What is your shop wasting?

By now, almost everyone in manufacturing is probably familiar with the concepts of lean manufacturing or at least the term. Lean manufacturing can be so effective that many companies employ lean leaders, process improvement teams, kaizen teams or similar groups to help facilitate lean initiatives. Part manufacturers that do not have dedicated personnel or teams frequently hire consultants to aid with developing and implementing lean concepts.

Lean manufacturing has become an accepted practice at large and midsize companies, but small manufacturers, machine shops and fabrication shops have been slow to adopt the concepts. In my experience, owners and managers at smaller shops often believe that the concepts are applicable only to larger companies or that taking advantage of lean manufacturing concepts requires hiring people with special skills.

Focus on Waste

Those who are unknowledgeable about lean manufacturing easily can become intimidated by the concepts and tools, so implementation at places where these people work might be daunting. Very simply, lean manufacturing is the identification and elimination of waste in manufacturing processes and systems. Waste can be categorized in one of seven forms: movement, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing and defects.

The first step of the lean journey is learning to identify waste.

Movement. Traditional production at a machine shop moves batches of parts from workstation to workstation. A shaft, for example, may move from a lathe where turning is completed to a mill where keyways and cross-holes are drilled. A leaner method is using a work cell where all the necessary machines are close to each other so the shaft can go into the mill after turning, frequently using a robot. Another alternative could involve purchasing a lathe with milling capability to end the need for a separate mill.