Lean Manufacturing Consulting
Lean Manufacturing is not actually about manufacturing. It is the application of Lean Management to an operational process. This operational process could be manufacturing, in which case it would include the entire production process from purchasing through shipping. Lean can be applied to other operational processes such as a distribution process, which would be the entire receiving, pick/pack and shipping process. It could be healthcare which processes patients. Or it could be to a service company with no physical goods, but whose operational process involves creating information. Examples of service companies include accounting, banking, and insurance companies. The application of Lean Manufacturing is therefore the application of continuous improvement to business processes to achieve operational excellence.
The goals of a Lean Manufacturing implementation are the continuous improvement in your key performance metrics. This may be decreased lead time, increased capacity, improved quality, reduced costs and consistent delivery or service. The goal is the achievement of operational excellence, with a focus on processes that minimize lead times and rapidly and reliably deliver products or service to customers.
Within a factory, warehouse or healthcare environment, Lean Manufacturing goes beyond production and touches all aspect of the business, from facility layout, material flow, key performance metric tracking, inventory levels, purchasing, planning and scheduling, quality systems and work instructions. The focus is to eliminate waste (Muda), remove imbalances in the process (Mura) and relieve the overburden or bottlenecks of the process (Muri).
The eight “wastes” that a Lean Manufacturing implementation seeks to eliminate are:
- Extra motion
- Overproduction
- Unnecessary work content
- Waiting
- Inventory
- Rework
- Product travel
- Underutilized People
If you can achieve a business process that minimizes these wastes, you will achieve business process operational excellence.
Lean Manufacturing Methodologies
Most implementations use one or more of the following Lean Methodologies. As part of our consulting services, we have developed templates and standards to apply these methodologies to a variety of industries and unique operational processes:
- Value Stream Mapping allows us to see the flow of materials through the facility, quantifying the wastes and focusing attention on the priorities for improvements.
- Time Studies allow us to eliminate non-value added steps, identify safety violations, and design future state labor and equipment requirements. In addition the detailed time data are used to balance the process to meet customer lead times.
- Spaghetti Diagrams map the movements of people throughout the process to help the team see unnecessary labor movement in the current state.
- Process Mapping will be used to ensure the flow of information for the entire manufacturing process is understood and streamlined.
- 5S Visual Controls organize and standardize the tools, supplies and information required for the future state manufacturing process.
- Cellular Manufacturing is a philosophy that product families should be built in small (preferably) U-shaped arrangements of equipment dedicated to that product family. Small teams of people are responsible for the start and completion of products within the cell.
- Kanban Materials Management creates the pull of raw materials, work-in-process and finished goods inventory into the Lean Manufacturing System. It is used to ensure material availability and limit over-production or over-purchasing.
- Quickchangeover reduces the time to changeover from product-to-product within the flow cell, improving equipment utilization.
- Andon Boards make tracking operational performance and measuring improvements visible to the entire team.
Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma and Problem Solving
Lean Manufacturing is often combined with Six Sigma (and called Lean Six Sigma). Lean methodologies are very good at streamlining processes. Six Sigma is very good at problem solving or drilling deep into a problem to understand the root cause. When combined into Lean Six Sigma, the team will have the methodologies in their toolkit to both streamline processes and be effective at problem solving.
Supply Chain Management and Lean Manufacturing
In many ways, supply chain management is the application of Lean in the supply chain, or outside the “walls” of the firm. Lean Manufacturing is very focused on internal operations and the customer, with a goal of minimizing lead times. Supply Chain Management attempts to streamline processes between suppliers and the firm. Being a Lean Thinker when problem solving with your supply chain, you can eliminate waste for the entire supply chain, versus just your firm. Creating a Lean Supply Chain is the next step beyond Lean Manufacturing.
Lean Manufacturing and Theory of Constraints
Along with Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing and Theory of Constraints are the three most well-known and frequently implemented operational continuous improvement methodologies. As a Lean Manufacturing consulting firm, we think about bottlenecks and then apply Lean Six Sigma to the part of the business that is constraining your ability to serve customers effectively and profitably.
By bringing together these three methodologies, Lean Manufacturing Consultants provide the best tools to work on different problems and processes. It could be that there is a difficult problem in the process but to sustain the improvements requires 5S. Or we may be streamlining a process using value stream mapping but we find a high reject rate at a certain step that requires problem solving. Viewing continuous improvement holistically, results in more robust and sustainable improvements.
