Getting Lean Is Easy With NJMEP's Lean Manufacturing Tools and Training

With NJMEP’s expertise and guidance, getting Lean is an eye opening experience that opens doors to new opportunities for growth and higher profits never thought possible. At NJMEP, our Lean Manufacturing Principles, Lean Strategies for Office, and training systems have successfully enabled NJ manufacturers to increase their profits since 1996. A non-profit organization, NJMEP is part of a network that links manufacturers to national and regional resources and utilizes the talent within NJ universities, as well as public and private sector companies. And, unlike consulting firms, our services are partly funded by both the federal and state governments, making Lean a cost-effective necessity. You can’t afford not to get Lean with NJMEP!

The Lean Process

The process of implementing Lean is an eye-opening experience. Lean Manufacturing experts guide you through four stages: assessment, solution design, implementation and continuous improvement. The Lean process provides you with tools and training—skills and knowledge, to grow your business.

Stage One

Implementing Lean begins with a complete assessment of your plant—Enterprise Diagnostic, to determine where Lean will make an impact. A 2-3 hour meeting explaining where you will benefit from NJMEP’s Lean Manufacturing principles, training, and tools follows the assessment. Key processes within your business are reviewed and opportunities for improvement are identified.

Manufacturing Lead Time
WIP
Distance Traveled
Square Footage Utilized
Productivity
Downtime
Change-over/Set-Up
Standardized Work
Other, general observations

Stage Two

Stage two generates a blueprint for continuous business process improvement within your manufacturing processes. Here, we create maps providing direction toward a common goal. We train your employees to “think Lean.” A value stream map is developed to outline the material and information flow of your product or process from raw materials, through manufacturing processes, to finished product. Next a future-state map is developed to guide you toward Lean Manufacturing principals that streamline work processes, reducing lead times and operating costs.

Benefits of Value Stream Mapping

“See the flow” of your value stream and wastes in the flow
View all products from a system perspective
Draw both material and information flows of your value stream
Draw a blueprint for Lean transformation - the Future State Map
Prioritize activities needed to achieve the Future State

Stage Three

Stage three uses a model line to demonstrate the success of Lean Manufacturing principals when implemented. We focus on the following:

Accelerate Product & Service Flow - Achieve and Sustain Clean, Safe, and Organized Workplaces
Increase Flexibility – Reduce Set Up Times and Improve Production Flow
Slash Lead Times and Increase Productivity by improving product flow
Improve Your Cash Flow, Throughput and Competitive Position
Boost Capacity and Improve Quality by Increasing Your Equipment’s Life Expectancy
Involve Your Workforce in the Pursuit of Eliminating Wastes

A phased roll-out of the program includes additional training, mentoring, facilitation, knowledge transfer, and joint implementation with your company’s team.

Methodologies Explored During Phase 3 are 5S, Kanban, Kaizen, and Six Sigma

5S – Find what you need, when you need it
The 5S program is a lean concept that focuses on a series of activities designed to improve workplace organization and standardization. This system makes it faster and easier to find the parts and tools required to perform a task. 5S also helps employees develop a clear understanding how work is to be performed and it instills ownership in the process. From a Lean management perspective, 5S encourages respect for people; On the shop floor it identifies problems quickly. If something is missing, why?

These activities include:

Sort through all tools and materials and remove unneeded items
Set in order remaining items and arrange them in a manner that promotes work flow
Shine or clean everything to make organization easier, and use cleaning as inspection
Standardize the first 3 S’s by implementing visual displays and controls making jobs easier to perform
Sustain the gains of the previous “S’s” through self-discipline, training, communication, and total employee involvement

Benefits of NJMEP’s Lean 5S Training:

Improve quality
Achieve work standardization
Decrease changeover time
Improve safety
Reduce storage costs
Reduce cycle time
Reduce machine down time
Boost employee morale as well as work environment

The Rewards Of Becoming—And Remaining—Lean

Kanban/Pull Production Systems – Make products only when your customers demand them

Lean Manufacturing is all about meeting and exceeding your customer’s needs. With Kanban, production utilizes a signaling system that triggers the action to pull needed items. Instead of anticipating need via demand forecasting (“push”), Kanban determines the supply, or production in relation to actual customer demand and consumption.

Kanban tells you…

What parts to manufacture
When to start manufacturing
When to stop manufacturing
How many to manufacture
Where to deliver them to

Benefits of NJMEP’s Kanban System:

Reduce overall inventory
Reduce Work-In-Process
Reduce order turnaround time
Increase customer satisfaction
Improve cash flow

Kaizen Blitz – Make changes to your process…FAST!

Kaizen principles are based on a continuous business process improvement methodology that combines Lean Manufacturing Tools such as the 5S’s of Workplace Organization and Standardization, Work Cells, Pull/Kanban, Set-up Reduction, and Line Balancing. Each tool incorporates team empowerment, brainstorming, and problem solving to rapidly make improvements to a specific product or portions of your processes and remove waste. “Blitz” refers to lightening fast. New process improvements from a Kaizen Blitz are identified in real-time and implementation is generally less than one week.

Kaizen principals incorporate making changes and monitoring results, then adjusting. Large-scale pre-planning and extensive project scheduling are replaced by smaller experiments, which can be rapidly adapted as new improvements are suggested. This type of continuous renewal is compounded from several productivity improvements.

Effective Use of Kaizen Principals:

Consider the process and the results (not results-only) so that actions to achieve effects are surfaced.
Systemic thinking of the whole process and not just that immediately in view (i.e. big picture, not solely the narrow view) in order to avoid creating problems elsewhere in the process.
Learning, non-judgmental, non-blaming (blaming is wasteful) approach and intent will allow the re-examination of the assumptions that resulted in the current process.

Six Sigma – Improve customer satisfaction and profitability by reducing, and eliminating defects.

Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven, time-tested methodology for eliminating defects and improving customer satisfaction. In Six Sigma’s statistical thinking paradigm:

Everything is a process
All processes have inherent variability
Data is used to understand the variability and drive process improvement decisions

Six Sigma is a measurement based strategy for process improvement and variation reduction that utilizes DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) as a road map to successful implementation.

Define process improvement goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy.
Measure key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data.
Analyze the data to verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered.
Improve or optimize the process based upon data analysis using techniques like Design of Experiments.
Control to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before they result in defects. Set up pilot runs to establish process capability, move on to production, set up control mechanisms and continuously monitor the process

Stage Four

Stage four teaches you how to keep the momentum alive, moving your company to a state of continuous renewal and growth. We’ll ensure that you are trained, have the right tools, and are confident enough to deploy the various principals and methodologies of success on your own.

Why work with NJMEP?

Getting Lean is an enlightening experience that opens doors to new opportunities for growth and higher profits. The NJMEP programs Lean Manufacturing Principles, Lean Strategies for Office, and training systems have assisted NJ manufacturers streamline their operations and increase profits. NJMEP, a not-for-profit, is an affiliate of the NIST/MEP network. The MEP organization is a resource for manufacturers linking them to national, regional, and local resources both in the public and private sector and to funding. Unlike consulting firms, our services are supported by federal funding, your tax dollars, making our services a cost-effective solution for implementing Lean.Whether Lean principals are new to your organization, or you are seeking assistance in implementing Lean, NJMEP can transform the way you do business by becoming more productive, profitable and globally competitive.

Lean is not a destination, but rather a journey. Our expertise and proven methodologies will get you there. Click here, or call us at (973) 998-9801.