Continuous improvement is the mentality of doing things better; it is an ongoing effort to improve products, processes or services. It can be implemented everywhere and at any time. The main characteristic of continuous improvement is ...

Let’s first make sure we are on the same page when we talk about the value. Value is ....

The other day I was discussing with one colleague, John Davis the Production Manager of a food producing factory. He could not convince the shift maintenance guy, Garry Smith, to take over a combined role, that of the production operator and maintenance technician, despite the consent of the Maintenance Manager. Garry was clear cut, when he said ...

Nobody wants to have unhappy customers. Lean thinking guarantees that and this is how it can make it happen. ....

This story is about the productivity improvement that involves the modification of two identical and adjusted packing lines to enable operation by one instead of two operators.

We started the project after a long period (about one year) of a series of improvement actions that increased the overall equipment efficiency of both lines above 80% and the mean time between stoppages above 20 minutes. This was a streamlining phase, during which many …

This story is about the productivity improvement in a dissolved air flotation (DAF) liquid effluents plant of a factory.

We started carrying out an audit of the existing situation. The plant was run by one operator per shift, who was busy preparing batches of polyelectrolyte solution, de-blocking the sludge outflow from DAF, restoring the operation of the sludge pump between the DAF and the maturing tank, resetting the control panel that stopped frequently triggered by various alarms of the equipment and cleaning the floor and the equipment from spillages. On top of that...

This story is about the reduction of the format changeover on a packing line. This line was filling 500g. and 1000 g. round tubs. The packing line comprised a tub feeder located one floor above, the tub filler, the tub sealer and the cartoner. The line staff was a team of one machine operator and one assistant to feed the tubs from the upper floor. They were capable of running the line and also of doing the changeover in their normal working time. The changeover took 3.5 hours and the factory used to do one changeover every one or two weeks, restricting its flexibility to react in sudden spikes of the market. Besides it was forcing to keep one to two weeks stock (cycle stock).

Let me first translate the word “Gemba”. It means shop floor and is the area where manufacturing takes place, therefore a key element for lean manufacturing.

The stories I am going to describe are real but not the names, paying respect to the individuals and the companies. They are not intended to be of high theoretical value or break through revelations. On the contrary they are very practical and digestible, aiming to give simple but very efficient examples of the improvements that can take place on the shop floor....

There are currently two distinct ways of manufacturing organisation.  The first is the well-known traditional manufacturing, which makes use of high throughput equipment, builds high stocks resulting in long lead times and implements make to stock production planning based on forecasts. The second, known as lean manufacturing, is a more recent one that is based on flexible production, low stocks or even no stock building and implements make to order production planning. The striking results of lean manufacturing is the strong reduction of stocks ...