We make Concurrent Engineering work.

 

Because we work so closely with design engineers, we can easily bring the Industrial Engineers into the related program. 

 

Products can then be designed for manufacturability the first time around. 

 

The days of designing a product and "throwing it over the wall" to production are over.  KTS gets rid of that wall.

 
Manufacturing cost reductions, increased output.

Lean Manufacturing is the latest. We’ve had TQM for a while. KANBAN, Six Sigma and black belts are still around.

These programs are great. They are based on research at real companies. Real analysis of how leaders stay competitive. How they re-invent themselves to improve production yields and keep costs down. The buzz words are not so important. We buy the books because there are good ideas in them. Real ideas we can apply such as value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection.

Or we hire consultants. Perhaps that’s better because we can ask questions, and transfer the knowledge to our teams.

But then what? How do we translate the ideas into practice? By “practice” we mean that it is actually being used – as in being practiced. How do we introduce operational excellence with value based strategies? Lean Manufacturing is not a “silver bullet”. It is a life style change for the serious long term manager. A KTS expert, who for many years managed plants, said:

“These programs over the years are quite similar. Don’t get me wrong, they do add something new every time, kind of incrementally. But the basics are always there, in every book. It’s kind of common sense.”

What’s surprising is not that the basics are common sense. It is that each new idea in manufacturing improvement always re-introduces the basics. Each new book spends many chapters on the basics, albeit with new words and expanded concepts. You’d think that by now, it would not be needed.

Resistance to change. Sometimes, the basics don’t come naturally to people. Evaluating the value stream and eliminating non-value added activities, as with any change, is resisted. Training people in the newest method is good because they learn how. But it does not mean it will get done. The old ways are well entrenched – especially in manufacturing.

The Change Action Program focuses on removing the resistance to change. We start with the basics, if they are not in place. If they are, we move into the details of Lean Manufacturing. But we pay particular attention to the people. We want the change to stick and reap the resulting cost reductions.