Operational Excellence
It is critical to remember that Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints are all methodologies to achieve goals. These goals are usually to improve service to customers and minimize lead times, while being effective and profitable within the company and across the supply chain. This can be easily summarized as achieving operational excellence.
Lean Manufacturing Implementation (Kaizen or Projects)
Many Lean Manufacturing consultants consider Lean as kaizen events. These events are usually one week sessions that move all the detailed work (value stream mapping, time studies, etcetera) into a Monday – Friday session. The typical kaizen schedule is to use Monday for education and planning, Tuesday and Wednesday for analysis, Thursday for implementation and Friday for reflection, celebration and to determine how to close out open action items. In reality, kaizen events often have an extensive planning period prior to the week event, to ensure that everything is prepared for the kaizen week activities. In addition, there is inevitably follow-up needed to ensure action items that could not be closed during kaizen week get completed.
As part of our Lean Manufacturing consulting services, we try to determine if a kaizen event is appropriate. Alternatively the implementation may be better within a project format. It is common for Lean Six Sigma to be implemented in approximately 3 month project format, which allows time for deep analysis and closing out all action items.
Lean Manufacturing Consulting
It is important when choosing a Lean Manufacturing Consultant to understand their approach and your culture. At Supply Velocity, we have been providing Lean Manufacturing consulting services for over 22 years. We use a blend of education with a focus on implementation. We typically work on streamlining complex processes and therefore often use a Lean Six Sigma project approach to implementation versus kaizen events.
Lean forms the foundation for all of our consulting services. However, as a consulting firm we also use Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, Supply Chain Management and S&OP to help our clients achieve their goals. If this more holistic view of continuous improvement methodologies and the achievement of operational excellence is appropriate for the problems you are facing, we would like to be your Lean Manufacturing Consultants.
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“Supply Velocity has provided the technical expertise and political capital to move our project forward. They have just the right amount of push and the right amount of support. Supply Velocity has helped us make real changes to improve efficiencies in logistics without jeopardizing our performance. We’re happy and our customers are happy.”
“We engaged with Supply Velocity to help us embed process improvement at all levels of the business. Our team learned from Mitch to let the data drive decisions, to use Lean tools to help us see our processes critically and objectively, and to create a control plan to manage all of the tasks that were the outcome of the data study.The project turned out to be very significant to the company and most importantly, our customers. We reduced our customer wait times by 40%, and cut in half the labor cost to fulfill customer orders.
Some results are not able to be measured. However, as a result of this project, we have started to build a Lean mindset and culture, which is part of our strategic mission to save our customers money. Supply Velocity has been a valued partner in this mission.”
“Isolating a problem, finding short, and long term solutions with measurable results is what was promised and results is what was delivered by Supply Velocity. Upon launch of the Lean Six Sigma Selling System, we knew more about our customers, our products, and were able to create a solid plan to increase sales of our most profitable products. Within months of implementation, our booked sales jumped 60% and our most valued customers were getting direct, active, and calculable attention.”
“I am thrilled to provide this testimonial for Supply Velocity and their outstanding work in implementing Lean Warehouses and processes at Crescent Parts & Equipment through the COVID pandemic. With their data-first focus and Mitch’s exceptional coaching and experience, they transformed our business into a more supply chain-oriented organization, enabling us to grow while prioritizing employee safety and creating a better work environment. Supply Velocity’s expertise in Lean methodologies and their comprehensive evaluation of our customers have been instrumental in optimizing our operations and increasing customer satisfaction. We highly recommend Supply Velocity to any company seeking to implement Lean processes and enhance their supply chain efficiency.”
“In the spring of 2003, the St. Louis Area Chapter of the American Red Cross engaged Supply Velocity, Inc. to perform a study and make recommendations to streamline office processes, maximize cash flow in purchasing and warehousing and restructure and enhance our maintenance department. Supply Velocity, Inc.’s process was methodical, flexible, staff-oriented, inclusive and, above all, trackable.In the last six months, our Chapter has realized expense savings of over $380,000 annually, and significant improvement in intra-company service levels has been attained. Supply Velocity, Inc. will return to the Chapter periodically throughout the next 18 months to audit our newly implemented processes. We have been pleased with our results and Supply Velocity, Inc.’s professionalism.”
“Supply Velocity is driving instrumental change in our inventory management processes. This is critical for us to be competitive in a supply chain environment with numerous disruptions. They are making change happen, which can be challenging in a 182 year old organization.”
“In a time of volatile supply chain disruption, Supply Velocity is helping us develop Demand and Supply Planning processes to proactively tackle these new challenges. They are genuine partners, working with our team, facilitating and teaching.”
“Our experience with Supply Velocity was one of the best values we have ever had from a consulting project. Cyril Narishkin brought a structured lean methodology, invaluable experience and engaging facilitation skills to help us streamline a very complex and disjointed sales order process. Just as importantly, our team now has the knowledge and process competencies to address other business improvement opportunities going forward.”
“Supply Velocity’s Lean Six Sigma System has given us new tools to help improve our sales performance. We have learned new ways to analyze our business which makes problem solving more accurate and has made us better leaders.”
“Supply Velocity gave us the tools to analyze our business and processes based on the facts and numbers versus our perceptions. Our common quote was “Let the numbers lead us”. The key for our organization was how quickly we moved from classroom to actual project initiation. We were able to jump in, start using the tools and see a difference right away.
The get-into-action approach was good for our culture.”
“We are using Supply Velocity’s Lean Six Sigma methods to analyze a variety of processes including rationalizing SKUs (stock-keeping-units). By using math to evaluate SKUs we took some of the emotion out of our decisions. We expect significant increases in sales and productivity from reducing poor performing SKUs.”
“Mitch Millstein and his team helped guide our shop fabrication division in the re-layout of our custom pipe and steel fabrication facility when we moved into a new building. It is not only the results but how he helped. We were involved in every step. I personally did time studies and was able to see the non-value added steps required to manufacture in our old layout. When we created our new layout, everyone was involved, from the executive team to our direct labor force. With Mitch’s help we increased our throughput by a 3x multiple, while providing more competitive prices to our clients as a result of the efficiency improvements.This has enabled us to not only make more money but also to expand our commercial reach and serve more, and larger customers. I would recommend Supply Velocity to any company that wants to make improvement in supply chain and operations.”
“The role of the Erie Insurance Marketing Department has been evolving over the past several years – from a support role to a more critical role of driving growth in our organization. Because of our increased workload and desire to prioritize the most critical projects, we hired Supply Velocity to teach us the skills of Lean Six Sigma.Participants included the Promotions, Market Research and Agency Licensing sections of the Marketing Department.
We learned valuable tools to help us to prioritize based on the voice of the customer.
I firmly believe these skills made a difference in how we work every day. We are moving new projects forward, eliminating or changing ineffective processes, and we are a much stronger department. We continue to use the tools to help us with our highly-complex and time-consuming projects. Supply Velocity helped us to accomplish our goals.”
“For several years we have worked with Supply Velocity to support us with their expertise on Lean Operations and Supply Chain Management. Supply Velocity has helped us implement Lean, improve our inventory systems, and educate our people. They are professionals who are always available to help us as needed.”
“We used Supply Velocity on our Warehouse optimization project. One of the key characteristics of Supply Velocity is that they listened to our requirements and provided a clear path for our Warehouse processes using lean tools and our future sales growth as objectives.”
“Closure Medical recently completed a major reorganization in order to enhance our ability to rapidly create innovative medical devices. We hired Supply Velocity to help us map out the process and service flows of the new organization that would maximize our product development process (PDP). In four weeks, Supply Velocity helped us envision a new PDP structure, develop measures and accountability for each step, and gain consensus within the organization. Supply Velocity’s focus on speed and accountability helped us complete a critical project in a timely fashion.”
“Anheuser-Busch Precision Printing had been implementing Lean Operations on our own for the past two years. We needed to move faster and partnered with Supply Velocity, Inc. Through Supply Velocity, Inc.’s mathematical workflow balancing and visual management tools, dramatic improvements were achieved. The entire converting operation was rearranged based on Lean principles. The result is a 20.6% productivity improvement, enabling us to operate with 23 fewer people in production.”
“Your process encourages this group to work together, better communicate and have fun doing it.”
