In the era of global competition, how do you start punching above your weight with the current team around you? Continuous improvement program based on lean practices have the capacity to deliver long-term sustainable exceptional results in most business environment.
We can help you to achieve that and stay ahead of your competition.
Explore Our ServicesEvery work environment has waste to be eliminated, or opportunities for improvement; very few have an effective methodology in place to make use of creativity of its people to remove such waste.
Products are easy to copy; streamlined working systems are hard to adapt. Yet it is the working systems which generate new products, new processing methods, achieve competitive lead times, capture markets and above all, gives people pride in what they do.
We can help you to create best-in-class working systems.
Applying our lean methods to increase the productivity of your team by up to 30%
Reduce lead-times by up to 75%
Reduce Inventory by 50%
Our mission is take lean to a wider world of applications, beyond the traditional application of lean thinking in manufacturing, to industries such as Health Care, Financial Services, Food, and beyond.
Contact us to find out how lean can apply to your business.
About 50 years ago, in the industrial or business world, you brought in the “expert” to work out the best way of working to minimize time and effort. In a typical large size factory, it was the industrial engineer; often in smaller set-ups, it was the owner themselves. Others followed the established method and just did the repetitive task set for them. Once the process was set, it was known as standard method.
Ten years ago, while working for a multinational, we had to do extensive regular reports to demonstrate the health of our business. We often got lost in the maze of KPIs. During a lunch break of one of such monthly review session, my MD turned to me and asked me, “If you were running this business, what will be your number one focus?”
My answer was Lead Time, without any hesitation. He took it in without saying much to me; his expression indicated to me he was mulling it over. In the following weeks and months, I could see that penny had dropped. The changes were on the way.
Lean is a methodology centered on preserving value while minimizing input.
Modern management has its roots in industrial engineering, which developed over two hundred years of industrial revolution. Industrial engineering was perhaps overly focused on improving a work station individually. In Japan, Toyota developed more encompassing concepts and practices and called it Total Industrial Engineering (TIE) – later, this would become known worldwide as the Toyota Production System (TPS).
The key differences from classical industrial engineering were concept of pull, flow, visual management and use of creativity of hands-on people. One can say lean is holistic in business terms.
Food Repackaging – low productivity issues, small business dealing with high volume
This business repackaged food and few other supermarket items; process was largely manual, few steps machine assisted. Business was struggling to make money due to poor productivity.
We were asked to review key assembly line methods. It was apparent that it lacked basic fundamentals which meant that product was handled and re-handled. One piece flow and economy of flow would help. I trained the key people covering lean, industrial engineering basics and use of videos to identify where motion being wasted.
Industrial Textile Business - review of business practices and see if lean could help
This $6.0m business operating out of Sydney’s west, operating in a shrinking market, produces 5000 SKUs, using looms which have lengthy set up times. We were called in to assist, as they were running out of space. They obviously had cash flow issues as well. Production was based on out of date min-max set in the ERP. No shop floor measures, feed back loop or improvement initiatives were in place. Small team was working in silos.
Industrial Valve Manufacturer and Trader – Inventory management for a business trading for 50 years.
This $30m business measured inventory turns as one of the key performance indicators to keep a check on cash flow. The business was buying mainly from low cost countries with a lead time of 10 to 12 weeks and had $6.0m in inventory.
However, measuring of inventory turns at big picture level, by itself, did not lead to any worth while action. Year-on-year results did not improve, in spite of many generic initiatives. Applying a key learning of lean - the use of PULL rather than PUSH - made all the difference.