Advanced Strategies for Creating a Lean Manufacturing System

You’re no doubt already familiar with lean manufacturing, as it’s now one of the most common manufacturing philosophies today. And even if you haven’t, you’ve heard about its core principles: reducing waste, improving efficiency, and maximizing your value to the customers.

But lean is more than just eliminating waste or Jack Sprat’s wife’s dietary restrictions. It’s a philosophy that requires continual improvement and a commitment to long-term change. It’s not a one-off program, it’s a whole new way of thinking.

If you’re already familiar with the basics, the next step in your lean manufacturing journey is to take on some of the advanced techniques that help you unlock greater potential. Here are some of those advanced strategies.

1. Deep Dive into Waste Elimination

You’re hopefully already familiar with the seven common types of waste in manufacturing, also called the seven mudas, which is Japanese for “wastefulness” or “futility.”

1. Overproduction
2. Excess Inventory
3. Unnecessary Motion
4. Waiting
5. Overprocessing
6. Defects
7. Transportation

Tackling hidden waste

One of the overlooked forms of waste is unused employee creativity. This happens when management takes a “We know everything — we’re the managers” approach. That’s where the only good ideas come from people who work in the back office; the people on the floor don’t have the same level of creativity and knowledge.

This is one of the worst forms of management arrogance, and it can really hurt a company. You’ve no doubt been in a position early on in your career where your boss was detached from reality and made a lot of bone-headed decisions. You knew you could do a lot better than the Old Man (or Woman) if they would only listen to you.

Make no mistake: If you’re a manufacturing leader now and you hold that “I’m always right” idea, there are plenty of your staff who believe the same of you as you did your old boss.

Your associates on the floor are some of the smartest people at their jobs, and you’re not going to find anyone better-equipped to fix your problems. But when they’re confined to rigid processes, their insights and solutions will go unheard. They stand silently by as you offer bad solution after bad solution that never actually fixes anything.

But by giving your associates the freedom to innovate, they’ll uncover the solutions that will eliminate inefficiencies in so many unexpected areas.

Another hidden waste is misaligned communication across departments. Poor information flow between different departments and rigid, siloed communication channels keep production, engineering, and management from communicating quickly and effectively. That can create delays, errors, and duplicated efforts.

Lean manufacturing focuses on improving communication, but advanced lean techniques use systems like Hoshin Kanri, (which means “policy management” or “compass management.”

Hoshin Kanri ensures that each department’s goals and strategies align with the organization’s vision. Those goals need to drive progress and action at every level within that company. Hoshin Kanri is closely related to Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, which is also known as the OODA Loop.

2. Advanced Lean Tools and Techniques

There are basic tools in lean manufacturing like kaizen (continuous improvement) and 5S (sort; set in order; shine; standardize; sustain).

But the more advanced techniques offer even greater benefits. Here are a few of the tools and methodologies that can take your lean manufacturing system beyond where it is.

Value Stream Mapping with Data Integration

Traditional value stream mapping (VSM) is an essential lean tool, but advanced manufacturers are taking it digital. By using real-time data from IoT devices, sensors, and software, you can create dynamic value stream maps that update in real-time as conditions change.

These maps help you make adjustments as time goes by and quickly identify new bottlenecks as they clog up the process. You no longer have to wait for the end of the day, plus a 30-minute debrief, to figure out where something went wrong. You can identify the problem immediately, solve it, and avoid the problems that might have resulted in hours or days of downtime.

Digital VSM can also use advanced analytics to predict waste before it ever happens. This allows you to be more proactive than reactive. When you combine this with machine learning models, the data can give you greater insights into equipment maintenance and repairs, quality control, and production timing.

Pull Systems with Just-in-Time (JIT) and Heijunka

You may already use a pull system, where the work is pulled only if there is a demand for it, rather than building products based on forecasts.

But the advanced lean techniques use Just-in-Time (JIT) and Heijunka.

JIT reduces inventory waste by ensuring parts and materials arrive only when they are needed. That is, you don’t order 1,200 gas tanks because you’re going to produce 100 units per month and leave the entire inventory sitting in your warehouse. You order 100 gas tanks per month because you’re going to produce 100 gas tanks.

And if you’re going to produce 125 units the next month, you order 125. But if you’re only going to produce 75 the following month, you order 75.

Advanced JIT means working closely with your suppliers to synchronize their deliveries with your production schedule. This means building strong partnerships — strong enough that you’re willing to share your production forecasts, real-time demand data, and even your collaborative planning tools. In this way, you can be certain you’ll get the number of units right when you need them.

Heijunka — production leveling — levels out production by smoothing out the peaks and valleys in demand. Rather than producing large batches of inventory, Heijunka spreads production evenly over time, reducing the strain on resources and preventing the overproduction of certain products.

That is, rather than producing 125 units one month and 75 the next, you’re producing 100 every month. You’re still not making 1,200 at once to sit in storage, but you overproduce one month to give yourself a little cushion the next month.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) with Predictive Capabilities

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) has become the standard method for ensuring your equipment runs reliably by involving employees in routine maintenance tasks. By combining modern TPM with predictive maintenance technologies, adding sensors to your machinery, and using predictive analytics, it’s possible to predict when your machines are likely to fail. This lets you do preventive maintenance and avoid issues that cause expensive downtime.

Predictive maintenance goes beyond traditional TPM because it analyzes vibration patterns, temperature changes, and equipment usage as a way to determine when parts will wear out. It even goes beyond regular time tracking and predictive lifecycles — “This belt usually wears out after 12 months, so let’s change it at 11” — it can predict when something might last a little longer or even wear out much sooner.

Evolving Your Lean Journey

Lean manufacturing is not a static method that sees you following the same formula week after week. Your customers’ needs, the markets, and the technologies you use will evolve. So your lean approach needs to evolve and change as well. By using some of these advanced techniques, you can grow in your own lean efforts and stay ahead of the competition. That way, you’ll be better positioned to win in an increasingly competitive manufacturing landscape.

I’ve been a manufacturing executive, as well as a sales and marketing professional, for a few decades. Now, I help companies turn around their own business, including pivoting within their industry. If you would like more information, please visit my website and connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Photo credit: Marek Ślusarczyk (Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons 3.0)