What is the essence of Lean Manufacturing?
06 November 2009
Everybody's talking about Lean Manufacturing. But there are so many variations on so many definitions, it's difficult to know what to make of it all. Here are the views of ABB, SICK, OCS and CenFRA, among others.
Lean manufacturing (LM) is clearly an increasingly important part of the food and drink sector. With that in mind, I recently approached several key companies in the food and beverage sector. The responses received were enlightening and offered a varied approach to a simple issue.
``LM is important to us,'' said Peter Wylie, MD of Automated Packaging Systems. ''If you ignore it, you do so at your peril. However, it means different things to different organisations so each organisation will interpret it differently. Lean manufacturing isn't just about the labour element or the material element.''
``We need to embrace it because that's the way the industry is going,'' said Richard Kay, marketing manager of Russell Finex. ''In the food and drink sector we're looking at doing research so we can adjust and adapt to what our customers want, and move in that direction.''
SICK product management Seb Strutt described the imminent setting up of a LM Group. ''In the UK we're setting up a conglomeration of companies offering a forum to present many key brands to the marketplace, from factory floor layout to quality control and logistics. It's just about to get off the ground. The spokesperson will be Mark Dash of Bosch Rexroth.''
When FP spoke to Mark, he described LM as a 'pull' process. The 'pull' part is the customers' order as it pulls the process through the factory. The older alternative is a ‘push’ process where we make stock, irrespective of any customer demands, this produces waste. Lean factories are very visual. You can recognise them immediately because space is so efficiently utilised and products flow in one direction through the factory. Toyota is the firm that developed this process. The whole process is about removing waste wherever it occurs.''
``We've always been lean so it's impossible for us to become leaner,'' said OCS Checkweighers MD, Ingolf Latz. ''We have people in research & development who help us remain competitive and keep us at the highest level. But with regard to administration we've always been lean. We have five people in our purchasing department to handle our purchases. We've extended the range of our products but our parts are ordered. OCS has standard models - each machine is produced individually.''
``LM is vital, particularly in the current climate to remain and become ultimately more competitive,'' said Lafert Electric Motors' Brian Bannister. ''It's important. We do adopt a LM policy. We've had consultants in our factory and for three years we've been seriously involved in working towards LM principles.''
And what of the future? ``There's the danger of going too lean,'' said Brian. ``You can cut costs too drastically because you don't realise what's happening - you can too far. There is a saturation point with respect to LM so you have to be realistic when applying lean principles. A good consultant won't let you exceed that mark.''
CenFRA MD, David Cheeseman, agreed: ``LM is very important. It's actually just a renaming from the old days of 'time in motion' study. It's been around for years but it's just been repackaged. It reduces inefficiencies, maximises resources and minimises costs. In the '60s, time-in-motion analysed how long people spent on specific tasks.''
Easiweigh's Mick Norsworthy, group operations manager said: ``Easiweigh has gone about as far as it can with LM. There's nothing more we can take out - we've already reduced key functions. If we took even one more person out of our process, we wouldn't have a viable business. There are 15 people in our entire operation, so we're pretty lean as it is. If we go much leaner, we'll start to compromise on quality and lead times.''
Ishida Europe, Torsten Giese, marketing manager said: ``Ishida applies LM only when we have an order. We maintain a balance between bespoke and customised solutions and cost efficiency.''
Andrew Hudson, MD of Advanced Engineering pointed out: ``We keep a set amount of core products, and we keep our main stuff on the shelf, so reducing anything further wouldn't be practical.''
One company intimately involved with LM is Matcon. In our September edition, we ran a news piece regarding the 'open day' for the company's innovation centre, which was held in Gloucestershire. The 'open day' followed the conference Matcon held the previous week. It was intended for its key partner companies to see how their equipment has been integrated with Matcon's in order to provide the optimum solution for end-users.
The conference the previous week was Matcon's fourth "Lean Powder Processing" event, which was attended by 44 international delegates from Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, the UK, the United Arab Emirates and the US.
Delegates came from a range of industries, indicating the wide appeal of the subject matter. Industries that were represented included infant and adult nutrition, flavours and fragrances, food ingredients, confectionary, bakery, soups, yoghurt and drinks, dairy, tobacco, animal feed, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
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