Lean Manufacturing Concepts Discussion

[Helmut Jilling]

Re: Lean Manufacturing - Discussion on Concepts

I was practicing for when I get to teach starry eyed visionairies in college about reality.

Thanks

Nah...you'd last a week and get fired for pulling some sleepy student's ears off!


PS: My pastor used to say, "Young men are supposed to be liberal, or they have no heart. Old men are supposed to be conservative, or they have no brain." for what it's worth...

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Re: Discussion on Topic and Concepts of Lean Manufacturing

It wasn't a strategy issue, it was ethics.

Exactly my point. You stated that business should care only about profit. Anything else is garbage (your owns words). If the end justify the means, there is no ethics.

 

[Randy]

Re: Discussion on Topic and Concepts of Lean Manufacturing

Exactly my point. You stated that business should care only about profit. Anything else is garbage (your owns words). If the end justify the means, there is no ethics.

Yeah, that's about it. Go into any boardroom of any business and all talk will eventually go to bottom line. Making people feel nice and warm doesn't pay the bills and keep the doors open, if it did hotels, airplane tickets, groceries and gasoline and everything else would be free.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Re: Discussion on Topic and Concepts of Lean Manufacturing

Exactly my point. You stated that business should care only about profit. Anything else is garbage (your owns words). If the end justify the means, there is no ethics.

FWIW, I believe ethics and profit do and should coexist.

As many are aware, I did spend a lot of time as a voting member in the boardroom. Randy's right to the extent everything boiled down to the bottom line, BUT . . .

• we constantly hewed the line on legal and other regulatory items
• we constantly balanced our public image (and thus future profitability) against short term profit ploys
• we really did perform FMEA (failure mode & effects analysis) on each decision we made as a Board.

It is true we didn't care about a customer or a supplier or an employee (from a corporate point of view) except on how that entity's sense of satisfaction affected our relationship, and thus our bottom line.

 

[Michael Walmsley]

Re: Lean Manufacturing - Discussion on Concepts

Is this where I get to post the Ferengi Rules of acquisition???

 

[sudarsan]

Re: Lean Manufacturing - Discussion on Concepts

Thanks for your replies.can anyone give me a conclusion of WHY? -lean.is this equation correct.

if lean=reduce waste+reduce inventory+improve quality+..
then lean=profit.

sudarsan

 

[Randy]

Re: Lean Manufacturing - Discussion on Concepts

Is this where I get to post the Ferengi Rules of acquisition???

Already have them and they've already been posted...acouple of years ago.

 

[Randy]

Re: Lean Manufacturing - Discussion on Concepts

Thanks for your replies.can anyone give me a conclusion of WHY? -lean.is this equation correct.

if lean=reduce waste+reduce inventory+improve quality+..
then lean=profit.

sudarsan

Yes, you are more right than wrong. A good organization could then pass some of the increased profitability from their "lean" back to cutomers/consumers if it chose to. This would be a Win-Win which I believe is how business and other relationships should be.

Study business/finance a bit and try to figure how as an engineer you can incorporate its tenets into your field of endeavor.

 

[asutherland]

Re: Lean Manufacturing - Discussion on Concepts

If lean was just about profit, then how come we're all not out there selling drugs on the black market?

if lean=reduce waste+reduce inventory+improve quality+..
then lean=profit.

This is not a valid equation.

If you were the most lean company in the world, and you sold the least expensive, on time deliveried VHS tapes . . . would you still be in buisiness?

Lean balance's the elimination of waste, human motion, strategic planning, team work, and company goals/focus.

Not just the elimination of waste.

The elimination of waste is the philosophy of Kaizen . . . TPS incompasses, TQC, TPM and the associated tools that go with them.

The identification of waste is an identification of Kaizen oppertunity.

 

[Des Williams]

Re: Lean Manufacturing - Discussion on Concepts

Why ? lean ......
Moden days we all make the mistake we think we should go lean because it will save us money becase it will improve our perfomance. so what happens? We all tend to look at "low hannging fruit" or the "quick wins" in an effort to get some quick benefits. WE RUN kAIZENS
The issue I would like to get people thinking about is can you Kaizen your way to lean ?
My answer is no, lean is a journey of many steps its a culture change. Its a way of thinking / DOING. so kaizens work for the period you want it to to work then it falls away back to where you were ...why?
Its to do with needing to change there has to be a big driving force. not a top management I want this done. you need change and you need people with in the system to realise you need this change. then only you can take the first true steps towards lean.