Lean. Just-in-Time. Kaizen. By whatever name, your large consumer electronics company could use some of the efficiency evangelizing that seems to be pushing your competitors' profit margins past yours.
For this project, then, your goal will be to implement the principles of a lean production system and, ultimately, retool the way every unit in your company drives your products forward. The "Lean" philosophy—grounded heavily in principles first defined decades ago under the Toyota Production System—has a proven track record of quickly delivering results through a templated, unit-by-unit rollout that gains momentum as it spreads.
Outside help will be the key to translating Lean's theories into tangible results like speedier inventory turns and reduced waste. In the first year, you'll pilot this project with two manufacturing plants and all of the business units that support them, from assembly technicians to corporate planners.
Where to start? First, create a sense of urgency across the entire company, says Jerry Feingold of Continuous Improvement Consultancy in Ventura, Calif. Improving efficiency is essential in today's market, and your employees need to understand the urgency to improve—and the team-based approach that will make that happen.
Next, pick your most troubled business unit—for example, the packaging end of your manufacturing line—and turn the experts loose. Within 10 days they'll have process-mapped every corner of the unit and identified—and implemented—dozens of improvements, big and small, from faster setup times to smarter workstations to better machinery. Then move onto the next unit, pushing changes group by group, and watch as the business units start to pull in the efficiencies on their own in the "grassfire" approach that is the signature of Lean's contagious improvements, says Richard Ligus, president of Rockford Consulting Group in Rockford, Ill.
Your investment will include training, consultants and the purchase of more efficient manufacturing equipment. Technology costs will be small-scale, although you will need to streamline inefficient business applications—for example, the supply chain management application that currently requires a little too many redundant data entries.
Return on investment—through such areas as delivery times, reduced product defects and shorter production cycles—comes in as little as six months. But the real return is Lean's sustaining, self-perpetuating system of constantly refining and improving your enterprise. "Lean is not a 'get results at any cost' philosophy," Feingold says. "Improving processes is what improves results."
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