Lean Sigma for Discrete Manufacturing

Sustainable Gains, Profitable Growth

Discrete manufacturers talk about parts, not ingredients; bills of materials, not formulas or recipes; and units of output, not weight or volume.  They make cars and motor homes, refrigerators and flat-screen TVs, arterial stents and surgical saws, and multi-ton pieces of industrial equipment. And they make the millions of parts and components that go into these products.

The application of lean manufacturing principles has a long history in discrete manufacturing operations, as exemplified by Toyota Motor Company and the Toyota Production System (TPS). You would be hard-pressed to find an operations executive or business manager in a discrete manufacturing company who has not studied and attempted to apply lean and Six Sigma tools in their facilities. The bottom-line results, in too many cases, have been disappointing.

For two decades TBM has helped discrete manufacturing clients achieve double-digit improvements that positively impact their bottom lines. We help them apply a unique combination of lean and Six Sigma time-based management techniques, which we bring together as Lean Sigma. Manufacturers frequently come to TBM because they’ve hit an operational or market crisis and need to change what they do and how they do it, and they have to make changes fast. Common circumstances include:

  • Skyrocketing material or energy costs
  • Rapid fluctuations in customer demand
  • Long delivery lead times
  • Persistent quality problems
  • Declining margins and shrinking market share
  • High rates of worker injury and illness.

The second major reason that companies come to TBM presents a different set of challenges. After several years, following some early success, many lean initiatives lose momentum.  The dramatic productivity, quality, inventory and floorspace gains from the initial switch to some version of one-piece flow from batch production have been achieved. Project frequency slows down. Returns dwindle.

In such cases the tools and cost-cutting benefits of lean have been the primary drivers, and the long-term learning and people development aspect of TPS have been overlooked.  Lean initiatives fail to take hold or lose momentum because the company’s underlying culture, performance incentives, and leadership focus have not evolved.  No matter what anyone tells you, culture change is difficult. It takes time.

TBM’s Long-Term Transformation and Business Process Improvement services help discrete manufacturers with an immediate need to transform their business, and those whose continuous improvement programs have stalled regain their initial momentum.  TBM’s Rapid Rightsizing process helps companies get started or resume their lean journey by prioritizing projects and achieving substantial and sustainable improvements in safety, quality, costs, service levels, inventory and delivery.

In many cases, the biggest opportunities lie outside of the factory, in the front office, in the engineering department, back into the supply chain, and forward into the dealer or distributor network. TBM’s Lean Value Chain services can help synchronize supply and demand chain activities to maintain consistent quality, cost and delivery performance. Our Lean Sigma Product Development process slashes the time required to develop profitable ideas from the initial concept to full production. TBM’s Lean Leadership and Sustainment practice provides leadership knowledge and guidance customized to the unique requirements of your company and your executives and managers. That knowledge foundation is transferred throughout your management team by the TBM Lean Sigma Institute. Collectively, such efforts can unleash market potential that an operationally superior manufacturing company has the resources to exploit.

When Hayward Pool Products began working with TBM, it was an unlikely candidate for dramatic change. The company was already a worldwide market leader in pool equipment, growing at double-digit rates nearly every year.  But Hayward was a typical batch manufacturer and growth meant more equipment, space and inventory.  TBM helped Hayward make the initial leap from batch manufacturer to one-piece flow, and then leverage its knowledge and success throughout the company. Since embracing Lean Sigma techniques and culture, Hayward has increased its market share advantage and doubled sales with less production space and no change in the number of direct labor employees.  On-time delivery has increased 25 percent and work-in-process inventory jumped from around 13 to over 50 turns per year.

To learn more about how TBM can help you leverage Lean Sigma to transform your discrete manufacturing operations, check out these recent articles, videos and case studies: