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Upcoming Events
February 9th 2012 07:30 am
- Making Data-Driven Choices
February 14th 2012 01:00 pm
- Optimizing Your Product Development Process
February 15th 2012 08:30 am
- Engaging Your Employees
February 16th 2012 12:30 pm
- Design for Manufacturability & Tour Pentair
February 21st 2012 01:00 pm
- Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
February 22nd 2012 01:00 pm
- Benefiting from Product Modularity
February 23rd 2012 08:00 am
- Maximizing Throughput Velocity with TOC
February 29th 2012 08:30 am
- Leading Down New Paths
February 29th 2012 08:30 am
- Persuasive Coaching & Influencing
March 1st 2012 01:00 pm
- Measuring the Right Things
Article Index
Greatest OpportunitiesAuthor Unknown The future of any enterprise will depend on the skills, knowledge, and abilities that the employees bring to work each day. To progress toward lean management must treat employees as "Human fixed assets". A fixed asset appreciates in value over time. |
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Leading in LeanArticle by: Manufacturers Alliance This issue highlights the Minnesota location of lean leader Mentor Corporation, a global manufacturer of medical devices headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. The Minnesota plant specializes in urologic products and has focussed on lean initiatives for four years. Providing the content for this article are General Manager Tim Palmer and Manufacturing Manager Rick Uhlemann, with 8 and 9 years in the company, respectively. |
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Book Reviews on Lean OfficeArticle by: John Hehre Tapping, Don, and Tom Shuker. Value Stream Management for the Lean Office. New York, NY: Productivity Press, 2003.Keyte, Beau, and Drew Locher. The Complete Lean Enterprise: Value Stream Mapping for Administrative and Office Processes. New York, NY: Productivity Press, 2004. |
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Recent Supreme Court Decision Highlights Employee ComplaintsArticle by: Gregory Peters The US Supreme Court recently held that an employer's use of the term "boy" when referring to an African-American employee can be sufficient evidence of discrimination to sustain a judgment against an employer. The Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc, decision overruled an Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision that had determined that the use of "boy" was discriminatory only when modified by a racial classification such as "white" or "black." |
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Minnesota Economic Condition Article by: Manufacturers Alliance For the month of March 2006, reported April 3, 2006. For the fourth straight month, Minnesota's business conditions index increased. |
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Greatest Opportunities |
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The future of any enterprise will depend on the skills, knowledge, and abilities that the employees bring to work each day. To progress toward lean management must treat employees as "Human fixed assets". A fixed asset appreciates in value over time. Unlike equipment that loses value every day the experience, training, and technical expertise of your employee's increases in value. Manufacturers today compete for market share, time to market, and a cluster of other metrics that are very important for survival. Companies are also involved in another very important race called knowledge transfer. Lean Enterprise fosters a company culture in which all employees continually improve their skills and knowledge. True lean is only achieved when the organization is learning everyday and the learning opportunities travel throughout the workforce. Providing lean training to all employees including those that English is their second language makes sense. When employees are truly empowered improvements and ideas come naturally from the people who are most familiar with the processes. For any company to be successful the mentality of management push; where management orders or pushes improvement activities on employees must change to team member pull; where motivated employees pull resources and training they need to improve their value streams. A lean enterprise consists of management, planners, supervisors and quality. The decisions these people make everyday affect the flow of information and material. They are the backbone for lean implementation. The structure that supports the "Living Value Stream" are the people on the shop floor. They are the "organs" for lean performing the vital functions that sustain and improve the system. Gyrus Medical realized the need to become a learning enterprise. One where individuals, teams, and the enterprise are continually learning and sharing in the development, transfer, and use of knowledge and skills to produce continual improvement. At the same time the company was creating a dynamic competitive advantage. Beginning in 2002 the company started to invest heavily in education. Workshops and training on ESL, workplace skills were some of the first attempts to provide our entire workforce with opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills. By providing learning activities we have empowered our employees to improve their work stations, production lines, and facility. The results speak for themselves:
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Leading in Lean |
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This issue highlights the Minnesota location of lean leader Mentor Corporation, a global manufacturer of medical devices headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. The Minnesota plant specializes in urologic products and has focussed on lean initiatives for four years. Providing the content for this article are General Manager Tim Palmer and Manufacturing Manager Rick Uhlemann, with 8 and 9 years in the company, respectively. We started our lean journey in 2002 with a disciplined problem-solving process. When there is a longstanding problem to be solved, we use a process called Team Oriented Problem Solving (TOPS) that was developed by the Ford Motor company. The process requires a cross-functional team that includes one "outsider" and emphasizes problem definition, 5S discipline, and system improvements. Over the past few years, we have run about 20 teams and have been able to document over $600,000 in savings as well as many quality improvements. In 2005, we started to change the TOPS approach to a Kaizen approach. This approach is more proactive, seeking to make improvements in areas where there is not a long-standing problem. We have focused on improving process uptime and have so far been able to increase uptime on our high-volume packaging lines as well as our extrusion line. We also implemented an employee suggestion program in 2005 and are receiving about 25 suggestions per month. To date we have documented $60,000 in savings and have another $260,000 in process. A key aspect of our lean journey has been education. All manufacturing management (Rick Uhlemann, supervisors, and one planner) are attending classes to achieve Lean Practitioner Certification. We have several projects underway to apply the principles discussed in class. For example, based on value stream analysis, we implemented kanban-based flow in two manufacturing areas and were able to reduce workspace by 25% and WIP by 50% and improve our success to