This arrived in my email today from
cockpitarts. I thought it was an interesting read and worth keeping on file for a later ponder!
by cockpitarts
Author: Nigel Rust, Business Mentor, Coach and Manufacturing Specialist
Do
you spend too much time on sales processing, production, packing and
despatch and not enough time being creative? Do you have the feeling
that things should be easier? Or that you should be getting more out of
the business?
You
are not alone. In fact this can be a particular problem for
designer-makers who have built up their business in a creative studio
environment and are starting to win more and more orders. There comes a
time in a business when improving production efficiency becomes very
important.
At that point ‘lean manufacturing’ becomes highly relevant.
What is Lean Manufacturing?
Lean
Manufacturing is a collection of simple techniques that can be applied
to business and production processes to achieve ever increasing
efficiency. They go hand-in-hand with a philosophy of ‘continuous
improvement’ to help you achieve more and more as your business
develops.
Lean
principles and techniques are firmly rooted in common sense and ease of
application. They combine the best of Western working practices with
the best of Japanese efficiency to produce a powerful toolkit that has
revolutionised whole industries over the last two or three decades.
Lean Techniques
There
are a number of techniques that can be used to improve efficiency,
several of which are directly applicable to small creative businesses.
For example:
1. The 7 Wastes.
This is a way of looking at day-to-day activities in your workshop and
focusing on reducing the time spent doing things that are not
particularly useful. Many activities can be categorised under the list
of wastes below.
• Transport – carry things around too much – store cupboard to bench to cupboard to bench etc etc
•
Inappropriate Processing – doing things that you could manage without •
Movement – it’s difficult to get on with the job while you are running
about! • Waiting – hold ups are very inefficient
• Overproduction – making more than you need (and then having to find somewhere to keep it)
• Overstocking – buying too much raw material • Defects – making rejects and having to start all over again
2. The 5 ‘S’.
This is a great way of turning a slightly (or very) disorganised
studio, where there is never enough space and where you can never find
the scissors, into a smooth running, efficient workshop. Five basic
steps – SORT – SET – SHINE – STANDARDISE – STICK TO – are used to
arrange the workspace, tools etc into the most appropriate way. There
are a few rules behind each step that help you to do it in the best way.
This technique can make a big difference, for example, in packing and
despatch. Wouldn’t it be great if you could halve the time it takes to
pack and despatch things.
3. Spaghetti Diagrams
This technique helps you to decide the best workshop layout. By
plotting all the movement around the workshop during your normal
processes it can become very apparent if your equipment, tables, storage
areas etc are not in the right place. There are plenty of examples
where this has saved significant time in small creative workshops – my
favourite example was in a fine chocolate factory where we saved around
half an hour a day per person by using a spaghetti diagram.
4. Process Analysis
This one is great fun, despite the name. It uses ‘post-it’ notes to
identify and focus on ways to cut out wasteful parts of a process. It is
usually done by a small team and really helps everyone to realise how
they can be more effective.
Continuous Improvement
One
thing to remember is that you can always do better. Even after you have
applied the most appropriate lean techniques for the first time, you
shouldn’t stop there. Things are always changing, and you are always
going to find better ways of doing things. ‘Lean’ helps you and your
team to see the way you work in a different light and encourages you to
come up with new and better ideas, however big or small, as you move
forward. This continuous improvement is invaluable in building on your
successes.
In conclusion
All
these techniques have been applied in studios in the creative
industries with some outstanding results. One workshop recently
estimated that they had improved their productivity by at least a third.
