We present our assessment
findings to the leadership and agree on the possibilities, securing their commitment
to the plan.
Whether you elect to pursue our or Partnership approach, assessment of your operations is
typically the first step.
During our assessment, ILS will carefully review your operations to identify waste
that can be eliminated and systemic improvements that will reduce costs and enhance
value delivery. We engage your people to create a future state vision that in major performance gains and sets the stage for
establishing lean value streams, management systems, and culture.
This assessment goes beyond typical capacity modeling, or finding excess staffing
following standard costing formulas. We apply analytic techniques that focus on
your key processes, identify better ways to do the work, and make sure your people
have the skills they need to work to a highly productive and satisfying level of
engagement.
Customers find our analysis penetrating and our ideas creative, practical, and effective.
Some examples include:
- Order picking and packing process. Our assessment found operators
doing excess paperwork and pushing carts on random and convoluted patterns through
the aisles of a warehouse to pick parts. Most pieces were handled multiple times
to get them packed properly, and the legacy IT system was cumbersome, making data
collection a chore. We identified projects to establish efficient zone-picking operations
where operators use inexpensive electric tuggers and follow short and simple routes
designed around high pick density and direct pick-to-box. Other projects would streamline
the IT interface for quick and simple data collection. After completing these projects,
productivity (production lines per hour) increased by 75%.
- Packaging operations. Our assessment identified opportunities to
realize a 20% improvement in labor efficiency for a 200 person packaging operation
involving a high number of SKUs and short production runs. Projects included a system
to define part families, design balanced lines with improved part presentation,
and minimize motion waste for all major product families. Others established improved
line management practices, and developed improved cell structures for packing low
volume SKUs.
- Plastics manufacturing. Our assessment identified opportunities
to dramatically reduce batch sizes by partitioning the facility into work cells
and dedicating equipment to specific parts families. This, with focused rapid changeover
standardized work and milk run logistics support, boosted efficiencies significantly.
Assessments typically involve a 3-5 day visit to your facility. We spend this time
observing your operations and interacting with your leaders and front line personnel.
Our goal is to gather all the information we need without being disruptive to anyone.
However, they are not disruptive. The assessment defines a future state vision for
the operation, identifies cost saving and performance gains, and establishes a roadmap
for achieving this vision in a short timeframe. It insures that your lean transformation
activity will yield very meaningful .
|
Projects |
Current State |
Future State |
Opportunity |
Financial Impact |
|
Line 1 |
22 |
17 |
5 |
$ 165, 000 |
|
Line 2 |
28 |
26 |
2 |
$ 66,000 |
|
Line 3 |
36 |
27 |
9 |
$ 297,000 |
|
Increased Volume |
6 |
0 |
6 |
$ 198,000 |
|
Total |
92 |
70 |
22 |
$726,000 |
Assessments identify a set of opportunities to pursue through projects. Each will
have an estimate of the potential savings.
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