LEAN TECHNIQUES & PRINCIPLES
Streamline your workplace!
Based on the Japanese principle of Kaizen or "continuous improvement", learn to limit wasted resources, reduce wasted time and increase workplace efficiency with an accredited level 2 course in Lean Organisation Manufacturing Techniques.
'Lean process improvement' is a methodology for reducing the time needed to fulfil an order.
A concept originating from the Japanese automotive industry, 'Lean' was originally developed purely for manufacturing, however, the principles of the methodology can be applied to many other environments, like government, healthcare, services, and technology.
The aim of 'lean' was to identify ways to eliminate waste from a process, whether it’s in the form of time, money, or energy. 'Lean process improvement' is a long-term solution that takes time to implement, as it requires an organisation to change its culture, mindset and, at times, its operations to ensure quality and production targets are achieved/maintained.
What are the benefits of lean process improvement?
The benefits of lean process improvement are immense, and this includes waste reduction, continuous process improvement, and greater customer focus.
Waste reduction
Businesses typically use many processes to accomplish their goals by maintaining consistency and order. While this method increases efficiency, it can often lead to inefficiency as well, due to the many moving parts and processes. As a result, performance and oversight drops as business priorities change.
This trend creates waste in the form of delays, redundancies, and costs. Lean process improvement helps teams keep process efficiency a high priority by streamlining processes and only keeping what is essential.
Continuous process improvement
Many companies adopt continuous improvement initiatives. Achieving success in today’s business environment means always looking for ways to do things better, so continuous improvement is a matter of remaining competitive.
Dysfunctional processes can cause many problems such as dissatisfied customers, stressed employees, increased costs, and missed deadlines. As a result, the continuous improvement that lean process methodologies provide is a great benefit, especially for organisations with processes that aren’t working well.
Customer focus
Lean process improvement requires companies to maintain a tight focus on business procedures. Eliminating wasteful tasks makes processes easier to implement, use, and maintain.
This benefit also improves the visibility of business operations to stakeholders like customers. In addition, a focus on providing customer value also allows an organisation to better predict the customer care it can provide.
The first step in incorporating
lean process improvement into any existing business is to review the process you want to improve. This step involves talking to the employees who actually perform the process, which many companies neglect.
CTEES will evaluate all this for you.
Next, you will need to identify the improvements you want to make, often by asking those same employees. Implementing the changes they suggest should include creating a plan that everyone understands and buys into from the whole organisation.
Ctees will complete a full assessment on your behalf
with
results.
Next step is to assess the actual impact that any changes have had on operational efficiency. This process will involve multiple rounds of testing. This requires constant monitoring, so you can address new issues as they appear.
Ctees will have this in hand for you and will manage the concept.
This now leaves the identification of all the activities that add value to the process, which is also essential, as it allows you to remove unnecessary activities and re-test the process. Limiting the risk of these changes involves eliminating or simplifying tasks, often by automating activities or changing the way they’re executed.
Ctees will operate the process across the organisation.
CTEES will incorporate the LEAN PROCESS improvement concept into your business.
Moving forward a requirement is to standardise the process which requires documenting it thoroughly as you refine the changes. This practice makes the process repeatable, both by team members and other employees.
Ctees will ensure a standardised approach to
all
areas
of
improvement.
Lastly, the processes agreed will need to comply with requirements from governing bodies, industry standards and the company’s own policies. Improving customer experiences is also a crucial step in implementing lean process improvement since any changes must positively impact customers.
Ctees will document all policies, AND amend and change them to reflect current legislation.
Lean: Tools & Techniques
Practical ways to incorporate lean into
your business
White Board Management or Digital Lean Boards
Using visualisation to streamline work
Using a digital Lean board is just as easy as using a whiteboard. The flexibility of the platform makes it possible to have boards for the daily meeting, continuous improvement, 5S and more.
Shop-Floor Management
This process was designed with shop floor management in mind. Track KPI’s and close the loop from incident to countermeasure to improvement.
Visualisation and performance control
A main principle of Lean manufacturing is to dare to highlight setbacks and issues in order to be as effective as possible. There’s a metaphor that describes the just-in-time philosophy: Lower the water in a lake and you can see the rocks under the surface. That’s exactly what the digital lean boards are all about. By visualizing information in the right way both leaders and individual contributors can form an objective, informed view at a glance and address bottlenecks, production issues etc immediately.
Each board is customised to streamline the dissemination of information and deliver customer value in a smarter way. By implementing all boards you’ll gain a complete performance control system for your business.
Lean Manufacturing is a widespread approach that affects everything from leadership to designing work tools and processes. Lean is widely applied in several industries - in factories, healthcare, administration and various public and private organisations. Discover how you can take your Lean Manufacturing to a new level.
Kaizen Process for the Management Team
A Kaizen board is a form of improvement board for the management team. It gives you an overview of escalations and delegations between departments and enables you to make decisions and ensure that your business is constantly improving.
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) and A3
The PDCA cycle is a well-known methodology used to plan, implement, control and introduce new improvements.
With this process you can easily move the improvement tasks around in the PDCA cycle just as you would have done with post-it notes on a whiteboard.
Also for each improvement there is also the possibility to add an A3 report for deeper root cause analysis.
Six Sigma
For further information, we touch on Six Sigma which benefits long-term projects. For example, a customised Six Sigma system enables you to work in-depth with the following:
Analysis.
Perform improvements according to the Define Measure Analyse Implement Control (DMAIC) method.
Support your team members by visualizing everything from progress, goals, analysis results, tests, tasks, and roles.
5S board
Nissan (Datsun before that), established the 5S which has been used successfully for decades to stabilise processes and to create order and efficiency across many manufacturing industries.
Streamline and maintain the way you work with a digitised 5S process and ensure the safest workplace possible.
Plan follow-ups and team 5S audits, and revise the various results continuously.
KPI & target Management
By highlighting key figures and KPIs in a target management concept, all employees can see how the business performs, and operates across all sectors.
Display both the current status and history for different targets and key figures and visualise the data in charts.
If a goal isn’t achieved easily add it to an improvement plan.
Kanban Process
Using Kanban, often referred to as the ‘Scrum Method’, is a popular process for visualising and streamlining processes. Divide processes into different stages and move tasks through iterative development steps. This results in more even progress and more ongoing deliveries.
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