Lean manufacturing Blog Details

Lean manufacturing, planning and implementation
2007-04-08 13:37:00
One guaranteed way to fail in lean is rushing on lean initiatives and implementations. Lean means change and improvement. Traditionally people will want to show the results as soon as possible to their higher level managers. They will set tight timelines and work towards them and will implement new systems. But effectiveness of these changes and new methods are questionable and most of the times fail in long term.Once the possibility to improvement is identified, it is very important to asses the opportunity and the effect of change to the organization. Then this has to be planned out and then has to be implemented. As oppose to a traditional organization that plans very quickly and tries implementing, a lean manufacturer will use almost 80% of the time of in planning the improvement and doing pilot runs. On the success they can do the implementations with minimal of efforts and to the maximum benefits in the remaining time. Pilot small scale implementations prior to the full scale imp ...
Implementation Lean Manufacturing Manufacturing

Being lean with my blog
2007-04-07 12:03:00
I have been posting my thoughts on lean manufacturing for sixteen months now. I have been writing about lean manufacturing and its concepts, lean thinking, lean success stories and human side of lean and so on. Meanwhile I have added links to external sites and also found some space for advertising as well.I love lean manufacturing so much, so I thought I should re arrange my blog to make it easier to use and navigate. I wanted to reduce waste of time in navigation and scrolling. So I moved to a new blog format which you see now.I need your feed back on this new format. If you feel there should be changes done for the layout pleas leave a comment or write to me on azabadurdeen@yahoo.comArticle is bought to you by, Lean manufacturing blog ...
Blog

Advertising – A direct result of being non lean
2007-03-28 20:06:00
In today’s world there is a huge industry created by the many marketers allover the world with the power of media. This is the empire of advertising. There are different forms of advertising, media and methods of advertising available. Advertising can be used for different purposes. Advertising can be used to sell products, to build brand name for a product or just to make the presence in the market. But why most of the manufacturers and marketers require advertising. That is to sell their products.Of cause there is a heavy competition in the market. Any manufacturer must keep reminding people about their products or services. But as a customer what would you get out from these advertisements. This is what every manufacturer or a service provider should ask themselves if they are on a lean movement.Manufacturers are not going to simply reduce their cost of advertising from their profit margins. They will add it to the product you are buying. So you will be paying a fair percentage of ...
Advertising

Lean thinkers, should they be single track thinkers?
2007-03-17 06:49:00
The heart of lean manufacturing is lean thinking. In the heart of lean thinking is the lean thinkers who align their thinking patterns with lean manufacturing concepts and principles. In a way lean thinking is formatting the thinking patterns such that problems are identified, analyzed and solved in the lean way. But should they be single trackers in their thinking. In other words should all the people in your organization think in the same way?Just for a moment think about great people and their specialties. In this world all the outstanding personalities have challenged the existing systems and practices and they have proposed and implemented alternatives for those. All the great religious leaders, political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi are examples of their differences in thinking and practicing what they believed as correct. On the other hand Taichii Ohno who is the guru of Toyota production system later became lean manufacturing, challenged age old techniques of bulk manufacturing ...
Single

ICC Cricket World Cup is On
2007-03-13 09:28:00
Many of you might at least heard about a sport called cricket. For my visitors who are from UK and India there is no need for introduction. But my US friends might have to learn little bit more on this topic.ICC cricket world cup is the event which will crown the Kings of Cricket for coming four years; this is the equivalent of FIFA world cup. Confused with content? You are reading learnlean Blog, do not worry. With cricket fever is catching the world fast; I think there is something every lean manufacturer can learn from the latest trends of cricket.In early 1990’s a score of 230-240 was very good batting first and it was considered a hard target for the opponents. But in the mid 1990’s things changed. Unlike batsman in old days who thought they should survive and meanwhile collect whatever runs possible, some teams introduced a new concept to batting which made the game upside down. Teams started thinking every ball they face as a scoring opportunity not as something to survive. ...
Cricket World Cup

Labor turnover and implications on lean manufacturing process
2007-03-04 05:53:00
People leaving any organization is nothing unusual in today’s context. People will do so for many reasons. But whatever the reasons are is it good from the organizational point of view, especially from a lean organization point of view?Lean manufacturers are process oriented. So it is safe to call lean manufacturers does not affected by labor turnover like a traditional organization does, technically. But the reality is, in whatever circumstances when one leaves, it is very hard to fulfill the gap of knowledge, no matter how good your processes are. Especially in a lean environment where there is heavy teambuilding is required, team synergy is very important this will mean a lot than for a traditional organization.While thinking about the effect of people leaving a lean organization, I have to ask an additional question. Why people leave a lean manufacturer? If this is a frequent occurrence, are you truly a lean manufacturer? I believe anyone should ask this question them selves befo ...
Implications Labor Lean Manufacturing Manufacturing Turnover

