A case study outlining some commercial / consultancy work with one of our clients in the North West. This client was interested in Lean / Continuous Improvement.

1. Case Study – Lean Implementation
Company Background
This case study is based on work carried out at a manufacturing and assembly company based in
the North West of England with 70 employees. The manufacturing area was organised with
common services (Goods In, Paint Shop and Dispatch) and three dedicated production areas for
various product lines. Previous Lean/CI activity had included 5s audit display boards, workplace
flow paths, introduction of kanban totes and some line balancing activity. Much of this previous
work had not been sustained.
The BIUK Approach
A decision was made to carry out an in-depth Lean Diagnostic to identify current status and
indicate areas for improvement. A summary of the scores is shown below:
Lean Manufacturing Summary
Quality Cost Delivery
5
4
3
Score
2
1
0
Order Levelling
Flow Manufacturing
Training
Quick Changeover
Organisation
Material Movement
Quality
TPM
OVERALL COST
QUALITY SCORE
Visual Controls
DELIVERY SCORE
Team Work
Workplace
OVERALL
SCORE
OVERALL
Lean Element
Improvement Through People

2. An overall score of 51% was achieved against the fifty-five criteria with Quality and Cost scores
being below average while Delivery was above average.
When the above results were combined with detailed area-by-area observation, the following
recommendations were made:
• re-instatement of the 5s programme with regular audits and responsibilities
• review of line side stock levels to create better flow and space utilisation
• consideration of the use of dedicated tool sets for assembly stations rather than several large
tool boxes
• enhancement of the visual display/information available across all production areas,
including real time performance display
• analysis of selected processes in terms of ‘muda’ (the seven wastes)
• more involvement of all process personnel in improvement suggestions and actions (the
‘eighth’ waste)
• consideration of area requirements in terms of storage and visual control of stock
• use of basic SMED principles to reduce changeover times in the Paint Shop
• consideration of the calculation and use of takt time to balance and create flow where
appropriate
Implementation and Results
Many of the recommendations above were implemented as part of a Business Improvement
Techniques programme, with a substantial percentage of the workforce taking part. This resulted
in many improvements that impacted on Quality, Cost and Delivery performance.
The BIT programme having established a solid foundation for Continuous Improvement, BIUK
consultants worked with the company to identify further improvement opportunities, two of
which are outlined below.
Order Entry Process
A process mapping exercise identified major errors in the order entry process. These errors often
resulted in lack of validation of customer required dates and impacted on production, delivery and
work in process levels. A new procedure was developed that correctly validated customer delivery
dates resulting in substantial savings on costs and improved customer service.
Build to Order
Analysis of current stock quantities revealed that many product lines were built in advance of
customer orders. This resulted in a huge stock of kitted product that took up an entire storage
unit. The solution was to identify and create Min/Max levels for key subassemblies and smaller
unique parts. This resulted in customer orders being kitted within one day of receipt and the
storage unit being surplus to requirements.
Improvement Through People