LEAN 6
INNOVATIONS
Leveraging innovation
concepts with Lean 6 Sigma Methods !
Lean
Six Sigma Operational Excellence
Lean 6
Innovations goes beyond many other contract engineering and consulting firms by
providing both management consulting and training as
well as contract performance of the Lean Six Sigma Operational excellence
services identified below. Whether you
need a training class to improve your internal operations, extra capacity in
your quality areas, or a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt to get that critical
project accomplished, we can custom tailor our services to your needs. Click on the specific area of interest below
for more information.
Utilizing specific lean
techniques, improvements can be made in your operating processes which will
increase capacity, decrease lead times, and reduce your operating cost with
little or no out of pocket expsenses ! Specific
techniques employed include:
·
Value Stream Mapping and Process Flow Improvements – Analysis of your process and
application of the correct process flow improvement techniques, such as inventory pull systems, process balancing, and other process flow improvement techniques can have dramatic impacts on
inventory reduction and free up significant amounts of working capital while
also reducing leadtimes and increasing throughput of
the process !
·
Four Step Rapid Setup Method (also
known as SMED – Single Minute Exchange of Dies) – if process changeovers are a part of
your business environment, you need to make sure the productive time lost to
these changeovers is minimized as much as possible. Through application of these techniques we
can reduce this productivity loss considerably.
·
Visual Process Controls – Implementation of visual process
controls typically improves material flow, eliminates process errors, and reduces
other waste due to lack of information.
Through implementation of visual process controls your employees are
empowered with the information they need to make the correct decisions on a
continuous basis to keep your operation running smoothly.
·
Mistake Proofing (also known as
Poke-Yoke) –
mistake proofing techniques are an excellent tool for achieving reduction of
defects and customer complaints, increasing customer satisfaction, and reduction of
scrap. They can vary from simple process
reorganization to more complex equipment design modifications, and in all cases
deliver the benefits of eliminating mistakes before they occur.
·
5 S Organizational improvements –
through these organizational and housekeeping improvement techniques your organization can implement
improvements that will allow you to get more done with less time, personnel,
and inventory and bring those savings directly to the bottom line
!
·
Complexity Reduction – Many companies make a large number of
extremely similar products with minor differences between each one. These minor differences can drive complexity
throughout your operations, also driving increased cost, lead times, and
reducing profits. A relatively new area
of Lean techniques, the techniques of complexity reduction help to identify
this complexity and consolidate the complexity of product lines and operations
in a way that preserves revenue while reducing cost and increasing profits.
Six Sigma techniques including advanced statistical tools and structured problem solving provide the methodology and systems needed to analyze your process variation, understand the root causes, and apply corrective actions - dramatically improving quality and reducing cost !
·
Analysis of Variation (ANOVA) – Advanced statistical analysis of variation will provide insights in to patterns and causes, including which factors have significant impact on your process and where the root cause of your process variation occur.
·
Statistical Process Control and Process Capability Measurements Continuous manufacturing as well as discrete manufacturing processes can benefit from applying statistical process control techniques and process capability measurements. Additionally, every day more and more customers are requiring demonstration that you operate with a statistical process control system and achieve a specific process capability through a number of standardized measurements. Let us help you get your manufacturing process under control and hit those increasingly stringent process capability targets !
·
Measurement Systems Analysis – Accurate, bias free data is essential to understanding your process. The first step in the analysis of any process is validating the measurement system to make sure that the measurement system possesses adequate accuracy, repeatability, reproducibility, and discrimination.
·
Design of Experiments (DOE) –
Design of experiments is a proven technique for dramatically improving the ability of experiments to discriminate the relevance of changes and drastically reduce the amount and cost of experiments necessary to identify root causes and validate implemented improvements!
·
Hypothesis Testing – Critical to analysis of any process or improvement, is the ability to determine if the results observed where caused by the changes made, or were merely just normal process variation. Hypothesis testing techniques answer this question with the appropriate, specifically defined level of confidence, whether that be 80% or 99.9%.
Through years of experience managing world class maintenance
organizations we can show you how to achieve higher production capacity through
reduced downtime and reduce maintenance cost through:
·
Preventative and Predictive Maintenance Systems – Implement predictive maintenance to
get the most from your maintenance expenditures and coordinate with your
production scheduling. Utilize the most advanced preventative maintenance
techniques that not only prevent unplanned shutdowns, but also actually prevent
equipment wear, deterioration, and maintenance expense.
Through extensive experience with multiple aspects of quality
systems we can help you through design, monitoring, and auditing of your
quality systems to achieve the desired levels of operational efficiency and
achieve and maintain your industry specific quality control certifications,
with particular specialty in the following specific quality system areas:
·
Design Control – If your industry quality system
certification system requires a design control element, such as ISO9002 or
QS9000, our experience in designing and operating systems that pass audits with
no corrective actions can help you achieve your goals !
·
Maintenance Management Systems– Many industry quality certification systems
such as QS9000 require extensive maintenance management systems, including
preventative maintenance systems, predictive maintenance, and critical
equipment spare part systems. Our
extensive experience in setting up these systems and passing these tough audits
can be applied to your operations readily !
·
Measurement Systems Analysis – One of the keys to successful Lean
Six Sigma initiatives and continuous improvements in your operations is good,
solid, data that can be used for analysis.
Measurement systems analysis, including gage repeatability and
reproducibility, is critical to assuring the production of accurate data,
whether it is used for improvement initiatives or operating quality
assurance. We can apply our years of
experience in high precision design and manufacturing environments to your
measurement systems via comprehensive analysis/audit of your systems with solid
improvement actions if necessary.
·
Supplier Quality Assurance/Improvement
Programs –
Virtually all manufacturers subcontract some portion of their manufacturing
process, whether it be the production of the raw
materials or other inputs to their process, or even the final production and
shipping directly to the customer.
Through experience with world class supplier quality assurance and
improvement programs we can show you how to:
·
Improve your OE by improving the supplier inputs to your
process!
·
Reduce customer complaints and improve customer satisfaction!
·
Lower your cost of purchased components and services on a
continuous basis !
All of this is can be very effectively achieved through
implementation of a formal supplier quality improvement/assurance program. Let us show you how !
Throughout implementation of these lean six sigma techniques, we will also
bring our two summary lean six sigma management techniques to all plans and actions, that
being:
·
The voice of the customer - we bring our considerable expertise in analyzing the voice of the customer to make sure the improvements implemented add value to your organization from your customers
perspective.
·
Structured decision making process – options for action are often
complex, and it is important to use a structured decision making process to
help make the most effective decisions.
back to the top of this section
© 2008 Lean 6 Innovations, LLC All rights reserved.
Lean/Waste Reduction (click for more)