NLS recently completed a project for Epicenter Development Group, in which our objective was to point out the inefficiencies occurring at a chemical factory. The purpose of the study was to increase company awareness, and by doing so, give the company the opportunity to optimize its operation and the organization as a whole. In order to accomplish this, we conducted a series of downtime studies. Specifically, we targeted and observed various activities that the Lean system identifies as the eight forms of waste:
The results showed the reasons for downtime periods and the percentage of time that the factory had lost in production due to each. It was clear that the factory needed to take corrective actions to limit and/or reduce these periods of downtime, and thanks to our work, the factory now knows exactly how to counteract these forces.
Keep in mind that an organization can never phase out all waste. Instead, the goal should be to reduce enough waste so that an organization can become a notable competitor. Lean tools are particularly good at helping companies to accomplish this. One of our favorites is Standard Work, which is a baseline for Kaizen. It is one of the more powerful Lean tools in the quest for continuous improvement, and it works by documenting the current best practices, improving upon them, and then creating new baselines for further improvements.
Regardless of which Lean tool you decide to go with for your needs, know that NLS can lend you a hand. Please give us a call at (813) 204-9304. Our team has worked on many industrial engineering projects with some of the best companies in the world including Honda, BMW, Little Tikes, and DuPont. It would be an honor to see how we can help!
