Top Tips for Manufacturers

by Jeff Abbott

The average manufacturing company is faced with so many challenges today. Fewer and fewer opportunities present themselves within the conventional thinking of industry. Though some will see the following ideas as obvious, others will not. All of these ideas are tested and proven to be effective in simple, practical ways and are presented as a catalyst for thought. Each represents an unseen "iceberg" of thought based upon knowledge and experience to support the idea. Together they combine to make a culture of creativity and innovation, simplicity and improvement.

1. Lean or Six Sigma - Which Way Should I Go?

Many think there is an all or nothing, one or the other choice to be made between Lean and Six Sigma, when in reality they are perfectly compatible as the most powerful one-two punch available to manufacturing businesses today. While the process is being refined to remove variables under Six Sigma, the Lean thinking removes unnecessary steps creating an accurate, streamlined, robust process. Known as Lean Sigma, it is the right choice for today.

2. Think Strategically

Cost control is an important dimension for manufacturing businesses. Cost improvement models help a manufacturing business remain healthy. Warning: But single focus on costs can be fatal. It can come at the cost of growth. Strategic top line growth is the quickest way to help your cost ratios, spread your burden, and provide for the future. What are you doing today to provide for tomorrow? Hopefully you are employing more than Lean, Continuous Improvement, JIT, Outsourcing, Supply Chain Management. Those initiatives can be the "silver bullet" to helping you survive and remain competitive, but tomorrow will be defined by what strategic initiatives are in place to avoid obsolescence on the maturity curve. Shrinking your costs alone won't make you great. Greatness makes you great.

3. Make Cycle Time Your Improvement Bull's Eye

Save money. ROI. That's the aim of too many projects in the Lean world. We put on new paradigms of how to get there only to find that "there" is an old paradigm. So don't save money? Yes, save lots of money, just don't aim there. Aim for time! Elapsed time is the driver of all kinds of costs and the reduction of elapsed time is the source of all kinds of savings, not to mention potential earnings, since customers prefer rapid response and deliveries. So what are we going to reduce first?

4. Value Stream Mapping - Systematic Streamlining of Time and Motion

What is Value Stream Mapping (VSM)? VSM is just a way of looking at the elements of a process specifically to add value. All of the steps are put in a type of flow chart and touch time, dead time waiting in queue, and distance traveled are logged. The before and after scenarios, known as "current state" and "future state", are compared for value. Processes taking 4 weeks in order entry and purchasing or 8 weeks of raw material queue are pared down to a tiny fraction of that. 25 step operations are reduced to 7. 240 miles traveled becomes 15, 8 hours of labor becomes 4 and a month of waiting around is saved. Quantum leaps happen every day somewhere in the Lean world.

5. Effective Metrics - How, What, Who, When, Where, Why?

Every business is different and every industry is different. One thing is common throughout though, and that is the need to measure how things are progressing. It is often said that you cannot manage what you do not measure and it is true. Nowhere is it more applicable than in manufacturing. Performance compared to forecasts, goals and standards is so important. And who is doing the tracking? The more your people record their own performance and compare it to their goals, the less you need to be worried that things are not in control. Meaningful metrics done accurately and published in a timely manner by the right people can assure your company goes where it is aimed. And it's amazing; once you measure something, funny much how it improves.

6. Play Ball! Are Your Suppliers On Your Lean Team?

So you decide to go Lean. Great. Your cycle time is down from 35 days to 41⁄2. Congratulations. But wait. Is it really? Oh, it took 8 weeks to get the material? Ouch. Oh, and it still goes out for weld, X-ray, and finish processing? Another 4 weeks? What looks like a success is no longer one when you dig a little deeper. You need to have your suppliers attend your Lean Kaizens and learn how they can help. Get that material the day you're going to use it, at the work station where it will begin its processing, cut to the correct size with the index holes already punched and planed to the correct starting thickness. Dreaming? No. Leaning. Now your cycle time is down from 12 weeks, 41⁄2 days to 91⁄2 days because your suppliers are playing on your team.

7. MBWA - First Hand Involvement, First Hand Focus

Management by Wandering Around. Touted in the 80s by Tom Peters as a way to understand your workplace, it died a slow death in the 90s. Too unstructured for you, the engineer or finance guy? Then call it the Daily Random Audit or some such thing, but do it. Managers who possess the power to start things moving or to get things done are a powerful presence in the workplace. Know what is going on, don't take anyone's word for it, find out firsthand. What are you apt to see? People, things, right things, wrong things. The need for organization, cleaning, painting, inventory reduction, quality improvement: Action! Your people might be shocked to see you. They will find out you care enough to know firsthand.

8. Simplicity Is On The Far Side of Complexity

What is so great about simplicity? Everything! Simplicity in the world of manufacturing and engineering is not the result of being unsophisticated, but being so sophisticated that the design is robust, quick and hard to goof up. But it is even more than that. It is brilliance. Complication is expensive. Simplicity is less expensive. It's as simple as that. Which do you think will be more competitive? Remember: Better, Faster, Cheaper. Go for simple.

9. Pareto Analyses - Conserve Your Ammo

Sophisticated weapons are sometimes measured in "rounds per second" fired. But can you aim the weapon while doing it? Likewise, most operations are capable of accuracy much higher than they normally achieve, but they don't always slow down to aim. A good way to increase the capacity and efficiency of your operations team is to limit time wasted on low priority targets. How often do you spend weeks of effort trying to fix extraneous problems while your number 1 source of rejects is largely being ignored? Be honest. To ensure time is spent on the right things, make a pivot table of all projects in one direction and all defects in the other. Sort the projects in highest to lowest order and do the same with defects. Spend 80% of your time working on the top 80% of your defects. Vilfredo will be so proud.

