The concept behind Lean Process Improvement can be traced back hundreds of years to early Chinese civilizations where it was essential for survival to design parts for crossbows that could easily be replaced during battle. Even in more modern times, Lean Improvements have drastically changed the way people do business. For example, the production of the Ford Model T was improved to take an unheard of 93 minutes in 1908. Today, Lean Improvements still offer the potential to save time and space in remarkable fashion.
Overall, ‘Lean’ means systematically evaluating and removing wasted time, space, and workload. Lean manufacturing can have a positive impact not just to the bottom line, but also the value of the products and services offered. In addition, Lean Process Improvements are not just a one-time event but a shift in mindset of how your manufacturing process occurs. This then creates a continuous cycle of improvements.
Boston Industrial Consulting engineers can help your company with Lean Process Improvements in several ways. First, our industrial engineers observe and investigate the current operation, leveraging internal resources to gain a full understanding of the current processes. Then, we work with your team to brainstorm and develop Lean Improvement ideas. From there, we collect additional data through time studies or operational data to quantify benefits. BIC can simulate current versus proposed improvements using in-house simulation tools such as SimCAD to analyze system gaps and summarize improvements. From that, we develop an in-depth functionality matrix able to relay specific technology needs to any vendor, and create a plan for full scale implementations of the following items:
- Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
- Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
- Transportation Management Systems (TMS)
- Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
- Demand Planning Systems (DP)
- Data Warehousing (DW) and Business Intelligence (BI) solutions
- Document interface requirements between existing systems and new systems (SAP, Oracle, etc.)
- Specify, select, and manage vendors throughout implementation
