Friday, February 15, 2019

The Benefits Of Hiring A Lean Manufacturing Consultant

By Diane Foster


Continuous improvement involves constantly poking holes in the process. Constantly analyzing to find issues. Or aspects that threaten to be issued. A lean manufacturing consultant is well placed to perform this. He or she will apply tools to the situation. The point of the exercise is to divert resources from activities that are wasteful and useless to the process to the useful ones. The more advantageous ones.

One may read a few books on this subject and already consider him or herself an expert. They may think that they do not need an outside hand to help. In this case, the employees might not take it seriously. Remember that the success of this exercise is only 20% determined by the tools applied. The other 80% is determined by the internal environment. This includes culture and employee involvement. Such seemingly mundane factors could make the difference between success and complete failure.

Hence the importance of experience in this exercise. Experience is a valuable quality in a sensei. The training is well and good but how many successful programs does this person have a hand in? Failures are fine too as they are learning experiences. Experience means that this person can apply uniquely creative solutions to the problems.

When one is proofreading their own work, it is very easy to miss typos and mistakes. There is a condition called typo blindness. However, if another person takes a look at the work. They may see the mistakes within minutes. The fresh eyes help recognize waste activities that one would otherwise miss on their own. Where one will see everything as necessary, the fresh perspective will be useful.

There are people who clean out garages by trade. Now one will not just pick anyone. They will want to see the work that the professionals have done in other homes. They will want to see how it looks without the clutter. One is advised to ask about the people responsible for other successful programs. Find a few so that one can have a pool of candidates to pick from.

There are three kinds of specialists in the field. These include a process specialist. This one will be highly skilled at addressing specific problems. They do a directed attack on the issues. Then there are flow specialists. They work with full streams. It is still directed but it is a larger portion of the process. Finally, there is a specialist who looks at the full picture. Decide the area that needs work and picks a sensei based on that.

Narrowing down the list will not be easy. These people do not come with tags identifying them as bad or good. Just listen to the intention of the candidate. What is his or her mission? A good sensei has two missions. The first being problem-solving. The second is to increase productivity. Obviously, there are other factors to consider. These missions are the main factors.

A very important point, good relationship with the sensei. This person will have their hands in almost everything in an organization. There is bound to be friction when one does not agree. A good relationship will ensure mutual trust and respect. All for the good of the company.




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