Controls are they really effective – A lean thought
2007-02-24 12:51:00
As a lean thinker, one question I would like to answer myself is that “whether controls are effective?” This is one question which was kept asking in many organizations in many contexts. All the managers and executives require some mechanisms to control the activities of their subordinates. This might be due to many reasons. One is to make sure everything is going in the way they intended. Another is to avoid frauds. Another reason may be just to show that they have control over their subordinate’s activities. And their may be many other reasons to this as well. But my question is whether they are really effective?Lean manufacturing believes in fool proofing the processes so that the process itself will avoid the problems. This is known as pokayoka. This is actually a system where the problem will be detected as and when they occur and then corrective action will be taken avoid the problem. More importantly here, measures are taken to avoid the possibilities of that problem comin ...

Leaders in lean manufacturing success
2007-02-17 06:54:00
Lean manufacturing is a continuous process. Lean implementations require great understanding of the industry, human behavior, requirements of the implementation and so on. As I have stressed in many of my previous posts it is not the lean tools which will make your lean dream a reality. It is the people who will make this a reality.Any lean implementation is a challenge for everyone in the organization. It challenges the traditional practices and ways of working. It will also question the requirement of carrying out certain activities. Lean thinking challenges interdepartmental mindsets and also the supply chain integrities. All these throw a challenge to everyone in the organization. They have to change. Change will not come easily. People need to be convinced and they have to be lead and guided towards the change. This requires good leaders. Lean leaders must be able to communicate effectively and get people to align to the lean way.Leaders must have the knowledge of the industry and ...
Leaders Lean Manufacturing Manufacturing Success

Treating the skin without thinking about the heart
2007-02-02 21:09:00
No, this is not a post on your health. I am neither a doctor to advise you on this topic. But we all understand the problem stated in the topic. Most of the organizations fall into this trap. They start looking into the minor details and they forget the basics. Especially this happens when organizations grow larger.When organizations grow larger they start thinking about improving their productivity, competitive advantage, and their image. I do not see any problem in this. But the problem starts when they start neglecting the basics like managing and treating people well, keeping them motivated and keeping to process disciplines. Many big companies think software, electronics and automation will improve their performance. But in reality these will not mean anything if people are not motivated and systems are not sorted and so on. What will be the result? These companies will invest millions and millions in new software and equipment and they will start treating people as a negative fac ...
Heart Skin

Lean projects, lean leaders and getting priorities correct
2007-01-20 17:40:00
Lean manufacturing implementation is a project and has to be managed very carefully to get the best results out of it. One of the most important activities of any project is identification and prioritizing the activities of that project.One of the basic mistakes people do when it comes to lean implementations is rushing in the initial phases of the project and setting up unrealistic timelines and goals. People want to show instant results and convince the top managers and stakeholders. But they forget that the time spent on the drawing board is very important to the success of the project.Every move in lean must be carefully planned. All the plans must be instrumented with required resources before the actual implementation. Plans must be communicated effectively to every levels of the organization. Everyone in the organization must know what their responsibility in the process is and especially why they do it. If this has not happened effectively, the project will not go far. Lean lea ...
Correct Leaders Priorities Projects

Lean manufacturing, MTS and MTO
2007-01-15 09:13:00
Among manufacturing concepts there are two very important terms to understand. They are Make To Stock and Make To Order scenarios or operating models. To understand lean manufacturing in different contexts we will have to understand the basics of these concepts.In simple terms Make To Stock scenario occurs when manufacturers carryout their manufacturing of goods without having an actual order from a customer. For an example most of the consumer goods manufacturers operate in this manufacturing model. Soap manufacturers manufacture their soap and stock them and then deliver based on the requirement of the market.Make To Order scenario occurs when the manufacturer start manufacturing only when there is a order for a particular product. Manufacturer will produce only to complete the requirement of that particular order. Some people refer this type of manufacturing as contract manufacturing.If we look at these two operating models from a lean perspective, MTO provides ideal ground for a le ...
Lean Manufacturing Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing resources centre
2006-12-02 17:15:00
This page will give you a collection of important lean manufacturing links. We want to update this page continuously with useful resources on lean and related topics. If you know any resource relating to lean manufacturing and if you believe it is worth sharing with others please enter a comment to this post. Or email me at azabadurdeen@yahoo.comMulbury e-shop - Good lean manufacturing e-book, six sigma calculator and other set of resources. Free for downloadsFree lean manufacturing e-book download - Ebook “lean manufacturing basics” explains the basics of lean manufacturing including the topics related to that. This is Free to downloadPower point downloads and more - Collection of interesting links including PDF and Excel sheets on various industrial topicsManagement Methods, Models - A good site explaining management methods and models and so onLean manufacturing Links - A good collection of lean manufacturing other links from related topicsTrade and Professional Organizations - ...
Centre Lean Manufacturing Manufacturing Resources

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