Press clippings

May 10 2013

Lean in the Australian bottle cap industry | Foodmagazine

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“What are the key factors necessary for organisations in the caps and closures industry to successfully drive a lean management initiative? And how can it ensure success and accelerate progress?

The key is to ensure that before program start-up, the organisation’s leaders buy-in to the fact that their lean management program must be viewed from a whole-of-business perspective.”

Michel Baudin‘s insight:

If you have been wondering about the specifics of Lean in the Australian bottle cap industry, the article will disappoint you.

It is a generic discussion about management, strategy, training, and metrics, with arguable points that could be made about any business, from car making to slaughtering pigs and selling insurance. All you would need to do is change the title and the picture.

Without setting foot in an bottle cap plant in Australia, however, it is not difficult to imagine some of the specific challenges the industry faces, like a market of only 23 million consumers spread over an area almost as large as the US.

Given that resin pellets and pigments are less bulky than caps, they are easier to truck around and you might wonder whether this leads the industry to set up many small plants near customers rather than a few large plants.

You might also wonder whether they are delivered to customers as heaps in bins or in sleeves with a controlled orientiation for easy feeding into capping machines…

These are just a few of the questions the article does NOT answer. So why clip it? To successfully implement Lean in a new industry, you need these answers and many others about its management and its technology.

Then you need to work with managers and engineers to not only copy approaches and tools from other indusries, but also adapt them and invent new ones as needed. The article’s authors may have done this, but it is not what they are sharing.

See on www.foodmag.com.au

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May 9 2013

Lean dairy farming in New Zealand | The Southland Times

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“Southland’s dairy farms and economy could reap the benefits of a manufacturing programme designed to increase efficiency in the industry.

The Venture Southland-led Lean Manufacturing Programme focuses on enhancing on-farm performance, reducing input costs and developing the skills and knowledge of farmers by identifying areas where efficiency gains can be made.”

Michel Baudin‘s insight:

Based on the article, it boils down to 5S.

See on i.stuff.co.nz

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May 3 2013

Lean Survival Strategies in the Textile Industry | Chain Reactions | Industry Week

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“The traditional lean approach […] omits the customer from the scenario—a rather glaring omission. The other approach, though, is extended lean, which goes beyond the plant level to include the customer and other supply chain partners. ‘Traditional lean works on processes within the plant,’ Lail says, ‘whereas extended lean connects the entire supply chain.’”

Michel Baudin‘s insight:

I am sure many others familiar with TPS and Lean will find the notion of a Lean approach that “omits the customer” as objectionable as I do. The gist of the article is that textile manufacturer Valdese Weavers survived by ignoring manufacturing and focusing instead on moving full truckloads.

This puts the Valdese Weavers experience in direct contradiction with that of companies that have seen the pursuit of transportation efficiency degrade ratther than enhance their overall performance, as documented, for example, in the work of Hau Lee.

See on www.industryweek.com

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May 3 2013

Lean from Start to Finish

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The use of Lean by Boeing engineers helps the company reach its goal of providing products that meet and exceed expectations for the U.S. Army.

Michel Baudin‘s insight:

The article discusses everything except manufacturing.

See on www.onlineamd.com

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May 2 2013

Toyota’s IT Vision at Industry Week’s Best Plants Conference | Chain of Thought

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“‘…Toyota Motor’s group leaders were complaining about the systems IT was delivering. They wouldn’t let them focus on being out on the production line. So IT’s focus became providing tools to allow group leaders to be more efficient…”

Michel Baudin‘s insight:

The article’s author is challenged about getting to the point but, when he eventually does, it is worth reading. What I found most original is IT focusing on the needs of group leaders, Toyota’s name for first-line managers, who oversee four to six teams of four to six operatiors each. It is a constituency is definitely underserved by IT in most manufacturing organizations and whose potential is underestimated.

Most companies expect little from first-line managers beyond expediting parts, tracking time and attendance, and disciplining workers to make their numbers. In fact, being both part of management and in direct contact with production operators on the shop floor puts them in a unique position as agents of change.

This is why TPS puts them in charge of smaller groups, with the expectation that they will spend time leading improvement projects and supporting the professional growth of their teams. Most IT groups pay more attention to the executive suite than to the shop floor, where, in particular, you are not just interacting with people through screens but also with machines through their controllers. This requires a different set of IT skills, and the article says that Toyota partnered with Rockwell Automation for this purpose.

See on mhlnews.com

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May 1 2013

GE and workers see different paths to improving productivity | GoErie.com

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Talk to a couple dozen past and present employees at GE Transportation and a pattern emerges.Many share a common view that the productivity the company wants to improve was a casualty of lean manufacturing and a reduction in an incentive-pay program that paid employees more as they produced more. But for reasons of its own — including concerns about safety and quality — the company isn’t looking to expand a program that was deliberately downsized.

Productivity, a measure of how much an employee produces during a given period of time, was on the table last week and will be again this week as negotiations continue between GE Transportation and Local 506 of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers.

Michel Baudin‘s insight:

It is odd that the unions that fought so hard to eliminate piece rates in the 20th century should come out in favor of it now. Economically, piece rates, or volume rates make sense for manually shoveling dirt, but not much else.

See on www.goerie.com

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