Unlike the modern waistline these days LEAN as a business model is seriously trending. If you haven’t tried this excellent diet already you and your company are probably following an unconsciously sloppy lifestyle and leaving much cash on the table as a result. The money that is not going into your collective pocket is going either directly or indirectly into the pockets of your collective competition. Something to think about isn’t it?
What exactly does it mean to be LEAN?
If you haven’t been introduced to LEAN, please, let me. LEAN Philosophy can be described as creating a system of continuous improvement toward converting anything of lesser value into something of greater value at the least possible cost. If that sounds like a super-condensed version of how folks like Toyota have become an icon of reliability and value, well it is. It is also the model of forward thinking organizations around the world: for all sorts of operations from traditional manufacturing to software design and retail selling.
In the vernacular it is called “Waste Reduction” and examples are easy to name:
- Making the change from one process or type of work to a different one extremely fast and easy so that you can make small batches just as effectively as large ones. In the end the manufacturer that makes the batch size closest to what the actual customer orders wins. No excess production, no excess inventory, no obsolete inventory all adding up to better profit.
- Understanding your “System Constraint” and planning around that. No matter how fast you can make signs if you only have one delivery truck crew then your limiting factor is delivery not production – don’t pay overtime to the production team give that OT to the delivery crew.
- Scrupulous Housekeeping and tool organization. Operate your sign shop and installation garage like an operating room and your lost time will magically go down, while quality and throughput go up. No E.R. “Doc” wants to grab a scalpel when they are reaching for a sponge.
- Everything; even trash cans and cleaning supplies have a home and they should live there – always. Nothing is more “non-value-added work” than cleaning up the shop – especially if you can’t find the broom or your installation team left the shop vacuum on the truck.
Ways to be LEAN
Arlon is a highly competitive business environment, and like many others companies, we strive for continuous improvement to earn the prestigious position in the market, secure profits for our investors and employees as well as be the vendor our customers deserve. We have engaged one LEAN Tool in particular called “Kaizen” to cut fat out of sloppy processes, find ways of eliminating non-value added work, develop highly sought after products and learn “best practices”. A Kaizen is setting aside time of your own staff assembled as a sort of temporary SWAT team to consciously work at improve processes by using best practices within the work place or within the industry. The Kaizen events are specifically focused on “System Constraints” that prevent growth or improvement. Best practices mean everything from laying out the employee cafeteria with two coffee makers which reduces “waiting waste” at break time to optimizing our new chemical processing and graphic film manufacturing facility in Placentia, California.
When redesigning our new building from its layout to the positions of loading docks we kept asking ourselves, “What do we want to be when we grow up?, Really! In concrete terms.”. Our answer was to be as good at making our vinyl film for the great industrial graphic artists we sell to out there as Toyota is at making cars for anyone who wants one of the best value propositions you can buy in an automobile. LEAN is not only the Toyota way, it is the way of many, many improving organizations who embrace the competitive model, continuous improvement and the desire to rise to best in class. Arlon as a company started embracing LEAN ideas several years ago and we were stunned at the early results. We quickly learned that using the tools available to LEAN practitioners is fastest way of identifying and getting rid of all forms of waste embedded in our behavior for so long that no one even noticed it. As we have just completed construction and are in the last stages of moving the remaining process equipment into our new facility we are a long way from that mythical “best in class” throughout our various processes but we’re getting better day by day. We also know that even as we improve, our market will demand better and by just LEANing into our future a little more each day we’re heading in the right direction. If you think you might like to trend toward more profit as well as a slimmer inventory waistline while netting just a bit more enjoyment out of your work day, looking into LEAN isn’t the worst way to start.
