Good news when your manufacturing line grows with new products, but the challenge is how to quickly ramp up in your existing footprint. Building on their foundations of Lean/ continuous improvement, the Palram Americas Team was up to that challenge! They flowed the processes and analyzed the current state. Distance traveled, information flow and safety were all considered. A future state vision emerged that reduced travel time of material, grouped product families together, and dramatically improved material flow. That plan for every part (PFEP) became the foundation for the execution of their future state warehouse. What were the keys to their success? Employee engagement, safety considerations, the quick application of lean tools and methods as well as a trained, experienced team lead.
Many thanks to the Palram Team for hosting our Virtual Lean Peer Group and sharing this important story on flexibility and Kaizen!
The Go-Lean-Six Virtual Peer Group also discussed Kanban and Inventory Flow. Mike Roth, Consultant with Go-Lean-Six provided training on Kanban tools that echoed the lessons learned from Palram; have a plan for every part (PFEP) limit WIP, make it visual, create feedback loops and eliminate bottlenecks! Next month Go-Lean-Six will present information on Lean Daily Management and Creating Metrics.
The Go-Lean-Six Peer Group team members continue to share their lessons learned and improvements while meeting the challenges of COVID. For example, Clarks Distribution Center continues to innovate their distribution process. GAI-Tronics has extended their Kaizen efforts to include Kanban with maintenance items while ECORE is focusing on data capture on the manufacturing floor.
Next month, RHI Magnesita will be hosting our Virtual Lean Peer Group.
For more information, contact us at info@Go-Lean-Six.com