5 Efficient Ways for Implementing Lean Manufacturing
In short, lean manufacturing is a systematic method to reduce waste in manufacturing without sacrificing productivity. By implementing lean manufacturing, manufacturers can cut and minimize work activities that do not add value to their business.
Waste reduction is one of the main goals of lean manufacturing and one of the biggest contributors to waste in manufacturing is inventory. Most manufacturers would usually choose to cut their inventory costs. However, there are still several other things that you can do to implement lean manufacturing.
1. Identify Waste Factors in Your Manufacturing Process
Anything that adds no value to customers and provides no benefit to your business, but absolutely has a cost can be categorized as waste. It may exist in every aspect of your business, so it’s important for you to assess your business efficiency.
Do you hold too much inventory on hand? Do you produce too many goods that are not even needed by your customers? Or does your production process take too much time?
2. Keep your Inventory Under Control
Efficient inventory management means keeping the right amount of inventory (including raw materials, WIP, and finished goods), thereby reducing the possibility of loss and damage. Then, how do you keep your inventory under control?
Firstly, you have to forecast your inventory needs. You need to make sure that the amounts and types of inventory you keep are adequate for your production process and the goods you will produce meet your customer demands.
Go through your historical sales data and be updated on current trends to estimate how many items you should produce and what materials you need for production. Find out your best-selling items as well as your slow-moving inventory, so you can produce and sell the right products.
Aside from forecasting inventory needs, you can also control your inventory by regularly monitoring your stock levels. Make sure you have the right level of stock at all times by specifying a minimum level of stock, at which point you always reorder.
To improve the efficiency of your inventory management, consider using a cloud-based inventory management system. It enables you to forecast, monitor stock levels, control costs, and reorder to suppliers wherever and whenever necessary.
3. Reduce Materials Used for Packaging
Product packaging is one of the main contributors to waste in manufacturing. Nice packaging surely can make your product look attractive to customers, but spending a lot of money on it is not a wise move.
If it is possible, redesign your product. Use reusable and recyclable materials for starting a zero-waste lifestyle. Improve your innovation skills by making a new product out of the cardboard boxes or leftover plastics that you use to pack your current products.
4. Schedule Regular Maintenance
Check the condition of your machines and equipment regularly. Equipment damage leads to unplanned downtime in the production process and other activities at your manufacturing plant, hence delaying sales and order fulfillment. Moreover, you will also need more money to spend on new machines and equipment. So, don’t wait until they break down in the middle of the workday.
To make it easier for you to keep track of the condition of your equipment and schedule regular preventive maintenance, consider using HashMicro’s Asset & Fleet Management Software. It also enables you to monitor fuel usage and track the location of your delivery trucks, so that various issues can be identified earlier.
5. Use an Automated Solution
You might think that investing in software is not the right solution to reduce waste. However, the price of a cloud-based software system is actually a lot cheaper than the money you will have to spend regularly on labor, new equipment, reparations, and other unnecessary purchases.
With manufacturing software, you can minimize lead time, labor costs, human error, and most importantly, operating costs. No need to worry about the price, because HashMicro’s cloud-based manufacturing software is affordable for small and medium size enterprises.