Slim down to bulk up profitability

Lean manufacturing derives from the Toyota Production System, which focuses on making products to fit consumer demand, with minimal inventory and minimal wastage – in all its forms. But the techniques and, more importantly, the philosophy behind them are equally applicable to print and packaging firms.

“When I first came across lean manufacturing I thought it was for the car industry, but it transferred easily,” says James Cleghorn, technical services manager at Interflex Group.

Interflex started three years ago with what it dubs its ’5C’ programme on the shopfloor. This focuses on workplace organisation – at its simplest using ideas such as ‘every tool has its
place’. Interflex then called in print industry forum Vision in Print (ViP) to encourage buy-in from the staff by highlighting success stories and offering tools and techniques to help the implementation.

Crucially, there are no magic tricks, and the tools are surprisingly low-tech. “A lot of it is shopfloor-driven, based on what the operators measure,” says Cleghorn. “It’s about moving away from the computer to flip charts. It’s about looking, thinking and acting.” The costs are correspondingly modest. After the ViP consultancy fee – which costs £650 for the initial two-day review and then £795 a day for productivity programmes after that – the biggest costs are time and resources, such as taking operators off the machine to put them in the classroom.

St Ives-based Linx Printing Technologies kicked off a move to leaner manufacturing when it was acquired by US firm Danaher in 2005. For Linx the aims of the project were to improve safety, product quality, delivery and, only then, cost.

“A lot of people think that lean is just about saving money,” says Nick Scott, inks and accessories product manager at Linx Printing Technologies, who led the change. “We didn’t set out to save money, but it happens as a natural result.”

Cell structure
Linx rearranged its production line to focus on the customer. The new structure centred on the idea of a ‘cell’, which holds all the elements that go into fulfilling any one order for any customer, including people and resources involved in areas such as sales, manufacture, warehousing and facilities.

The next step was to improve cell performance using the Japanese concept of Kaizen, or continual improvement. A key part of this was the introduction of standardised working, or “all work done the one best way it can be”, according to Scott. Everyone from production engineers to supervisors, warehouse and purchasing staff were redirected from historic reporting lines to the cell and shopfloor structure.

As a result, management became much more local and transparent. “If you can see the flow, it’s easier to train people,” says Scott. “You learn to see waste – things that are blocking the flow and making people’s jobs more difficult.” Triggers might include a pile of parts mounting up or a team of people working on a part failing to work in rhythm.

Interflex also put the focus on the shopfloor with an analysis of makeready. “People on the shopfloor videotaped changeovers to discover inefficiencies,” says Cleghorn. “As a result, we introduced standardised procedures throughout the firm.” A key aspect was a standardised way to look at waste measurement that could be adapted to the firm’s different processes.

The results were impressive. According to Cleghorn, the makeready reductions achieved equated to a 44% saving in time. The waste reduction programme cut waste from 10% to 8% of production in four to five months. In all, Cleghorn estimates that the costs of implementing lean production make up only 10% of the value of the savings achieved.

Linx also saw “a huge breakthrough in terms of inventory, and a direct gain of 50% in productivity,” according to Scott, after nine months of lean conversion. But this didn’t extend to quality and delivery performance as expected.

“The key for year two was to shift from a ‘tell and sell’ model to empowerment,” he says. This refocused the efforts of cell teams and resulted in a 22% drop in the number of customers invoking product warranties and a 40% gain in quality.

Delivery performance also improved as a result of a reversal in fulfillment philosophy – the firm went from assigning its clients’ delivery dates, to meeting dates that the client themselves had requested. Shorter lead times also benefit the firm’s distributors, which have been able to take “several hundred thousand pounds worth” of finished stock out of their inventory.

“With the exception of replacing some old kit, most of the change process was actually free,” says Scott, who found the money for the change largely through the reallocation of existing budget.

Linx’s discovery that lean manufacturing by itself can’t achieve wholesale improvements is echoed by the experience of Tetra Pak, which uses lean manufacturing as part of its overall business practice. World class manufacturing (WCM) is the umbrella term it uses for elements including quality programmes, preventative maintenance and lean manufacturing.

“A textbook implementation of lean manufacturing is just a toolkit. It doesn’t change hearts and minds,” stresses Scott Houston, manager of the focused improvement process office
at the company.

Case study – Pillars of wisdom

For Tetra Pak, lean manufacturing is a technical discipline that can get to the root causes of waste. But to engage the workforce and make it stick you need to implement a wider strategy. “The philosophy of WCM is deep-rooted change,” he says. “The lean manufacturing toolbox gets results, but doesn’t by itself generate the pride and passion you need to make it work sustainably.”

To implement WCM, Tetra Pak embarked on a root-and-branch restructuring of its business functions in 2000, creating “pillars” for disciplines such as quality, focused improvement and predictive maintenance. Functional managers within these pillars “own” everything to do with that discipline and deploy teams using lean techniques and other tools to meet their targets.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tetra Pak’s wholesale approach is the most expensive. The firm made some “significant investment” in consultancy help in the first two years, although it won’t disclose how much, as well as in staff training and development.

Do the results justify it? To some extent it’s a matter of faith. The company has cut factory waste by 50% since 2002, when it was already in a position of efficiency. But the direct link between this and training investment cannot be quantified. Ultimately, Houston says: “Technical tools will simply not deliver long-term without investment in soft skills. Without a culture to sustain it you will lose it.”

Jargon buster: A lexicon of lean
The five basic tools and techniques of ‘lean’ according to Vision in Print

Key performance indicators (KPIs)
KPIs measure cost, quality and delivery. They are used to prioritise improvements in key areas and drive them by fact, not guesswork.

5C (sometimes known as 5S)
A five-step programme to improve and sustain efficiency in the workplace through better organisation. It is a tool to improve efficiency and safety, and enhance conditions in any working environment, from offices to the shopfloor. The five Cs are clearout, clean and check, configure, conform, and custom and practice.

The seven wastes
Waste from over-production, waste of time waiting for materials, transportation waste, over-processing waste, inventory waste, excessive movement of people and goods, and waste from product defect.

Visual management
A system that allows anyone to assess at a glance the current status of a location, an operation or a process. Real-time analysis of operational performance enables corrective actions to be implemented without delay. For example, material stored in the wrong location or dwindling stocks should be immediately apparent.

Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
SOPs ensure safe, repeatable methods are practised, minimise quality variation and set the standard against which improvements can be measured. By creating a written record of the best working practices, SOPs capture experience from skilled operators and encourage collective input. The resulting documents enable more efficient training methods. If a new practice is not captured in the form of an SOP, it is likely that the benefits derived from it will decline and performance levels might well drift back to where you started.

Top tips
- Be patient. Focus on key areas to make small, achievable improvements. Don’t try to change everything at once
- Look for waste everywhere: defects, over-production, transportation and bottlenecks, as well as scrap
- Analyse working procedures to standardise best practice
- Focus on the value an activity adds for clients and the firm
- Think visually. Work is better understood and better
controlled with visual triggers on the shopfloor
- Operate a Kanban system with suppliers to speed up materials flow and cut inventory.

Kanban is a signaling system – such as a noticeboard – used to trigger actions
- Remember there is no quick fix – lean manufacturing is a journey, not a destination
- Real improvement comes from the shopfloor. Set goals and then manage them to empower staff to succeed
- Don’t focus on the tools, focus on using them
- Don’t over-complicate, do the basics effectively and creatively

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