Fight waste of resources with Lean Production
The goal of Lean Production is to eliminate waste in production. Overproduction, inventory, transportation routes, wait times, complicated processes, scrap and downtime cause significant extra costs. Resources in the form of materials, time and labor are wasted. We streamline your production processes with Lean Production and increase the productivity of your facility. Especially in the area of mass production the positive effects of process optimization through Lean Production are especially evident.
Identify cost drivers
Production is the heart of operating value creation. To continuously produce at a world class level, important cost drivers must be identified. Potential savings can only be revealed with the right methods, which ensure long-term maximum performance and competitiveness. As leading international management consultants, we know the value of Lean Production:
- avoid mistakes
- eliminate waste
- establish continuous improvement
For us, Lean Production is the elimination of all unnecessary work steps and the significant reduction of processes. This can only be achieved through the highest possible optimization and standardization of all production processes. The greatest possible effect is achieved in Lean Production not in using individual measures, but only through the combination of various management approaches to optimize production.
Lean Production tailored
Therefore, our experienced management consultants choose the exact approaches from our Operational Excellence Toolbox, which are tailored for your situation and company. With personalized Best-of-Best solutions we achieve sustainable results. To achieve these results through Lean Production, we tailor our tested methods to your individual requirements. We combine and expand upon proven methods such as 5S, SMED or TPM with unique innovative concepts developed by our consultants.
Typical results of Lean Production
- Cost reduction through concentration on value creating activities
- Efficiency increase through streamlining of existing processes
- Development of new, efficient production processes
- Reduction in transportation and processing costs
- Quality improvements in processes and products
- Strengthened responsibility of work force
- Establishment of a sustainable culture of improvement
Value creation is the centerpoint
Concentration on the essential in Lean Production means optimum utilization of resources. Core processes and all support processes necessary thereto must be identified and uncoupled from non-value-added activities. Our interdisciplinary consulting teams analyze together with your employees the current state of your production processes and organization. Based on our cross-functional experience, we quickly recognize the starting points for necessary changes using Lean Production. However, there are in every company individual requirement, which must be considered in the preparation of solutions.
Joint evaluation
Here, the experience and close collaboration with your employees is especially important. All results are analyzed, documented and evaluated. They form the basis for the development of improvement plans and optimization scenarios, the impact of which can be evaluated using computer simulations. Using Lean Management all waste of resources should be avoided, for example:
- Using Lean Management all waste of resources should be avoided, for example:
- Overproduction: Inventory costs, unclear sales potential
- High materials on hand, capital commitment, inventory costs
- Transport distances: Long distances increase the possibility of process problems
- Downtime: caused by planning errors, changeover or mistakes decreases productivity
Synergies through combination of methods
Our concepts for process optimization partly consider individual aspects of lean production but achieve additional synergies in combination.
Unplanned downtimes, quality defects and idle times impair overall equipment effectiveness/OEE, while productivity increases can be achieved through targeted countermeasures.
- With our 5S concept, cleanliness, order and discipline are integrated into everyday work for employees. Strengthening personal responsibility also increases employee motivation. This is reinforced by the introduction of continuous improvement processes such as Kaizen or the Continuous Improvement Cycle.
- With improvements in plant and maintenance management through SMED and/or TPM, downtimes and set-up times can be sustainably reduced, and rapid countermeasures can be taken in the event of malfunctions.
- By combining value stream mapping and factory planning, lean processes can be developed as early as the planning phase when developing or reorganizing manufacturing processes.
- The combination of value stream and Kanban reduces inventories of consumables needed for production and production lead times through intelligent management
Communication is indispensable
Crucial for the success of process optimizations through lean production is the early involvement of managers and affected employees. Therefore, as a leading management consultancy, we not only optimize your processes, but also develop a transparent communication strategy with you. Because with the streamlining of processes, the responsibility of the individual employee increases. The new work structures usually increase the motivation of the employees and place new demands on the corporate culture, for example through new quality management approaches and continuous improvement approaches. We therefore not only support you in the conception and implementation of lean production but also work with you to develop personnel development concepts and target agreement systems. Our goal is to build a learning organization in which the knowledge and skills of all employees are considered, and the corporate culture is continuously developed to permanently anchor lean production in the company. If required, we also carry out training or coaching sessions for your employees.
Success factors for lean production
To avoid the principle of wasting resources and to live it consistently, the following aspects should be considered in a holistic lean production concept:
- Plant technology: Production technology should be robust and less susceptible to failure. Low downtimes due to optimized set-up times, production planning geared to the material flow and intelligent production control offer a high level of process reliability.
- Work organization: Flexible deployment of employees in fixed work groups and flat hierarchies increase the motivation and responsibility of the individual. Job rotation, the concentration on value-adding activities and an open error culture strengthen the community and increase productivity.
- Quality management: Rejects, quality defects, loss of production due to poor maintenance have a negative impact on the overall result. Standardized processes and routines for quality assurance and error control serve smooth production. Consistent error management with direct root cause research and, as far as possible, troubleshooting further stabilizes the processes.
- Continuous improvement: Successful quality management is based on the principle “We want to get better – without compromise”. This is only possible in an environment in which mistakes are seen as an opportunity for change and suggestions for improvement, regardless of the hierarchical level, are taken seriously. The employees are experts. This view often requires a lasting change in corporate culture.
- Employees: Top performance is only achievable with qualified and motivated employees. The early involvement of employees in change processes increases their acceptance. New work organization with clear responsibilities and responsibilities as well as targeted qualification measures reduce the susceptibility to errors and increase job satisfaction.
- Availability: All required production materials must be available in sufficient quantity and quality at the right time. At the same time, inventories and transport routes are to be kept to a minimum. This requires intelligent and flexible supply and storage concepts.
- Process orientation: The production process should flow and focus exclusively on value creation. This requires checking all processes for their value-adding share and decoupling them from processes without added value. Process orientation results from the consistent optimization of the aforementioned factors of lean production.
Use dynamic processes
As far as possible, the implementation of the measures should be started immediately in order to use the dynamics of the process without loss of time and motivation and to achieve fast results in lean production through the optimized processes. As an experienced management consultancy, we support you in the piloting and introduction of the agreed measures as well as the training or coaching measures for your employees.
Our commitment to your goals
TARGUS has been growing continuously since our founding. With great motivation, we are committed to your goals at our locations in Ratingen and Detroit and, of course, on site in your company. In doing so, we place high demands on our work and results. Our customers know this and appreciate it.
- Our experience and technical expertise
- cooperation on an equal footing
- our systematic and transparent way of working
- the tailor-made project approach
- our outstanding results
- availability of our consulting teams for advice after the project is over.
Trust our competence, experience and way of working. We help our customers from trade and industry wherever it is necessary – at your headquarters or in the branches, nationally or worldwide. The results prove us right. Achieve excellence together with TARGUS.