Implementation

Part One: Awareness Training

Consists of Lean Manufacturing Simulations. These are one-day workshops in which attendees will work on a simulated factory floor in several intensive production rounds while producing an actual product. They will be able
to see, feel and measure the effects as different lean manufacturing principles are incorporated into the “factory”.

The goal of the simulation is to introduce the concept of value as determined by the customer. The flow of material, how waste impedes this flow and methods to eliminate this waste. Allowing the customer to pull the product through
production rather than having manufacturing push it out to the customer. The hope is that once the employee is exposed to these ideas and truly understands the Lean concepts, they will be more open and accepting of these ideas
during the training stage of the implementation.

A typical company will need 3 ~ 6 simulations depending on the size of the company. Each simulation will train approximately 30 employees.

Part Two: Strategy and Management Commitment

Prior to beginning any in house training, there needs to be a meeting with the management of the company. This management team will become the Steering Committee for the Lean Implementation. The Management Team will have the responsibility of drafting the Lean Charter/Vision Statement, formalizing the guidelines for the implementation team, identifying a Lean Champion and identifying the Lean Implementation Team member. Charter / Vision Statement should send the message that management team is lead by commitment to the Lean program. Lean Champion will have ~75% of his time dedicated to the Lean program. The Implementation Team should be identified if not by name at least by department. A typical team would consist of about 5~7 members,
more for larger companies.

Guidelines for Implementation Team:
• They can do everything that is "under" the trip wires.
• They should be given enough room to operate, but don't "give away the farm".
• Rewards program for helping the implementation to proceed.
• Timeframe (probably not defined at Management Meeting).

Part Three: Training and Implementation

This is typically a three month to one year-long process consisting of approximately 48 hours of training and implementation. The management team of the company will select an Implementation Team consisting of approximately 10 employees. Once a month for two days “sensei’s” will come to the company and work with the Implementation team. We will spend 1/2 day in training and the balance of the two days on the floor implementing the Lean concepts. The Lean Concepts includes such items as: Team Building, Value Stream Mapping (mapping the value added and non value added components of a process), Kaizen (continuous improvement), Visual Communication, Standardized Work and 5S. Between monthly meetings, the implementation team will be given “homework assignments”; this will help to keep the implementation on track.