A Lean Journey
5/20/2008
A Lean Manufacturing Journey
EMBARKING ON A LEAN JOURNEY Many manufacturers, including Southern Folger, have followed the lead of the Japanese automobile giant, Toyota, with the implementation of Lean Manufacturing. Lean processes include a new
way of thinking and speaking, with words like Kaizen, Kanban and Poka Yoke. This Lean Journey will increase manufacturing efficiencies, such as:
- Reduced lead times
- Higher inventory turns
- More available floor space
- Reduced material handling
- Improved workplace organization via 5S
- Improved quality, less rework
- Reduced inventories and WIP
- Improved participation & morale
Joe Chavez, Director of Operations at Southern Folger, states that, while the Lean Journey will take several years to obtain World-Class performance results, in just four months we have started several major programs that have shown great results.
Measures to Drive Behavior Change - In a Lean plant, we want value to flow and lead-times to be as short as possible. How can we drive that change? Measure lead-times and show the results to those who can make it happen on a Report Out board.
Elimination of Waste - One more Lean and "Green" behavior we are promoting at Southern Folger is elimination of waste, by learning to see where and how to continuously improve. We identify those operations that add value to our product and those that do not.
Throughout the upcoming months, we will be thinking and speaking this new Lean philosophy, as we improve our processes and cut out “muda”, the Japanese word for waste.
