Why Lean pt. 5

As a leader, when the topic of ‘Lean’ arises the first thoughts that probably pop into your head are ‘increase customer value’ and ‘minimize waste.’ While it is important to aim for those, Lean Thinking is much more than streamlining processes to achieve a set of objectives.

S&R Compression, LLC can tell you what it was like implementing Lean into their process:

“Starting off with Lean, it has allowed us to utilize so many different things. Whether it’s the space that we have to function in, to build these products in utilizing our manpower, or utilizing our materials, it’s allowing us to get the most out of what we’ve got. It’s causing us to think differently about a lot of things instead of trying to figure out the most efficient way to make a specific item. We were looking at the most efficient way to make an entire unit. In The Vessel shop, for example, we were told by one of the guys working out there that one of the key things is that [they] don’t have enough space. [They] don’t have the room to make as much product [they] need to make.”

While working with businesses, one of ISI’s main goals is to build environments where leaders are able to help their employees learn about themselves and their processes. Which, ultimately, will allow them to learn how they can fuse this knowledge together to improve the business. We create a work area for collaboration, stability, and constant improvement.

“And as it turned out we were able to add four workstations in the existing area by increasing the flow and that was one of the most amazing things."

?"You don’t necessarily need more space. You need to use the space that you’ve got more efficiently.”