Clear view

of the waste-line
There is little doubt that many businesses carry an unnecessary burden of waste. In
todays ultra-harsh economic environment, lean can eliminate this waste, making all
the difference between being a success and not being at all, as Brian Wall reports

riving home the principles of lean is now

widely recognised as a business philosophy
that all organisations should embrace. Yet
many still fail to implement the practices
and processes that deliver lean success or have
deluded themselves into thinking the finishing line
is at hand. To be truly lean enabled, a company
needs to be agile at all levels, in people as well as
processes, in culture as well as strategy. Lean is a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating
waste through continuous improvement, flowing
the product according to the pull of the customer.
Jeremy Cronshaw, principal consultant at IFS, a
provider of business applications embracing distribution and manufacturing, is a committed advocate of this approach. Lean benefits an
organisations people by providing focus and transparency to objectives, from the top down, says
Cronshaw. And its vital to realise that the journey
is one of continual refinement. Lean is not a system or application that is installed and deployed,
he adds. Change will happen, and companies need
to accept and embrace it to stay competitive.
Cronshaw warns that the only thing more dangerous than believing that, one day, you will have
a lean company is believing you already do. In the
wake of the festive season, he points out that there
is one exception to this rule: But a global supply
chain that delivers products to billions customers in
one night by the unorthodox medium of flying
sleigh can hardly count.
By contrast, one company with its lean feet
firmly on the ground is TBM, which has taught and
implemented time-based lean principles for almost
15 years. Its heritage is rooted in the worldrenowned Toyota Production System (TPS),
absorbed through close working relationships with

TPS pioneers. TBMs focus is on helping manufacturers to achieve substantial efficiencies and performance improvement on the shopfloor, in
internal business processes and throughout the
value chain.
Our approach is to walk the floor, analysing
every step of the factory process, from the receipt
of raw materials right through to production of the
finished goods, because the vast majority of this is
time wasted, says Richard Holland of TBM UK. By
enabling manufacturers to recognise this and
embrace change, they can transform their businesses into engines for sustained growth, without
downsizing.
And time really is of the essence. In fact, wasted time is the biggest obstacle to achieving and
maintaining competitive advantage, he states.

Every manufacturing operation is made up of

value added steps and non-value added steps,
but the majority belong to the latter. Thats not
easy for some organisations to accept, but once
they see the inefficiencies, they start to
understand what lean can do
Richard Holland, TBM UK
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WORKS MANAGEMENT JANUARY 2007

Best practice Lean techniques

Every manufacturing operation is made up of
value-added steps and non value-added steps, but
the vast majority belong to the latter as much as
99%.. Thats not easy for organisations that have
been carrying out the same process for the past 20
years to accept. However, once they see the inefficiencies for themselves and come to terms with
how wasteful these are they start to understand
what lean can do for them.
Its all about seeing and studying time,
recognising the many bottlenecks within the
process where people are just waiting and idle. We
then design a future state that describes where a
manufacturer wants to get to, within the bounds
of what we believe will help to grow the business,
and draw up the actions needed to make that happen. For example, the practice of batching items,
which is often regarded as faster and more efficient, actually increases lead times, forcing people
to wait. So a one-piece flow system is vital. As soon
as each item is ready, it must be processed, which
means a whole new way of thinking when it comes
to machine changeover times and other fundamental aspects of an operation.
Nor is lean enough of itself. Culture change,
argues Holland, is equally critical to achieving and
sustaining dramatic performance improvement.
Conversely, its the number one reason many lean
initiatives fail to take hold or lose momentum.
We work with manufacturers to overcome the
obstacles to change, so they can transform the way
they work.
Automotive supplier Piolax Manufacturing UK
is one company committed to extending its reach
to the limit when it comes to performance improve-

WORKS MANAGEMENT JANUARY 2007

ments. A producer of injection-moulded components and assemblies for the automotive industry,
supplying a number of the major manufacturers
assembly plants across Europe, it has been driving
through improvements at its Altham Business Park
site in Accrington, raising productivity by almost
three-quarters.
Although part of a Japanese group, the operation is a standalone business unit and has to keep
its added-value edge against the parent companys
other manufacturing sites in Thailand, Mexico and
Korea, as well as outside global competitors.
We have been under growing pressure to cut
costs, while retaining high quality levels, says Tony
Dewhurst, Piolax UKs operations director. Internally-driven improvements become increasingly
harder to deliver and we realised a different
approach was needed.
The company called on the help of the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS). A one-day diagnostic visit by MAS North Wests lead practitioner
Mark Stone uncovered key areas where there were
high levels of wasted effort that could be removed
to bring potentially big productivity gains.
Stone worked with the company on lean processing techniques in a pilot cell of the assembly
area. This led to a complete redesign of the cell layout, creating space for parts storage and improving
product flow. After this proved successful with
productivity up by more than 80% in that cell the
project was rolled out across the assembly area.
If the initial concept was an eye opener to the
company regarding the benefits of lean, then the
subsequent transformation of the whole assem-

