Lean manufacturing consulting firms who understand lean manufacturing principles and the benefits of implementing lean solutions can help you boost your companies efficiency tremendously. Let’s begin by discussing some of the basics having to do with lean manufacturing.
What Is Lean Manufacturing?
Waste is often a significant factor in business stagnation or failure. Failing to get the most out of your raw materials, employees, products and facility can cost you significantly and even affect the future of your business. A leading approach to reducing waste is called lean manufacturing. In this approach, waste is aggressively sought out and eliminated, with the overall goal being an increase in productivity.
Lean manufacturing is an approach that works well in virtually any business operation, not just a manufacturing facility. This toolkit is varied and can be applied to businesses in a variety of ways. One way to determine the best lean manufacturing approach is to define the type of waste in your organization. Here are three basic ways to look at waste in a facility:
- Muda: This is also called process waste. It’s any work that doesn’t add value to your customer or business. Reduce or remove this waste by carefully removing any tasks or activities that don’t add value.
- Muri: Also known as overburden, this waste occurs when you have too much work for too few workers. Review your resource allocation to see if you’re falling into this type of waste trap.
- Mura: Fluctuations in demand can cause this uneven form of waste. Most business fluctuations come from customer demand, but there are some ways you can predict and respond to these fluctuations that are less wasteful.
Some of the common tools used in lean manufacturing include: SMED, value stream mapping, lean six sigma, total productive maintenance, production flow analysis, plant facility optimization, material flow analysis and optimization, work flow visualization, process handling and error proofing.
Lean Manufacturing Principles
Another way lean manufacturing consulting companies define the process is through lean manufacturing principles. Here are four principles to follow when implementing this approach:
- Identify value
- Map out the value stream
- Create product and organizational flow
- Set up a pull-based system
Benefits of Lean Manufacturing
These broad principles can be applied to many different business sizes, industries and models. Work closely with DSI to find ways to implement lean manufacturing principles and enjoy these benefits:
- Improved lead times
- Sustainable business practices
- Improved quality of products
- Increased satisfaction among employees
- Increased bottom line
What Is Lean Six Sigma?
Another method that lean consulting firms use to control waste and improve an organization is called Six Sigma. In this approach, a control chart is used to create a well-controlled process. Well controlled is defined as requirements/tolerance limits that don’t deviate more than 6s in positively or negatively from the center line. It also includes process limits that don’t deviate more than 3s in either direction from center.
The overall goal of Six Sigma is to create an organization that can be fully and accurately documented in multiple ways. This data-driven approach seeks control through careful identification and removal of waste.
How Can You Tell Good Lean Consultants From Bad?
At the end of the day, a good lean consultant doesn’t just solve a single problem, but has the expert technicians to design and implement data driven engineering and manufacturing solutions, and helps your team gain the necessary experience and training to handle future issues in your business. That’s a major factor that sets good lean consultants apart from bad ones.
Lean Consulting Firms
With extensive experience in manufacturing industries employing lean principles, DSI stands out as a leader amongst industrial engineering consulting firms. Contact us today for more information on lean class manufacturing, world class manufacturing and more.