Fastest way to implement lean manufacturing

If you are considering implementing lean manufacturing for your quality control system, you might be wondering what the fastest way to do that is. Most manufacturing companies want to implement it as quack as possible so that they can start improving their manufacturing processes and reduce their costs. The thing that you need to know about lean manufacturing is that there is not a fast way to implement the system. The reason for this is that you have to follow certain steps when implementing the system if you want it to work right.

Before you can even get started implementing lean manufacturing, you are going to need to ensure that your senior level management is on board with the program. You also want to make sure that they are willing to actively participate in lean manufacturing, not just talk to their employees about it. You want to make sure that your management is going to be actively involved because most employees do well with managers that lead by example, if management is not following through with the new system why should the employees.

Once you have gotten everybody on board you are going to want to pick a project leader to head up the project that you are going to be using to implement lean manufacturing. When choosing a project leader you want to choose somebody that has great leadership skills, but you also want to make sure that they have a persuasive personality. This is important because the project leader is going to be in charge of bringing numerous people together to form a team, these teams members probably won't come from the same areas, so it will be a cross functional team.

In addition to the team leader, you are going to want to pick a small group of people from different departments to work together. On average, you should choose between 3 to 5 people to join your team leader. This group is going to be responsible for implementing lean manufacturing in the area that you have chosen to test the quality control system on, so the people that you choose for the initial group should be supportive about switching over to lean manufacturing. Once you have gotten your team together you will need to begin training them on lean manufacturing, including the tools and techniques of lean manufacturing that your manufacturing plant is going to be using.

After receiving the training on the various tools and techniques of manufacturing, you will want to sit down as a group to decide which techniques would work out the best for your company. If you have a hard time, deciding as a group about which techniques to use you can always make the decision among management only. Once it has been decided about the techniques that will be used, you will need to prioritize them based on what order you plans to use the techniques in your manufacturing business.

Once you have decided how you are going to go about implementing lean manufacturing you will want to inform the rest of your workforce about what you are doing. When informing your workforce about what you are doing you will want to take the time to explain to them why you choose lean manufacturing over other quality control systems, but you also want to talk to them about how it is going to affect them as employees and what you will be requiring of them as employees. Give your employees a chance to ask any questions and make an honest effort to answer those questions.

Once you have started implementing lean manufacturing you are going to want to continue with the program for at least two to three months. By continuing with the program, you can learn from your mistakes and make any improvements that are needed before you begin your next project.