Can A Lean Consultant Help You?

What can a lean consultant do? Hiring a lean consultant is a great way to reduce a lot of the tension and resistance that people start having towards lean. Usually the resistance will occur because people just do not understand it and they are not sure of what is happening and why you want to make changes. People are naturally resistant to change and helping people to overcome that last little hurdle that comes with the introduction of something new can be done but it may not always be easy to do by the management. You need to consider looking at what your lean consultants can do as they often deal with training and they are used to resistance in every form.

In every industry lean has proven itself time and time again. It continues to be successful and it continues to show people of the importance of using a quality program. Lean manufacturing is a comprehensive system that does work with every aspect of the company to save time and to reduce waste. Employees may start appreciating their jobs more as they are not wasting as much time. You can also have employees that see how lean has been able to improve their job for safety reasons as well. When the company is organized correctly and waste is gone, there are fewer chances to have an accident on the floor. People will become self aware of the obstacles in the way and they also are able to avoid injuries since you don't have machinery and things sticking out all over the place.

Billions of dollars have been saved as a result of lean. Not only billions of dollars but also hundreds of jobs have been saved as a result of lean as employees become happier and stick with a company and there can even be additional jobs created as people are able to see that you can increase the production for the company. When demand starts to soar thanks to fewer defects and higher productivity, it is easy to expand the company and to offer additional jobs to your employees.

What type of things will lean do? You see so many different benefits thanks to lean including some of the following things:
- Reduction in lead time
- Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the company
- Reducing inventory and expenses of inventory
- Decrease in transportation costs
- Increasing the quality of products offered
- Reducing the need for floor space

It really does make for a stronger work force because your staff is less likely to become frustrated all the time. A good lean consultant will come in and will address all of the various fears and issues that are facing the company. Not only will the consultant help the employees, they will also be able to help management with many different things including the following elements:
- Proper scheduling of manufacturing products through accurate predications
- New batch scheduling and batch manufacturing
- Reducing the inventory to save money and wasted products
- Elimination of the wait time your customers have when they order a product
- Decrease in the process times for manufacturing line
- Stopping overproduction, which wastes time and money along with inventory space

You do not want people to throw away the products. You want people to use them and to keep them for years. If they have a defect, they will return them and they are waste. They are also considered a lack in trust in your company since people will not be able to feel that your company can provide for them in the right way.