Beware! It is is very easy to be misled that you must carry out a Kaizen Event or prepare a Value Stream Map before you start to implement changes to your business!
Different 'experts' will convince you that their philosophies for change are better than any other, but many of these philosophies contain the same tools which are emphasised in slightly different ways.
The key to implementing successful change is to apply the improvements to the whole business and to pick just the 'right' tools or techniques. At Manufacturing Excellence we can help you do that!
Some of the current philosophies are
Lean Thinking - based on the Toyota Production System - concentrates on five principles including adding value, satisfying the customer and eliminating the seven wastes. It applies to the whole business but most concentrate on manufacturing areas and often forget the involvement of people.
Quick Response Manufacturing - a companywide philosophy aimed at shortening lead times through flowing components through the business, reducing inventory and increasing the amount of value added.
Agile Manufacturing -
can be
described as ‘responding to customer’s individual changing demands
whilst maintaining mass production’.
Six Sigma - a whole company philosophy based on statistical analysis of problems. Six sigma aims to eliminate variation and to ultimately achieve less than 3.4 parts per million rejects.
Click on the link to read the article 'Let's Get Back to Common Sense'
