Lean Operations

"Lean" is a Western adaptation of the Toyota Production System. Toyota started developing its production system in the late 1940's and this became "lean thinking" in the west in the early 1990's.

Becoming lean therefore means looking at your operations and asking yourself - Where is the waste? Why is this waste occurring? How can we eliminate the waste from our system? How can we meet and exceed customer expectations? How do we maximize value for our customers? How do we form a partnership with the workforce to deliver value to our customers?

Studies in one UK manufacturing company revealed that only 5% of the efforts are linked to value-added customer activities; 45% of the efforts are of the non-value added type and 50% of the activities are wasted efforts. The latter can mean anything from unnecessary movements to search for raw materials, to inefficient procedures from having the wrong information. How many companies can afford to pour 50% of their efforts down the drain day after day? Yet the UK aerospace industry reported that only 5% of its activities were value-adding in 2002.

"Lean" offers the opportunity to recapture that waste by managing the way activities and information flow across the workplace, by spotting the bottlenecks that causes delays; and by planning work such that processes are optimised to meet customer demands. Maximise value-adding activities in the overall business process. Optimise the support activities that enable value. Minimise and ultimately eliminate all wasted activities.

Lean Operations from Greenfile Developments
The approach we take towards achieving lean operations is team-based. We can help you create an environment where innovations flourish.

We help teams spot problems and develop solutions. We provide simple but effective tools to analyse problems and checklists to help the teams work better. We also explore the causes of wastes and how to eliminate the mistakes that lead to waste. We coach and facilitate your teams in forming partnerships with your customers and suppliers.

We then look at the results you want and the barriers that are in the way and we will work with you to examine your answers to these questions:

"What do you want your teams to do that they are not currently doing?"

and

"Why are they not doing it currently?"

Our lean programmes start with building the right attitude in your teams- a "Can Do" approach towards waste problems in the workplace. Our initial activities are always designed to achieve rapid gains, both to build confidence in your teams and to provide a foundation for further activities.

Contact us to find out how Greenfile Developments' approach to Lean Operations can reduce waste and cut costs at your organisation.