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News Release from: The Manufacturing Institute
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 04 March 2008
Keep 'lean' manufacturing improvement
continuous
Having 'skilled lean champions' who can share their knowledge, engage employee participation and spread the lean culture is the way of maintaining 'lean' business improvement.
The Manufacturing Institute said that many businesses start down the lean business improvement route but 90% fail to complete the course However, the Institute is offering a 'short, sharp solution' to make 'lean' practices continue and improve
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 28 Jul 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Head of training and education for The Manufacturing Institute, Mike Niblett, said: "After the initial buzz of enthusiasm for lean the momentum often fizzles out with many failing to appreciate that it is an ongoing process of continuous improvement.
The sure-fire way of keeping business improvement going is to have skilled lean champions within the business who can share their knowledge, engage employee participation and spread the lean culture".
The Manufacturing Institute said that its Accelerated Route to Lean Manufacturing programme has provided hundreds of UK manufacturers with a rapid path to implementing and sustaining lean business improvement.
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Delegates learn the tools and techniques from high achieving lean manufacturing practitioners - applying their knowledge to tackling challenges and changing the culture at their own factory.
Among those benefiting from the programme is Mike Hart, business improvement manager for Spirax Sarco in Cheltenham.
Hart, who was then operations manager, sent a member of his team on the course and was so impressed that he enrolled himself.
He went on to be awarded a Lean Fellowship to The Manufacturing Institute for a work-based project that has had a significant effect on the site's performance.
"Using knowledge I had gained through the training programme and with ongoing support from tutors, I used the project as an opportunity to introduce a single piece pulled flow system to one line on the site," said Hart.
"The effects were dramatic both in terms of the improvements made and in the inordinate number of problems that were exposed as needing action".
He added: "We now have record levels of delivery performance to our customers, with regular 100% stock availability and lead times reduced from an average of 5.5 days to a guaranteed 3h 15 min.
We're not choking up the system with batches anymore and the inventory we require has been slashed".
Hart said: There is now an embedded culture of continuous improvement, achieved primarily by forming a value stream-aligned team.
Identification of the value stream and making it 'flow' was one of the techniques covered in the training.
The two lines now have a value stream manager to whom the planners, buyer, design engineer, production engineer, supervisors and production manager all report as one team working to the same objectives".
* About Spirax-Sarco - Spirax-Sarco partners its customers and specifiers to improve the performance of its plant and processes, with boiler control, energy recovery, humidification and compressed air products among its wide range.
The company, with manufacturing roots going back almost 100 years, has a worldwide customer base across many industry sectors.
Hart chose the Manufacturing Institute course despite the 290-mile round trip from Cheltenham to Manchester to attend the one-day modules over a 12 week period.
"I have always been a passionate believer in continuous improvement and wanted to formalise the introduction of lean within the company.
When I looked around for the best course available, this was definitely the one," he said.
He concluded: "Since completing the course we have continued working with the Manufacturing Institute and its improvement practitioners have run two-day courses here to put all of our senior and middle managers through lean leadership training.".
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