J
Thanks for your response. It was also my first response, and that is what we are doing. We are a research and development/engineering company that has a small manufacturing component. We don't have the ability to use any of his suggestions such as Lean Manufacturing or 5S. I am not sure how to make the audits more than they are right now which is to make sure that we are doing what we say we do.
Often people think because the do not make something that these tools are useless to them, this is not the case, you simply look at them a little different.
Generic example could be:
Bob (sales) meets with a customer and finds out their needs.
He tells Trudy (admin) to type up a quote.
Trudy has to have the quote approved by Mark (manager).
Then Trudy gives the quote to Bob, who gives the quote to the customer.
Improvements:
Give Bob the training and authority to create and issue the quote himself and 3 steps in the process have been eliminated = cost savings/improvement in process flow.
