Here is some insight about manufacturing improvement and TBM LeanSigma Manufacturing – from both our clients and TBM consultants. We hope these articles and video clips are helpful in your improvement efforts. Just click on the links below to preview.
The following content requires the Acrobat Reader. If you do not have it
installed on your computer, you can download it for free here.
Slashing lead times has been great. Reducing inventory is phenomenal. But the most important boost Landscape Structures is getting from all of our hard work in Lean has been far more personal than the numbers show. Kaizen teams have revealed new leaders among our employees; talent is bubbling up in areas we never expected. Read more…
We think of the business as a bicycle. The front wheel is the strategic side, along with sales and marketing. The back wheel is operations and logistics. Of course, you can’t separate the two. At Pella, having a strong front-end strategy is accomplished by having a strong back wheel. Read more…
The consumer products industry has been at war for a long time now. For years, we have seen steady price degradation. We’re constantly cutting operational costs; still the retailers demand lower prices. Looking out over our industry today, it’s easy to see that among the 16 top competitors, there is too much overhead, too much SGA (selling, general and administrative expenses) and too much capacity. Read more…
When we began working with TBM in May 2001, we consciously decided to implement Lean in the manufacturing area only and not involve the rest of the company. First, we needed to build credibility, to show what the Kaizen methodology and Lean concepts could accomplish. As we began to really understand Lean, however, we could see how the concepts would apply throughout the business. Read more…
Even before stepping across the threshold of your average business process unit, you and I could probably draw a picture of the operation. And we could do it with our eyes closed. Whether it’s accounting, marketing, human resources or customer service, the division or unit will most likely resemble a big misty cloud with no fixed characteristics. Read more…
Think of it as a tightwire act. There, up in the gloom, balancing on a rope and a prayer without benefit of a net is American Racing. One of the better known brands to emerge from the 1950s California car craze, American Racing custom wheels survived decades in a sharply competitive business. Read more…
Of all the monuments I’ve known in manufacturing, paint booths have to be my favorite.
During ten years at Ford Motor Co. and Nissan Motors, managing paint production and engineering, I used to say I loved the smell of solvent in the morning. But the smell isn’t my favorite part. Mostly,
I love the justifications we create for our mammoth paint operations. Read more…
If you think about it, the stone industry is no different from a butcher shop. Inside a block of stone, you have some very high-quality material, some poor. No butcher gets a steer that is solid steaks; they get some sausage, some stuff they’ll make into fertilizer. The name of the game is to use all of it. Read more…
To keep profits growing in these days of flat revenues, manufacturers are paying more attention to the advice of Poor Richard (a.k.a. Benjamin Franklin): A penny saved is a penny earned. Those intimately involved in the quality improvement movement know those pennies are to be found in reducing rework and scrap and creating a smooth production flow. Read more…
The CEO seated across the table from me was worried and had every right to be. The leader of a logistics and transportation company, he was a very bright, sincere man suffering from a classic problem: the Myth of the Indispensable Employee. Read more…
The economic news seems to get worse each day…. Several industries are visibly wobbling, on the verge of collapse. Unemployment rises; confidence falls. Yet, for savvy business leaders who stretch their vision past the borders of their own industry, this is a time of great opportunity. Read more…
America remains the world's top industrial power with the help of innovators like these. Anand Sharma of TBM Consulting Group is a maestro of the plant floor. Read more…
Learning is easier when you actively participate, and manufacturing techniques are no exception. TBM Consulting Inc. has turned learning about kaizen and lean manufacturing into a winning situation for itself, its clients, and those who want to become kaizen-proficient. Read more…
Beginning a quality initiative with Sigma Kaizen is a bit different from the start of a Lean journey, where we begin our improvements at the end of a plant or process. A Lean transformation assumes – most times, rightly so – that each process in your business will change; so we take a systematic finish-to-start approach. Read more…