The company I work for is currently in the process of trying to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our production facility. This is going to be done through mapping processes and retraining from the executive level down. If anyone has gone through this process, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It is already known there will be resistance towards change on all levels of the organization. Our company shows profit on jobs but it is not known whether or not the amount of profit is acceptable, being that we could make an even larger amount of profit with just a small amount of change. For now everything is just accepted so no confrontation is created between the different departments or staff.

sincerely,
pat1l

Have you considered looking at your plant using Leam Manufacturing guidelines? These can be a real eye opener.

If you supply Ford, they have an incredibly useful website resource which includes a Lean process audit.

I also was involved looking at our most profitable job using Kaizen. We were still able to realize large improvements even on the best job in the plant!

Good luck, just by realizing you need to start you on on your way to success. The key is to do something - any improvemet tool will work if you are motivated.

Good thoughts, Caster! Thanks!

The company I work for is currently in the process of trying to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our production facility. This is going to be done through mapping processes and retraining from the executive level down. If anyone has gone through this process, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It is already known there will be resistance towards change on all levels of the organization. Our company shows profit on jobs but it is not known whether or not the amount of profit is acceptable, being that we could make an even larger amount of profit with just a small amount of change. For now everything is just accepted so no confrontation is created between the different departments or staff.


PAT1L
Seems like you are prime for a team or small work group type infusion of continual process improvement.
As Caster advises you to look at the Ford model, there are many other models available to benchmark.
May I suggest you keep it simple. If you are in a position of presenting your proposals to your colleagues, I would suggest you consider using the attached visual as a starting point to allow your colleagues to view the big picture or global view of what may be involved with "fast track improvements".
Wallace.