[buildyourown]

I'm sure many of you have been through this charade. I just got a mass email from the new Operations Manager at my company. In his best engrish, he outlined his plans to "cut out all the fat and are only left with a lean cut of meat"

I want your best Lean Manufacturing stories for some Friday comic relief.

 

[Westy]

We implemented 'lean' and cut our spare parts inventory by 50%. Our very profitable spare parts business then dropped in half. Can't sell what you don't have.

 

[Da Peach]

Design-Build projects are super lean. Amazing what you can save when you cut out most of the design phase.

 

[jimmydean]

fat = flavor.

Obviously this guy has not eaten enough bacon.

 

[ire]

Design-Build projects are super lean. Amazing what you can save when you cut out most of the design phase.

Designs just take time....we should all go straight to building

 

[teamkranzelbike]

I work for a major industrial power transmission supplier, we sell belts and bearings, and such. We have been dealing with this concept for years. We have contracts with some major US manufacturing companys. Our largest has a stipulation in our contract, that over the course of the 4 year contract we need to reduce their inventory by 20% a year, show on top of that that we saved them 20% in purchases and downtime as a "documented saving" and deliver all their spare parte on time 95% of the time. On top of that our corperate management expects us to increase profit margins, and grow sales to these same customers. Believe me, It is a real pain in the a$$, but we have been doing all of this with the exception of the on time delivery ( which was just wrote into our new contract) for over 12 years. Best thing you can do is not fight it, think outside the box, and fudge as much paperwork as possible.

 

[MMike]

We're heavy into the lean stuff. I'm a trained "Kaizen leader.

We're having huge benefits from it. You guys must be doing it wrong. Lead times are down 60%, inventory is down at least 40%. If you're not rigorous about your kanban levels and all that, it will fall flat.

It's been nothing but goodness for us. There's a reason Toyota is kicking everyone's ass.

Read "The Machine that changed the world"

Lean works WAY WAY WAY better that the "western" method if you do it right. Everyone has to be on board to make it work.

It most definitely is not a gimmick.

 

[wrestlemania]

lean six sigma

 

[Da Peach]

Best thing you can do is not fight it, think outside the box...

We're all thinking outside the box because the box is still in the design approval cycle. But I have a set of 60% complete drawings. I guess I'll proceed and see what happens.

 

[MMike]

I'm serious. What kills it is when people are not on board.

And when you try to implement too much at once...or you don't really know how it REALLY works, you just set it up to fail.

We're implementing it a bit at a time for certain product lines and it's really working. Then the non-believers are won over by the results of previous successes.

Like anything else, if you will it to fail, it will. But that would be dumb. Because it ain't that hard.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

For them what get it right, it works. Most get it wrong. Darwin.

 

[MMike]

Pretty much. And for those who scoff at it, you really can't complain then when the work gets outsourced to India.

The very reason we've adopted it is to be able to keep all of our work in-house.

 

[Da Peach]

Oh, I'm all for it. But I'm not in manufacturing anymore, so what the hell do it know.

Long live lean production kung-fu! Judo chop!

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

Pretty much. And for those who scoff at it, you really can't complain then when the work gets outsourced to India.

The very reason we've adopted it is to be able to keep all of our work in-house.

it does work wonders.
but even then, imho, the implementation of jit means basically outsourcing the inventory... and with gas prices as ridiculous as they are around here we kinda watered it down a bit.....
and then, we cant jit as much as you guys in the states can, when our main suppliers are oceans away and we carry 160k different parts... but it does kick a lot of ass though in the areas we can do it without many restrictions...

i work for mitsui and toyota. i think am turning japanese.

 

[teamkranzelbike]

I totally agree, it does work. In fact you can not escape it let alone fight it . Any company working to keep it's stock holders happy, in this day and age, Must adopt and adapt to it.
basic example..10 Years ago, when I first started with my employer. my first position was to integrate our company into managing one of our customers store room. This customer packed tea into tea bags. They had 47 machines that took all the same parts. There were some critical belts that ran on these machines. The old timers figured since there were 47 machines they needed to stock 47 belts. Well they felt pretty dumb when we had asked them how long had it been since every belt on every machine broke at one time? Right there is the most basic of thinking lean, and it was right in front of them, but no one wanted to see it. the inventory went from 47 belts to 7 after some minor calculations. Now this was an easy one, however with a lot of figuring facts and data, and basic communication between vendors, production managers, and the men on the floor hundreds of thousands of overlooked and unecessary expenses can be avoided.
iT is hard at first, but it gets easier.

