Lean Manufacturing Part 1

I spent the morning with Raquel – a production engineering student who has worked here for one year. She gave me a tour of the shopfloor, focussing on the lean aspects.  Safe to say, I was very impressed. While the machines aren’t the newest or the most capable, the lean systems are incredible. Not only is a textbook infrastructure in place, it seems to be being properly utilised; modelled heavily on the Toyota Production System (TPS), true pull systems are used throughout the factory with visual management as a key element of the system. They use KPIs that I have only ever seen described in textbooks (which are ALL updated on a daily basis…) and the operators all understand what they mean. The use of primary colours to identify zones and important items makes it look more like a Teletubbies set than a factory. They have supermarkets with dedicated delivery trucks to take raw material and WIP to the cells; shared toolboxes at the end of each cell and, perhaps the most visually effective, “defect mats”. These look something like the sketch below (unfortunately I’m not allowed to take my camera onto the shopfloor, so you’ll have to put up with my diagrams!):

Raquel said that some of the shopfloor think that lean is just corporate nonsense, but for the large part, I think they’ve achieved a successful buy-in. Everyone does exercises in the mornings, there’s an HSBC branch on the shopfloor (?!) and there’s a definite feeling of employee satisfaction. (And did I mention, there was a musician playing guitar in the canteen? How lovely!)

However, despite this rosy picture that I am painting, the factory is far from perfect. The figures on the KPI boards for things such as On-time Delivery and Defect rates were fairly erratic. I think a closer inspection may be required. Whilst much of the shopfloor is a textbook example of how to implement lean systems, other parts of it are a textbook example of what happens when it is only implemented in certain areas of the supply chain.

Anyway, I’m writing this whilst sat in little café eating chocolate torte and enjoying the sunshine. It’s a hard life.

Olá Brasil!

As part of my Ignite project, I’m looking at Sustainable Manufacturing; in particular, I’m really interested in how it fits into the Corporate Social Responsibility agendas of multinational businesses, especially in developing economies.

CSR is a bit of controversial topic to say the least – is it driven by a genuine concern for the wellbeing of our society or is it just PR spin? Whatever the motives may be, I see sustainable manufacturing as a cornerstone for a strong CSR policy, and I don’t think there’s any way that it could be described as a publicity stunt. To make a process “lean and green” requires commitment and investment from all levels of a company, it demands continuous review and it will often result in a cultural shift within the organisation; this may be a result of the recognition that, in a marketplace with dwindling resoures, more efficient, sustainable processes are required in order for a company to remain a competitive player. In other words, I think there is too much at risk for this to be a mere marketing tool.

My own experience of sustainable manufacturing in the UK is, to be honest, pretty poor. I’ve yet to see a company where I’ve thought “Wow”. There’s a lot of talk but I always feel it’s just hot air.

 So, to see if I can find some really good examples, I’ve headed out to Brazil where I’ll be working with one of the world’s leading manufacturing companies, who produce key components for almost all of the major automotive brands such as Audi, Volkswagon, Fiat and Toyota. They are renowned for their environmental policies and for their commitment to sustainable manufacturing. I’ll also be visiting other factories in southern Brasil to give me the chance to compare strategies and best practice.

I’m not overly sure what the outcome of this project will be but, ultimately, I want to gain a better understanding of sustainable manufacturing than I could from a textbook.