By taking concepts from the Lean Thinking philosophical approach to management, one Fort Collins lumber company has been able to transform their productivity and pass the newfound benefits on to their consumers. By utilizing these lean thinking approaches, which focuses on an elimination of waste in every facet of the organization, productivity levels have been amplified with an appreciation remaining on details, quality work, and personal relationships.
Â
Eliminating waste not only refers to our commitment in utilizing wood products efficiently and effectively throughout every project, but also cutting down on the timing of such actions and shortening the turn around for our customers. These reductions have led to an increase in keeping projects within their needed timelines without any noticeable sacrifices, other than changing the way things are viewed within our industry.
Â
Lean Thinking is derived from a focus on the total process as opposed to the specifications in just one part. Incorporating the whole in an effort to benefit the customer and keep the focus on the people involved in the building or manufacturing process - or the end result of whatever company, group, or organization develops - is an adaptation of the Lean Thinking theory.
Â
Initially used to describe the production process for automaker Toyota,
Lean Thinking “changes the focus of management from optimizing separate technologies, assets, and vertical departments to optimizing the flow of products and services through entire value streams that flow horizontally across technologies, assets, and departments to customers.â€
Â
This elimination of waste among the entire stream of the process and not just individual points translates to a more efficient and effective management strategy. The Lean Thinking process has been around for quite some time but is becoming even more mainstream due to its success. A brief examination of the
history behind Lean Thinking helps to illuminate the five main principles associated with the process.
- Specify the value desired by the customer
- Identify the value stream for each product providing that value and challenge all of the wasted steps (generally nine out of ten) currently necessary to provide it
- Make the product flow continuously through the remaining value-added steps
- Introduce pull between all steps where continuous flow is possible
- Manage toward perfection so that the number of steps and the amount of time and information needed to serve the customer continually falls
Each of these aspects has a central theme involving a commitment to the customer while providing a quality service. Anytime that an outlook can be taken which when effectively executed can benefit the consumer while providing a more efficient work environment, it translates into a win-win situation for everyone involved throughout the process.
Â
Not only do these five characteristics detail an approach to the overall process without limiting the end result, but the elimination of unnecessary steps by taking an analytical and different approach to viewing a project is a concrete foundation in the Lean Thinking strategy.
Â
Managers and those in leadership roles are asked to view their own line of work in a similar fashion. These leaders then can pass the improvements on to their employees, who in turn build a more productive work environment and thus a more productive facility for those having work completed by the group.
Â
Beginning with the implementation into the Toyota manufacturing, these managers were taught to change their focus and place importance upon each of
these Lean Thinking strategies.
Â
- “The workplace: Going and seeing firsthand work conditions in practice, right now, and finding out the facts for oneself rather than relying on reports and boardroom meeting. The workplace is also where real people make real value and going to see is a mark of respect and the opportunity to support employees to add value through their ideas and initiative more than merely make value through prescribed work. The management revolution brought by lean thinking can be summed up by describing jobs in terms of Job = Work + Kaizen
- Value through built-in quality: Understanding that customer satisfaction is paramount and is built-in at every step of the enterprise’s process, from building in satisfying features (such as peace of mind) to correctly building in quality at every production step. Built-in quality means to stop at every doubtful part and to train yourself and others not to pass on defective work, not to do defective work and not to accept defective work by stopping the process and reacting immediately whenever things go wrong.
- Value streams through understanding "takt" time: By calculating the ratio of open production time to averaged customer demand one can have a clear idea of the capacity needed to offer a steady flow of products. This “takt†rhythm, be it a minute for cars, two months for software projects or two years for a new book leads to creating stable value streams where stable teams work on a stable set of products with stable equipment rather than optimize the use of specific machines or processes. Takt time thinking leads to completely different capacity reasoning than traditional costing and is the key to far more frugal processes.
- Flow through reducing batch sizes: Every traditional business, whether in production or services, is addicted to batch. The idea as that once work is set up one way, we’d better get on and quickly make as many pieces of work as we can to keep the unit cost down. Lean thinking looks at this differently in trying to optimize the flow of work in order to satisfy real demand now, not imaginary demand next month. By working strenuously on reducing change-over time and difficulty, it is possible to approach the lean thinking ideal of single piece flow. In doing so, one reduces dramatically the general cost of the business by eliminating the need for warehouses, transports, systems, subcontractor use and so on.
- Pull to visualize takt time through the flow: pulling work from upstream at takt time through visual devices such as Kanban cards is the essential piece that enables lean thinkers to visualize the gaps between the ideal and the actual at the workplace at any time. Pull is what creates a creative tension in the workplace by both edging closer to single-piece-work and by highlighting problems one at a time as they occur so complex situations can be resolved piecemeal. Pull is the basic technique to “lean†the company and, by and large, without pull there is no lean thinking.
- Seeking perfection through kaizen: The old time sensei used to teach that the aim of lean thinking was not to apply lean tools to every process, but to develop the kaizen spirit in every employee. Perfection is not sought through better, more clever systems or go-it-alone heroes but through a commitment to improve things together step-by-small-step. Kaizen literally means change for the better and Kaizen spirit is about seeking a hundred 1% improvements from every one every day every where rather than one 100% leap forward. The practice of kaizen is what anchors deep lean thinking in people’s minds and which, ultimately, leads to complete transformation. Practicing kaizen together builds self-confidence and the collective confidence that we can face our larger challenges and solve our problems together.â€
For decades,
Sears Trostel has been at the forefront of Lean Thinking execution within the manufacturing, lumber, and millwork industries. Having proudly served our community with quality and integrity the implementation of Lean Thinking procedures has allowed for a quicker turnaround time for our consumers. Providing custom wooden countertops, wood floors, cabinets,
John Boos Blocks, and many other wooden assessments, we are proud to offer the best value without compromising any of the quality you would expect from the business with a history of doing things the right way, the first time. Our manufacturing processes are unique and allow for unrivaled flexibility in custom profiles and our commitment to quality has earned us the trust of our customers through Colorado, Wyoming, and the surrounding areas.
Â
Feel free to contact us today with your needs or visit our retail sales and showroom located at 1500 Riverside Avenue in Fort Collins, Colorado. For commercial and residential sales please call 970-482-1928 or for wholesale and manufacturing, 970-482-0222 or 800-950-1928 with any other general questions about our products and services. We can also be reached by email at
Sales@sears-trostel.com as we look forward to showing you the effects quality beautiful natural woods can have.