Lean Manufacturing Excellence incl. 6 Sigma & Kaizen
Lean Manufacturing Excellence
Most manufacturing companies today are probably involved in some sort of “Lean” activity. If you and your organisation can honestly hand on heart answer “Yes, our company is like this” to the following then you probably have no further need of support from the NWAA. If any aspects of the following are of concern or attract your interest, then contact the NWAA and we may be able to help you benefit from some of our services.
Companies associated with being “excellent” in their field exhibit all of the following:
A structured and systematic Improvement Programme embedded in the Business Plan
Nominated Lean Champion(s) for driving Continuous Improvement
Lean champions backed by accredited training qualifications
Regular investment in skills training for all staff
Continuous benchmarking of performance against standards set by other organisations
Continually setting challenging and stretching performance targets
Individual and team performance improvement targets
Regular and sustained appraisal of Continuous Improvement performance
Customer focus culture throughout the whole organisation
An innovative culture always challenging the status quo
A systematic approach to generating and capturing ideas
A process for measuring the cost of Quality
A process for rewarding excellence and is visible to everyone
The following terms are associated with Lean Manufacturing Excellence:-
Six Sigma
Organisations use Six Sigma to identify and eliminate costs that provide no value to customers. They analyse their processes to find out where and how defects occur, measure them and eliminate the problem areas. The phrase was coined by Motorola in the 1980s to describe the company's approach to refining and improving all key production and business processes. The Six Sigma approach enabled Motorola to achieve very high levels of process capability. The results? A radical elimination of business and process costs resulting in massive increases in profitability.Sigma is a statistical term used in the measurement of how far a given process deviates from perfection. The idea is that, if you can measure the number of defects there are in a process, you can then systematically attempt to eliminate them to get as close to zero defects as possible. The generally accepted definition of the Six Sigma benchmark is 3.4 defects per million opportunities for each product or service transaction.
The following website offers information on Six Sigma: www.quality-foundation.co.uk
You can also find out more by looking at the DTI Manufacturing Advisory Services’s website at www.manufacturingadvice.org.uk
From here you can search out your regional support network and in the case of the North West this would be www.mas-nw.co.uk based in Manchester. Contact them to find out about Six Sigma related training courses
Kaizen
Kaizen is the Japanese name for continuous improvement.
As such it is central to Lean operations. It brings together several of the tools and techniques described plus a few besides. The word originates from Maasaki Imai who wrote a book of the same name and made Kaizen popular in the West. According to Imai, Kaizen comprises several elements. Kaizen is both a philosophy and a set of tools.
The Philosophy of Kaizen:
Quality begins with the customer. But customers' views are continuously changing and standards are rising, so continuous improvement is required. Kaizen is dedicated to continuous improvement, in small increments, at all levels, forever (!) and, everyone has a role, from top management to shop floor employees:
Kaizen involves building on the gains by continuing experimentation and innovation. Of course if you already have a culture of Continuous Improvement you will understand and practice the principles of Kaizen. Or perhaps you need to stimulate or reinvigorate your organisation in some way. Again the NWAA is in a position to discuss this with you through our network of support organisations.
Common Elements of Kaizen
What all Kaizen methods have in common is that they (1) involve, at a minimum, the workers who execute a work process, (2) focus on improving the performance of that work process, (3) seek to make incremental improvements, and (4) are intended to be repeated over time.