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Best practice Lean techniques

bly operation served to reinforce that. Overall, the
assembly area has seen a productivity increase of
74%, while floor space utilisation has improved by
45%, reports Dewhurst.
As a result, not only has the operation seen a
significant reduction in costs, it has also gained
capacity and space. We are now in a position, both
in terms of cost and resources, to be able to compete within the group and bring in very lucrative new work, he adds.
Successful implementation of
lean is an organisation-wide
endeavour, requiring everyone to
play a role in identifying and
eliminating waste from everyday work. The payback more
than justifies the collective
effort. Some examples of
lean improvements can
include faster process cycle
times, reduced work in
process, lower scrap and
rework, and improved process
flow, points out Scott McAllister, a senior performance excellence
consultant
at
the
Breakthrough Management Group,
which uses performance tools based
around lean, Six Sigma and innovation.
Lean and Six Sigma complement each other
and can work in concert, he adds. Where lean
seeks to eliminate waste and non-value added
activity, Six Sigma aims to lessen variation by reducing defects. Rather than scaling down the workforce, the aim is to improve process flow, enabling
existing workers to provide more value to customers. And success is as much about where you
apply lean as how you implement its principles.

Manufacturing operations can only claim to be

truly lean if they incorporate lean principles in all
aspects of their business, says Steve Thurlow, manufacturing sector head at Huthwaite International,
a behaviour change consultancy. Yet, typically,
lean is only applied on the shopfloor, in areas such
as reducing work in progress and inventory, and
eliminating waste. If lean is applied anywhere else
at all, its usually limited to areas such as R&D
and upstream to the supply chain.
While this is valuable, argues
Thurlow, it should not be
ignored that lean is equally
applicable to such downstream operations as selling
and the sales process.
Consider that one of the
primary objectives of lean
is to eliminate unnecessary steps in a process. Six
Sigma goes a stage farther
in seeking to achieve minimal defects. In the selling
environment, a defect is, for
example, a wasted sales call or
a superfluous meeting with a customer. Lean selling is about reducing
such waste. As Thurlow stresses: Why
go to the trouble and effort of implementing
lean in core activities, if your sales team is leaking
waste at every turn?
Ultimately, lean is all about getting the right
things, to the right place, at the right time, in the
right quantity, while minimising waste, and being
flexible and open to change. A simple enough concept? Yes. The challenge, of course, is putting that
into practice and never losing sight of those goals
for a single moment.

Window on the world of lean

Arden Windows is constantly looking to improve
its quality, cost to the customer, processes and service. The top team at the Coventry-based company was convinced that more involvement from its
employees at all levels was key to the process. So
the business singled out Ukfirst - the industry
forum for delivery of lean to manufacturers of
furniture, timber and affiliated products - to help
it achieve those objectives.
Ukfirst began by exposing the management
team to lean thinking through the creation of a
long-term improvement plan. By value stream
mapping the business, Arden Windows was able
to identify process bottlenecks and opportunities
for making improvements were uncovered.
As a result, the company now employs lean
manufacturing techniques to solve some of these
issues at shopfloor level.
When Ukfirst engineers met the management
team and discussed their expectations, Arden
Windows was hoping to progress methods and
processes, improve workflow in their mill area
and undertake training in best manufacturing
practice.
Ukfirst began the programme by taking the
team through a simulation that is used to teach

WORKS MANAGEMENT JANUARY 2007

fundamental lean concepts, such as layout, cells,

quality, 5S and kanban. Focusing on the administration and sales order process initially, the team
identified 40 areas of potential improvement that
then guided long-term strategy.
The resulting work gave a 57% improvement
in lead times from sales enquiry
to works order, saving 19,000
and freeing up capacity for an
additional 150,000 worth of
turnover.
The manufacturing process
was next to be tackled and a
team assembled, representing a
cross-section of the mill process
department. It produced its own
value stream map that quickly
identified a bottleneck at the
sash and frame assembly area.
Layout changes were undertaken, which
improved the flow through the mill and radically
reduced the travel distances for parts. By knocking down a wall, and moving a door line and
machinery, the team will be achieving financial
savings of 192,000 and significantly improved
capacity.

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