7,30
438,00
Replacement Tool needed - easily found - small delay

8
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

9
5,00
300,00
No issues - clean work task

10
14,00
840,00
Broken Saw Blade - Replacement blade in material flow rack immediately outside work cell minimized replacement time.

Averages
6,57
393,90

 

A new workstation made locating replacement tools easier for the operator.

Placing a storage rack for replacement saw blades immediately cut down on the time the operator took to replace the blade.

Instead of a 25-minute cycle time or “delay,” the operator merely located the replacement blade and made a change that only took 14 minutes.

Ultimately, your average cycle time was lowered to 6 minutes and 57 seconds.

The lower cycle times mean the work cell increased its throughput by 41%, from 33 to 46 units.

 

Operation
Average Cycle Time in Minutes
Average Cycle Time in Seconds
Total Number of Seconds (5 hours 5 minutes)
Work Cell Throughput

Work Cell #1
6,57
393,90
18300
46

 
3.“These Will be the Benefits of Implementing Lean.”
Increasing throughput in a work cell accomplishes nothing if the remaining work cells don’t make similar continuous improvement changes. All you’re doing is creating a backlog for the next cell in the process.

You’ve increased the cell’s throughput, but without making similar changes to the remaining work cells, it’s all for naught. At this point, you’ve gathered enough data to show how making small incremental changes can have a dramatic impact on a work cell’s throughput.

Senior managers often have little choice but to move forward on additional continuous improvement initiatives when presented with this data. It’s now very easy for them to see how repeating the process will lead to significant improvements and savings.

The costs of a Flexpipe structure include the cost of the materials and the time it takes your operators to assemble structures. That initial cost is minimal when compared to the constant returns of pursuing lean principles. The benefits of lean are forever.

As stated by Mark, “That’s what we love about Flexpipe. It’s really easy just to try something. There’s no downside whatsoever. Cut a pipe too short, and we’ll just use it elsewhere.”

Ultimately, the company would achieve the following benefits if you pursued similar continuous improvement initiatives with the remaining cells.

Increased Manufacturing Throughput: More parts are produced in a day, week, or month.
Reduced Costs: The company achieves lower manufacturing costs by increasing the number of finished parts produced within an 8-hour shift.
Shorter Lead Times: Reducing cycle times and increasing cell throughput means you’ve reduced the time it takes to provide finished goods to customers.
Improved Machine Utilization: There is nothing more costly for manufacturers than having idle machinery. In the example above, having consumables and spare parts for machinery immediately outside the work cell helped to reduce the time the machine was sitting idle.
Better Ergonomics and Safety: Poorly constructed work cells often include hazards that lead to human error and injuries. Worker injuries and absenteeism cost manufacturers $1,100.00 per day per worker. Take the number of missed days due to injury over a given year and use that amount as further justification for pursuing continuous improvement initiatives.

Cost-Effective Flexpipe Material Handling Solutions
Flexpipe is a Montreal-based supplier, designer, and integrator of modular, scalable tube and joint systems for material handling. The company’s customer-centric focus and proactive approach empower manufacturers to make their structures at a fraction of the cost compared to fixed material handling systems.

The company’s free design extension for SketchUp is easy to use and provides a complete assembly drawing, material cost breakdown, and bill of materials.

If you would like to see how Flexpipe can help on your next continuous improvement project, contact us now.

About our Lean expert - Leslie Pickering

Mr. Pickering holds a degree in Mechanical and Production Engineering. He brings 35 years of experience in international process improvement, manufacturing, and operations. He is a recognized Toyota Production System specialist and is highly regarded as a Subject Matter Expert in the areas of Lean Manufacturing.

About our Lean expert - Mark Zeilinger

Mr. Zeilinger holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He brings over 30 years of experience in manufacturing and operations. Mr. Zeilinger is a recognized Toyota Production System Specialist, who has implemented successful transformation methodologies across a wide variety of industries, including Packaging, Electronics, Construction, Plastics, Food, Automotive, and Aerospace.