 

[Ciaran]

This is why I sell drugs. Can't outsource that to India.

 

[Mike B.]

I have no funny stories just stories of bullheaded, deeply entrenched types that are resistant to change. I come at it from the implementation side and without serious culture change in US manufacturing it will never work here on a large scale. It works beautifully when fully implemented and supported from the top down. It is not a quick process and it is not cheap. Normal ROI horizons do not apply which is usually the number one hangup but when it pays off, it pays big.

 

[MMike]

I bet this thread is not going AT ALL how buildyourown was expecting/hoping......

 

[buildyourown]

I bet this thread is not going AT ALL how buildyourown was expecting/hoping......

Yeah, not exactly. I didn't want to hear a debate. I wanted examples of managers who thought they could do a "lean" conversion in a month and the ridiculous inefficiencies they came up with. They tried this at an aerospace machine shop I worked at. Basically, all they did was paint new lines on the floor for chip bins and part racks and then wondered why the cycle times hadn't gone down.

I'm not involved in this at all. My position is overhead anyways.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

I have no funny stories just stories of bullheaded, deeply entrenched types that are resistant to change. I come at it from the implementation side and without serious culture change in US manufacturing it will never work here on a large scale. It works beautifully when fully implemented and supported from the top down. It is not a quick process and it is not cheap. Normal ROI horizons do not apply which is usually the number one hangup but when it pays off, it pays big.

Not quick, check.
Top down, check.
Chuckleheaded managers, no check at all, failzorz.

 

[wrestlemania]

OK so hear is my story.

I worked for intrawest at one of their Colorado resorts when the head hanche was introduced to the concept. Being a company that owned 9 resorts that they bought means they had 9 different ways of doing the same thing. They saw this as the plat form to implement change. I was selected as a process owner for one of the projects since my operation proved to be best in class from the financial side . The project proved very succesful reducing cycle time in half. It gave us the tools to test our ideas and see success by measuring the results. I enjoyed being able to try my ideas when in the past they would never have been considered. The expectations were high, lots of money was invested so the pressure was on, making me work lots more since now the entire company was watching. It was like getting double the responsibility with no raise. Which when you give an inch they take a yard cause now I was doing all this extra work they expected me to keep it up at he same rate, kinda a slap in the face even adding more as time goes on. So now that the company was at its peak in financial results they sell the company to an investment company who axes the program along with many jobs to make it more lean I guess. I left before that happened and have been riding bikes since. Yeehaaa

 

[$tinkle]

my company thought agile meant:
- having an arbitrary product backlog the customer could at any time add to without a change order
- having the roles of scrum master & product owner, but with heavy overlap (no sharp lines)
- charted burn rate & focus factor
- associated story points to tasks/user stories
- implemented this as a compressed waterfall

my company will be out of business by end of month

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

since my first post in this thread, i have switched areas within the same company.
went from working on after sales in passenger cars, to after sales in material handling machinery.

the "idea" of lean for my boss (which is different from the company ethos) is:
- 95% of spares imported by air freight, even oil filters. at 35% of FOB cost, instead of 8% of FOB for sea freight.
- new units in stock limited to 1.5 months/stock. lead time for units, 4-6 months. cant sell what you dont have.
- spare parts stock is under 3 months/stock. lead time for spares (air) is usually 20 days (due to consoildation). you do the math. service ratio is ridiculously low.

some people confuse "lean" with "cheap ass ironfist". the "pull" in the toyota production system is far too often confused with "spontaneous market demand, regardless of lack of marketing plan".

 

[jdcamb]

I was on board until they stopped giving away free donuts... Now I sabotage the process every step of the way. I find by asking the most ridiculous questions I can derail any meeting long enough, that I can get my way on any discussion of changing a process. I hate change for sake of placating anyone's ego other then mine. If you brought Pumpkin Muffins or Apple Fritters I will listen to your ideas. But that's the thing. Eventually you run out and so does my attention. Oh yeah If I get up and go to the bathroom, don't say anything important until I get back. That's just rude and I will be forced to fart and that will clear the room so that nobody will hear what you may have to say....