10. Worth Doing Wrong

The saying, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right!" has been with us a long time. And I believe it's true....sometimes. Of course things need to be done right. But so many things are never attempted because they aren't guaranteed to succeed. There's a degree of risk, it may fail, and I could be embarrassed. Are you afraid of failing? If you let fear of failure stop you, you won't accomplish your tougher goals. Is your objective valid? Is the payoff worthwhile? Is it worth trying? Is it worth doing wrong? Then do it. And don't let failure stand in your way. If there are hiccups, improve on what you've learned and perfect your ideas. You will be light years ahead of those who were so afraid to venture out.

11. Customer Rationalization is the High Road to Better Customer Service

Though customers are always right, they are sometimes wrong for your business. Some customers don't fit and should be avoided. This one does not play fair, that one will not accept change orders they cause, this one will not pay their bills, that one does not understand their own business. Some do not provide a fair return. This sometimes results in your work force picking and choosing who is a good customer and who is a bad one. Do not let that happen. Make up a grid based upon important factors to you and use it to determine which customers stay and which go. The keepers then are the ones most worthy. Treat them like kings. If you decide to be their supplier, do it with all you have got. Let your workforce know as well. Be an example of proper behavior. You will have the happiest customers.

12. Phasing Out Inspection

Have you phased out inspection yet? Haven't started? Well, if you are in the manufacturing business in the good old USA, you will either eliminate inspectors or you will be eliminated. Beyond the redundant handling, delays, manpower, labor, poor quality of manufactured products under the old way of doing things, there is the underlying problem of ownership. Who owns the quality of your products? Certainly not inspectors?

13. Cross-Training ROI

In Lean organizations, the idea is to get more with less. But that cannot happen with the previous state training levels of your people. When the process goes to the "future state", your people need to be transformed as well. So what does that look like? Create a matrix of all of your people and all of your processes. Make a list of the names in one direction and processes in the other. Can the welders run the milling machine center? The answer is "Yes". The only barrier is you. The more fields are filled in on your matrix, the more cost effective you become.

14. The New Paradigm of Raw Material Storage - Don't

How would you like to have 50 cents for every dollar of raw material not moving in your warehouse? Inventorying raw materials: a waste of money. Some managers see a huge benefit in buying up a load of material because "we got a good deal on it." So all kinds of cash is tied up in the warehouse realizing this "good deal". Don't fall for that. Pretty soon there will be a million dollars tied up there. And pray none of it is ever obsolete. Find a way to get those materials delivered so they never go to the warehouse. And yes, that will take a lot of planning and changes in how you do business today.

15. Supplier SPC - Who Better Qualified?

Company X's receiving inspection methods for process chemicals were so crude, it caused huge variations in the process itself. For years, swings were occurring in results that drove the quality performance in the whole factory. When the supplier was brought in to ask about a better measurement technique, they offered to sample the process tank and modify the incoming chemicals accordingly. Sophisticated analysis equipment was used to measure the process and raw chemicals and results charted. Results: A process in control and high quality levels. Department rework fell 95%. Collateral problems throughout the plant were reduced to zero. Get the right suppliers on the bus. Commission them. Trust them. Who better?

16. No Accidents - The Right Place to Aim

How many serious accidents did you have this year? Are you sure? And if you counted the times things happened accidentally, but no one was injured? Oh, that's a different story. Don't leave Safety to luck. Eliminate the two causes of accidents: Unsafe Acts and Unsafe Conditions. Train people until they know when they are acting unsafely. And rid your workplace of unsafe conditions. Turn the job over to employees on a self managed safety team. Reward the right behaviors both on the team and on the factory and office floor. An awful safety record can become a great safety record.but not by accident.

17. Solvents: Plan Their Demise

In most cases, industrial solvents are going extinct. Good news or bad news? Luckily for you, nothing cleans as well as water. There are also citrus cleaners that will remove any kind of goo. There are many applications, especially in industrial manufacturing, where non-solvent cleaners do the job better than any other material. Combined with some great soaps and de-ionized water flush, it can be the best "solution". Solvent wiping and vaporizing leaves micro residue. The right soap solution and process can eliminate all residue and rinsing can leave a substrate free of contaminates. To beat the curve, get rid of solvents today.

18. Employee Recognition: Happy Birthday!

It is difficult to catch a person doing something remarkable.You cannot be there often enough to observe it, and there are more pressing issues. So what's a manager to do? One of the best ways to make significant headway in this area is to thank each employee individually and in writing for their efforts to do a good job. Insane? Impossible? Think again. In operations of 500 employees or less, a CEO or General Manager can personally thank each employee in the company in a birthday card with less than 30 minutes of effort per month with some clever help from an administrative assistant. Then during your MBWA tours, your workers and staff will greet you with enthusiasm and really feel recognized.

19. Picnics, Parties, Luncheons: Make Any Excuse to Have One

The culture of your company is regulated by the leadership of the company. The morale of the workforce is often paced by the number of times a leader takes advantage of his or her opportunity to recognize the employee. Relationship building is key to the overall process of building trust in your company. So what better place to promote your culture than a get together, even including families and friends? Sure it costs money, but what investment would you make to solve your low employee morale and lack of esprit de corps? Don't waste your time doing studies, do something about it. Something positive. And while you are at it, be genuine. Take an interest in your employees and they will take an interest in you.

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