Lean production: success recipe for every company
Lean production and interim management are two concepts currently being used by many companies with increased tendency. The reason? Pressure to run businesses more and more efficiently, „cutting“ of unnecessary expense and the necessity to eliminate everything which in practice does not become a part of the customer service.
Maybe you have noticed a similar situation in your company as well. You discovered that the investments into the running of the company are too high and have started to save on the expenses. You reduced expense on marketing, closed less profitable departments or even decreased employee wages. The traditional problem was solved by using traditional and unpopular methods without stopping to think whether there may be more efficient and less painful methods available.
How to recognize if our company is efficient?
If you can answer the following questions with „YES“, then your business already does apply the principles of lean production.
1. Are you able to double the productivity of work at your company?
2. Did you reduce the amount of inventory up to 90%?
3. Did you reduce the number of rejects and waste by up to half?
4. Are you able to introduce a new product to the market faster than ever before?
5. Are you able to expand the range of your products at very low additional costs?
Where to start?
Lean production is a set of procedures and processes which impact the entire production process: production workplaces, production lines, machinery, production employees. The objective is to maintain a stable, flexible and standardized production.
- reduce the size of production batches
- communicate actively with your customers to „balance“ requests and recalls
- inform customers of your stock surpluses and offer them for sale (to new/potential customers as well)
- start production or assembly only in case that all parts and materials are available
- stop production if no requests of internal or external customers are pending
- analyse purchases based on their true „necessity“ (customer needs)
- ensure that machinery and production equipment is always ready and that orders are not delayed due to repairs
- don’t pay employees for manufacturing unnecessary parts or products etc.
- reduce overhead costs and administrative costs – use modern tools and applications, outsource. Invest saved amounts into advancement of production and improvement of qualification of your skilled labor.
Engage an external manager
The lean method can currently be applied practically in every business in every industry. Peter Staško, the managing director of FOREAST Agency s.r.o. adds: „The first step to lean production, i.e. to the cutting of the redundant and costly elements, is a thorough analysis of the needs of the company, which subsequently can be tied in with a specific project and the implementation itself. The implementation will be taken care of by either the company’s managers themselves after the respective training or the company can engage an interim manager. Interim managers have an unbiased and rational view of how the company operates, so they can determine without emotions where the operation needs to be adjusted. This way they can trim the unnecessary fat from the company rather efficiently“.
