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LEAN MANUFACTURING IMPLEMENTATION / COACHING

Manufacturing companies have a growing need to adopt World Class Manufacturing (WCM) strategies, including Lean techniques. But lean manufacturing implementation efforts are frequently hindered by the absence of technical understanding of Lean at various levels in the organization and often, there is little agreement on how to get started.

TCA is uniquely qualified to assist in overcoming the barriers to implementing Lean technologies. With our general capabilities in operations consulting, and a deep expertise in Lean, we will help you to achieve the benefits of these powerful techniques in a short period of time. We have the advantage of seeing lean manufacturing implementation problems from a different perspective and of introducing creative and effective solutions.

OBJECTIVES

A successful implementation of Lean techniques begins with the following objectives:

• To provide a lean manufacturing course that will provide superior coaching and assist in your lean manufacturing implementation

• To educate the management team in Lean technologies and other WCM philosophies

• To plan and carry out one or more pilot applications of Lean technologies

• To develop an internal resource person who is capable of Lean education and training and coordination of the WCM program

• To develop and document plans for expanding and implementing lean manufacturing in a systematic manner

APPROACH

TCA has developed a step-wise approach to achieve these objectives with a minimum investment of time and effort. These steps are summarized in the following flow chart:

TCA CONTRIBUTIONS

We support the execution of those work steps by:

• Preparing and facilitating a management education and planning workshop

• Assisting in structuring and documenting a long-term vision and a pilot lean manufacturing implementation project

• Preparing and delivering formal pilot team training

• Assisting in the development of secondary orientation and education materials

• Assisting with on-the-job training and support of pilot teams

• Facilitating interim management project reviews

• Developing an in-house resource person to carry out Lean training and program management on an ongoing basis

• Delivering a presentation summarizing observations and recommendations on the program (i.e., a brief “final report”)

• Participating in an expansion planning workshop

A critical dimension of our support in implementing lean manufacturing is the education and training that we provide. We believe that the key to technical improvement is rooted in understanding and acceptance based on knowledge. Education is the vital element. We honor this belief with carefully developed instructional and training approaches that reflect modern adult learning models. We enjoy training and see it as our most important tool in assisting client companies through difficult, but necessary changes.

BENEFITS

An investment in TCA's assistance with your lean manufacturing implementation program will yield many benefits, the most important of which can be summarized as follows:

• You will overcome the inertia or "organizational procrastination" that can inde-finitely delay the move to Lean

• We will help you identify the best possible starting point through carefully selected pilot projects

• Execution of the pilot projects will provide early economic benefits (i.e., quality improvement, productivity improvement, and waste reduction). These benefits usually offset, at least, the entire cost of the pilot project.

• Your management team will be knowledgeable of Lean concepts and principles, having seen first-hand the effects of their application

• You will be spared the frustration and expense of one or more false starts

• Expansion can be planned around a core group of grass roots "experts." Those who planned and implemented the pilot projects can now help other teams in the expansion phase.

• The in-house WCM program coordinator will be capable of providing training and project management support in the expansion phase

• Expansion can be planned based on a clear vision of the role that Lean can play in addressing vital business needs and opportunities

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