Tag: Lean manufacturing

How do I lower manufacturing costs?

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man working in manufacturing facility

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Liz Fox, senior marketing associate, MAGNET: The Manufacturing Growth Advocacy Network)

As manufacturing shifts and grows through technological innovation and higher demand, shops are continually becoming more flexible and embracing the idea of slimming down. As a result, manufacturers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing valuable manpower, processes, or components. If your efforts aren’t producing ideal profit margins, the following are some valuable cost-reduction ideas that should be considered in your long-term plans.

Assess and enhance your processes.

Before taking the next step toward cutting costs, you need to assess your manufacturing processes by looking at them from every angle. What details do you notice? Are there unnecessary steps or equipment? When you look at the big picture, it not only tells you where things can be improved, but gives you guidance on how to innovative so that materials aren’t wasted, labor isn’t costly, and scrap is minimal.

This can involve the following:

  • Implement additive techniques to reduce development time and use less expensive materials
  • Make better use of suppliers by evaluating and prioritizing your current needs
  • Modify designs to make them more cost-effective
  • Adopt Lean manufacturing and create a culture of continuous improvement

Go green.

Companies now are more receptive to sustainability as a key pillar of their day-to-day operations, and this means cutting back on energy consumption. With the right blend of technology, real-time data, and other resources, companies can run slower without disposing of good customer service or creating longer lead times. Take initiative by installing energy-efficient lighting fixtures, rescheduling the use of high-powered equipment, and putting together a special team to ensure all energy-oriented manufacturing costs are being managed appropriately.

Consider the cost of inventory.

Inventory space utilized for a long period of time can lead to high costs for storage, maintenance, and insurance. Take measures to make your operations more fluid, responsive, and oriented toward noted actual demand, which can help you avoid overproduction, cut the amount of waste, and substantially reduce cash spent on space for additional product inventory.

For more information, contact MAGNET at 216.391.7002 or visit manufacturingsuccess.org.

Tips & tricks for implementing Lean/Six Sigma tools

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Lean manufacturing

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Chris Adams MBA, Lean BB and Six Sigma BB)

Lean and Six Sigma have been methodologies I have used throughout my career, whether I knew them at that time by those names or not. Educated in Industrial and Operations Engineering “at that school up north,” The University of Michigan, and subsequently obtaining an MBA at The Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, I was fortunate enough to get the strict schooling behind me and then later obtained my Lean Black Belt through the corporate Lean office of Emerson Electric in St. Louis and my Six Sigma Black Belt through Lorain County Community College via Dan Sommers who is a Six Sigma Black Belt alumni from GE Lighting.

The vast majority of my experience with Lean and Six Sigma methodologies has come through the manufacturing world. So, the first tip I would propose is to start with the Lean Journey 5S (or sometimes companies choose to use 6S to call out safety separately) if you and your organization have the wherewithal and commitment. Instituting the rigors of 5S and then maintaining are definitely a place where good standard work and an audit process pay off.

But, many an organization is too impatient to allow for the “cost” of 5S and the, sometimes, soft-cost savings to be returned. So, my second tip, Value Stream Mapping is still the way to make the current state be documented and understood as well as provide for the solid basis on which future-state Value Stream Maps can drive the profitability of an organization in the right direction.

My third tip is to use, sooner rather than later, the Value Stream Mapping process to understand back to the suppliers’ supplier and forward to the customers’ customer. I have been with organizations that have been successful in implementing and working with their suppliers and customers as a win-win in the value chain.

The fourth tip is to have a solid foundation for the process used to implement project- or process-based change. In my last two roles, I have been fortunate enough to work with organizations that were committed enough to the process of leading change that Policy Deployment (or Strategy Deployment or X-matrix) were truly practiced. An organization that waterfalls its top three to five main corporate objectives to the associate on the floor really understands what teamwork is all about.

My fifth and final tip is that, although my experience (and to this point) a significant amount of the use of Lean and Six Sigma tools have come through the manufacturing world, service industries are a hotbed where these tools can be more universally applied. In my personal experience as a volunteer at one of the most respected hospital systems in the world, we’ve learned that a process is a process and can be improved.