“We used Supply Velocity to rethink our sales process. By analyzing the entire process we found wasted time in our Sales, Admin and Operations departments. Streamlining this process created extra time for each Sales Rep, allowing them to spend more time with Customers and increase the value we add. Gross profit margins are up 40%!We are now using Supply Velocity to help us rethink our entire Strategic Plan.”
“Supply Velocity has helped Clean succeed in a number of ways. First, they provided the education that kicked off our Lean Process Improvement journey. They also facilitated a number of large supply chain and process improvement projects including: 1) building quality into our direct-labor productivity incentive program, 2) designing the layout of our garment warehouse, and 3) streamlining our route service process.We have integrated the methods that Supply Velocity taught us into our management and strategic planning. In the process our quality measurement has improved 22% from 2013 to 2015, we have reduced required annual labor by 2200 hours from the garment facility layout project and we’ve seen 50% decrease in error rate. Obviously the numbers speak for themselves, but just as important, Supply Velocity has been fun to work and have become true partners. They have “taught us how to fish” so our internal teams are able to implement change on their own, with the skills we learned from Supply Velocity. This relationship has been invaluable.”
“C&R was struggling with labor productivity. The construction crews were often missing materials that they needed to do their work. This caused significant idle time. Supply Velocity, Inc. and C&R used value stream mapping and visual management tools to make dramatic improvements in operations. Most importantly, two years later C&R is sustaining and improving on the implementation. C&R’s return on investment was 11:1. C&R had a record year last year in both sales and profits and would not have been able to pull it off without the changes Supply Velocity, Inc. helped us make.”
“In thirty years of hiring consultants, Supply Velocity, Inc. was the first to tell me what they were going to do, set a price they stuck to and substantially exceed my expectations. I have recommended them to friends and acquaintances. They were true partners in assisting with the turnaround of an acquisition we had been struggling with for two years.Their math-based technology, solid down-to-earth facilitation skills, and positive, patient and enthusiastic attitude combined to make our implementation of Lean a very rewarding experience.
We increased our production by 50% in the first month of implementation and continue to see improvements. Improvements have not only been realized in productivity, but also in quality and morale. We have increased profitability by $2M on flat sales of $10M.
Based on Supply Velocity, Inc.’s integrity and our results, I will continue to refer them to others and utilize them in the future as we expand our company through acquisitions.”
“We are pleased that Essex selected Supply Velocity, Inc. as our Lean Implementation Partner. At one facility, we have saved over $350,000 in work-in-process inventory, reduced throughput time from 2 weeks to minutes and increased inventory turns 3 to 8 times per year. All these results are in just 6 months. Our return of investment is very high.”
“Supply Velocity created visibility within our Assurance Services Group… visibility of performance, Client-service, employee satisfaction and processing time. Using the Supply Velocity System, Audit Report Cycle time is down over 50%. We are using his strategies to create greater Client loyalty.”
“Myerson engaged Supply Velocity, specifically Ray Davis to visit our plant in Trinidad to conduct a two day assessment of our production procedures and provide us feedback on areas for improvement and where applicable, areas for future analysis.Put simply, we got everything we paid for and in addition to more in depth analysis, we got specific tasks that were immediately actionable. Our local management team found Ray to be engaging, highly credible and insightful based on his wide experience. In other words the cultural differences and lack of specific industry knowledge weren’t impediments to things we could implement immediately and on our own. In a nutshell it was money well spent and will pay itself back many times over.”
“In 2015 we began working with Dr. Mitch Millstein to optimize our inventory locations supporting e-commerce and in-store inventory needs. From this work we developed a new omni-channel warehousing and inventory plan that entirely redefined our approach to warehousing, inventory management, store distribution and fulfillment. As a result of the analyses by Dr. Millstein we have begun the move to an improved omni-channel design by reassigning MSAs to new warehouses, greater leveraging of in-store inventories to satisfy e-commerce demands, and exploring acquisitions of new warehousing space in strategic locations. We have already seen an improvement of $300,000 from both more efficient shipping strategies due to better inventory management.”
“Many thanks to all three Supply Velocity presenters. I think you guys took a very difficult time for learning and capitalized on everyone’s time and training needs. I truly hope this helps your business as this was a considerable undertaking on the part of Supply Velocity. Outstanding!!”