If you are considering Implementing Lean Manufacturing or one of your Customers is insisting that you go down this road you are probably asking yourself “what’s in this for me?” One of the key components of lean manufacturing is to seek out and eliminate waste in all your processes. The manufacturing “wastes” have a direct impact on your costs and productivity. Typically, lean will improve: quality performance, machine and process breakdowns, inventory levels and turnover, floor space capacity, delivery performance, employee morale, supplier relations, sales capacity, costs, and profits.
When your business model is being put to the test in real time, details matter. There are always opportunities to improve, which is what a LEAN approach to manufacturing is all about—an engaged, participatory cultural transformation to an environment of perpetual improvement.
Becoming more productive and profitable depends on a host of factors—everything from upping throughput, eliminating unnecessary steps and reducing inventory to bettering delivery performance and increasing cash flow. In turn, material and information should flow seamlessly from one customer-valued step to the next.
The University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services (UTCIS) works directly with your team to identify opportunities for improvement and implement solutions.
To facilitate faster implementation and enhance return on investment, UTCIS combines classroom and in-plant activities to meet the specific needs of your company, teaching you how to apply our methods to your business, even helping you to develop customized approaches.
With our recommended LEAN manufacturing approach, UTIS continually demonstrates a consistent, results-based customer experience, including the following average annual improvements:
For more information on LEAN manufacturing, training and consulting, contact your CIS solutions consultant.
Our LEAN Certificate Training Program guides participants through the use of powerful LEAN manufacturing implementation tools. A value-stream map will help you to prioritize your Kaizen events and eliminate wasteful points and practices as quickly as possible. You will gain a working knowledge of proven and practical LEAN manufacturing tools, including the following:
Through a combination of hands-on learning and classroom instruction, this week-long event will provide each participant with the skills to lead LEAN initiatives in their respective facilities.
To learn about the next open-enrollment offering for LEAN Certificate Training, connect to the Lean Certificate Training Calendar. This training can also be delivered onsite by the UTCIS LEAN Team, for up to 20 participants. Contact your local solutions consultant to schedule.
How stable is your Continuous Improvement Process? Could it be more sustainable?
Let UTCIS acquaint you with Training within Industry (TWI), first introduced to domestic manufacturing during WWII to train replacement workers for those who left for war.
In the decades since, TWI has become an integral part of the foundation of continuous improvement activities for large automotive manufacturers, consisting of three separate J-Programs: Job Relations, Job Instruction and Job Methods.
Each J-Program is divided into two four-hour days. On the first day of your selected program, each class will receive interactive instruction. Over the next week, each participant is required to complete an application project applying the methods and skills learned, present to the class using the prescribed method and successfully pass a written process exam.
On the second day, each participant will bring a project from his or her worksite and teach fellow class participants with the selected method. Participants will then receive feedback on their presentations. After all presentations are complete, participants will take a fill-in-the-blank test.
Interested in learning more about the TWI program? Contact your local solutions consultant.
A systemic approach to the identification and elimination of waste and other non-value-added activities across the entire manufacturing process through continuous process improvement, LEAN optimizes customer-focused product flow, pursuing product and service perfection.
LEAN manufacturing tools streamline the flow of information and materials to increase your organization’s productivity, competitiveness and profitability. With a combination of classroom training, real-world examples and hands-on simulations, you will discover useful ways to identify and reduce or eliminate wasteful aspects of your manufacturing process.
Multiple benefits of LEAN manufacturing include the following:
Our LEAN 101 Training will teach the basics of essential LEAN tools, including the following:
Our next LEAN 101 course will occur on BLANK DATE in BLANK LOCATION.*
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*This training can also be delivered in-plant and is designed to be a full-day, interactive learning session. Contact your local solutions consultant to schedule a training.
Value-stream mapping (VSM) focuses your improvement efforts, pinpointing problem solutions to give you the most value for your money, time and energy. Creating a material and information-flow map for an entire product family, a typical value stream includes customer orders entering the production control schedule, raw materials entering the facility, manufacturing processes for their creation and finished goods leaving the shipping dock.
At your company, does information and material flow in the most logical and cost-effective ways possible? A current-state map reveals precisely where time and money are being wasted, whether due to excessive inventory, delayed processes, inadequate information, unnecessary downtime or other issues. A future-state map identifies an ideal workflow and helps you determine the best way to get there.
Onsite VSM training and events teach participants how to create current- and future-state maps, helping guide your efforts toward the best and most productive projects. Schedule your VSM training or event by contacting your local solutions consultant.
The Workplace Organization and Visual Controls System (also known as 5S) is an organizational technique that helps streamline the workplace. A systematic method, 5S creates a safer, cleaner, better-organized workplace with specific locations for everything. Classes focus on eliminating unnecessary items and creating lasting productivity improvements from these simple techniques, so you can begin applying them in your facility.
Contact your local solutions consultant for training and implementation assistance with 5S.
Kaizen (continual improvement) events are the vehicle for LEAN tool and concept implementation. Kaizen events are focused on improvement efforts that utilize a team-based approach to eliminating wasteful practices, with a course designed to teach a standard Kaizen process that can be used for implementing any LEAN tool, such as Quick Changeover, 5S, Cellular/Layout and TPM. Kaizen event objectives and topics include the following:
Kaizen Facilitator Training and a 3-day or 5-day Kaizen Process Improvement Event will help your team apply essential training and thoroughly improve your processes. The UTCIS LEAN team can even deliver training onsite. Contact your local solutions consultant today to schedule.
A Quick Changeover/Setup reduces time lost to manufacturing process setups and changeovers while increasing valuable production equipment uptime. Based on Shigeo Shingo’s single-minute exchange of dies (SMED) system principles, this event uses classroom training and simulations to demonstrate useful and efficient methods for the following:
Under the guidance of UTCIS manufacturing specialists, Quick Changeover/Setup event participants will analyze an actual changeover of your process and begin implementing the improvements. To schedule, contact your local solutions consultant today.
Total productive maintenance (TPM) harnesses the participation of all your employees to improve your production equipment’s availability, performance, quality, reliability and safety. Class participants learn TPM concepts including the following:
Call your local solutions consultant to jump-start your TPM program courses!
"To err is human," but that doesn’t mean your customers are willing to accept defective products. Our Mistake-Proofing event presents methods for increasing the visibility of errors, improving reaction time to correct them and creating systems to prevent errors from reoccurring.
Mistake-Proofing courses cover the following:
Learn to apply these elements to your processes and make zero defects a reality in your plant. Sign up for a Mistake-Proofing course with your local solutions consultant.
Did you know that up to 75 percent of your firm’s opportunities for eliminating waste can be found in areas other than manufacturing?
In our two-day course focused on the LEAN Office, you will learn how to turn your office and support areas into efficient, effective, predictable operations. With a combination of classroom training, real-world examples and hands-on practice, you will discover how to identify and reduce or eliminate the waste in your administrative processes.
First, you will learn LEAN definitions, along with LEAN tools and techniques, such as value-stream mapping for the office. By the end of the second day, you will have developed a value- stream map that identifies the most significant improvement opportunities in your office.
Everywhere you look, opportunities exist to; improve throughput, eliminate unnecessary process steps, reduce inventory, improve delivery performance, improve cash flow, and become more productive and profitable by flowing material and information from one customer-valued step to the next.
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