manufacture the correct product mix by 40%. One challenge is getting from our current ERP/MRPII environment to a continuous flow/kanban environment. We are utilizing demand flow technology, a mathematically based approach, to implement lean manufacturing. We are currently analyzing one of our major product lines to implement demand flow technology with the assistance of a consultant company, JCIT of Denver, Colorado. We plan to go live in July, and we expect to save several hundred thousand dollars per year due to reduced material moves, fewer transactions, and improved quality. To track and communicate our manufacturing status, we have implemented a management operating system so that process performance feedback is available to the associates throughout the day. We also communicate progress toward goals, customer complaints, and any manufacturing issues on a daily basis during shift startup meetings. Issues that arise can also be elevated to a daily, cross-functional, "brand team" meeting. This is a 10 to 15 minute morning standup meeting to discuss progress, plans, and issues. One of the most successful outcomes of our lean efforts to date is the change in our culture. We have become an organization that is very good at communication, problem solving, continuous improvement, and working together. Our short, daily meetings have become a way of life and help to keep us focused as we continue on our journey of improvement.  Mentor Corporation www.mentorcorp.com 1499 W. River Rd. N., Minneapolis 612-588-4685
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Book Reviews on Lean Office |
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Tapping, Don, and Tom Shuker. Value Stream Management for the Lean Office. New York, NY: Productivity Press, 2003.Keyte, Beau, and Drew Locher. The Complete Lean Enterprise: Value Stream Mapping for Administrative and Office Processes. New York, NY: Productivity Press, 2004. There are many definitions of lean manufacturing. In the most fundamental view, lean focuses on two things: faster throughput and the elimination of waste. Offices are in no way immune to waste, but it is less obvious there than on the production floor, and in some cases it is invisible. If an expense report has a mistake, it goes back to the originator in the interoffice mail with a sticky note. Or it sits in accounts payable until someone comes looking for a check. Incorrectly applied costs from purchase orders are lost in larger cost totals. It takes days, even weeks, for the accounting department to close the books. Only when customer orders are held up, invoices are sent out incorrectly (and caught by the recipient), or perhaps payroll is incorrect are errors detected and corrected. Even then, they may not be considered waste. Even less obvious is the length of time processes take and the amount of extra, unnecessary, or unused work performed. This month, we look at two books on streamlining the office using the tools from the lean manufacturing toolset. Both books spend a fair amount of time on mapping the current state of administrative processes and developing the future state. The concept of takt time is applied to repetitive work in the office, using, for example, the customer order process. The notion of measures is suggested. Despite these similarities, however, the two are quite different. Value Stream Management for the Lean Office This book provides a more basic aproach. The first three chapters cover setting up the project and convincing the organization that the project is worthwhile and necessary. There is a fair amount of structure provided in terms of forms and charts. These forms, along with an assessment tool, are also provided in .pdf format on a CD included with the book. The focus is clearly on the mechanics of lean-moving paperwork through the organization faster. The Complete Lean Enterprise THis book provides significantly more depth in some key areas. The discussion of waste in the office is thorough and relates well to the familiar seven or eight types of waste approach used in production settings. A variety of metrics are used throughout the book to illustrate the need to address problems in addition to simply improving flow. Many administrative functions are discussed in detail. Specific suggestions for areas and methods of improvement are examined. The choice of which book to use depends on the audience. The first book provides a basic approach and includes a lot of structure. The second book assumes some prior knowledge of lean concepts and provides much more depth as a result. The focus is much less on mechanics than on understanding the underlying issues and ways to solve them. The first book would be a good choice for team members new to lean. The second would be good for team leaders and managers.
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Recent Supreme Court Decision Highlights Employee Complaints |
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The US Supreme Court recently held that an employer's use of the term "boy" when referring to an African-American employee can be sufficient evidence of discrimination to sustain a judgment against an employer. The Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc, decision overruled an Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision that had determined that the use of "boy" was discriminatory only when modified by a racial classification such as "white" or "black." The Court found that although a term such as "boy" will not always provide evidence of racial animus, the term, standing alone, is not always benign. The Court noted that the speaker's intent may depend on other factors such as tone of voice, context, inflection, local custom, and historical usage of the term at issue. Ash is a helpful guide to practical employer action. Ash clearly shows that all complaints should be treated seriously and promptly investigated. If they are not handled properly at the outset, all complaints-no matter how apparently innocent on the surface-can be costly. When investigating a complaint, the employer should focus on the context of all allegations to determine intent. For example, if the term "boy" was used by a middle-aged person toward a 20-something colleague, the phrase may lack racial animus. On the other hand, if the person uses the phrase only in reference to African-Americans, it may be more likely to be racially motivated. In short, none of us acts or speaks in a vacuum. A good investigator should be able to determine the context of the allegations and then draw appropriate conclusions.
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Minnesota Economic Condition |
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For the month of March 2006, reported April 3, 2006. For the fourth straight month, Minnesota's business conditions index increased. The index climbed to 60.9 from February's robust 59.6. Components of the overall index for March were: new orders at 63.6, production at 67.0, delivery lead time at 52.7, inventories at 57.3 and employment at 57.3. "Manufacturers across Minnesota reported stronger business conditions for the month. Even food processors who have experienced slow growth in the past experienced upturns for March. On the other hand, telecommunications firms described downturns in business activity," said Goss. Average yearly job growth-last 12 months = 1.3 percent; since the survey began in 1994 = 1.6 percent.
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