Home>Services offered

We fix factories, by implementing lean manufacturing. Our members are all active professionals in the manufacturing field, and are dedicated to improving the productivity, quality and profitability of our clients' operations. We adapt automotive manufacturing concepts to industries with different technologies, breadth of product mix, and production rates. In addition, we are also frequently asked to help clients make the most of the computer technology they already have, or to advise them on what they should or should not acquire.

Lean manufacturing implementation

• Training courses

• Strategic analysis

• Kaizen event facilitation

• Project support consulting

• Project engineering

• Study tours and benchmarking

• Company-specific lean manufacturing handbook

Software-related services

• ERP disaster recovery

• Software asset management

• Simulation of manufacturing operations

• Implementation of scheduling systems

• Requirements analysis and database design

• Design and implementation of supervisory control systems

Lean manufacturing implementation

• Training courses. We offer one- and two-day courses on topics ranging from an overview of lean manufacturing to the details of implementation, managing in a lean environment, rapid product development, and new product introduction. The target audiences for the different range from supervisors and engineers to top management. These courses are offered in public sessions several times a year and are also available in house, with customization.

• Strategic analysis. A team of 2 to 3 consultants analyze the demand, map the flows of materials and information, and review the existing support structure in order to perform a gap analysis and lay out a roadmap to lean manufacturing. We recommend specific improvement projects and establish a performance baseline. Depending on the size of the factory, this initial assessment may take between 3 and 5 days.

• Kaizen event facilitation. Kaizen events are a powerful implementation tool for short-term improvements. We help clients get started with Kaizen events, identify targets, and run the workshops. One facilitator can support one or two projects, depending on the nature of the technical challengers and on the client teams available to take them on.

• Project support consulting. For projects that require a long-term sustained effort, we provide support through monthly or bimonthly visits helping client teams both in the content of what is being undertaken and in project management. Projects that are effectively supported this way include production preparation, machining cell implementation, setup time reduction, and improvements in logistics/production planning and scheduling.

• Project engineering. Our engineers are in residence at the client site, acting as temporary additions to the engineering group and reporting to the engineering manager. There are several circumstances in which clients prefer this mode of operation:

1. When getting the project finished quickly is more important than transferring know-how, as is the case for example when the plant needs a new production line in place by a deadline.
2. When certain vital technical skills needed for the project are not present within the client organization and cannot be acquired quickly. This may range from the use of some software tools to exotic process technology.

• Study tours and benchmarking. Benchmarking should be done to find ways to improve performance rather than to assess how the company is doing with respect to others. The best sources of new ideas may be in different industries with which performance cannot be compared. Rather than carrying out classical benchmarking studies that take months and whose results are not always easy to interpret, we organize short, targeted study tours for teams including representatives from several levels in the company hierarchy. We use a format called “learning together” to ensure that knowledge is collected along the tour and shared afterwards. This service is offered to established clients only.

• Company-specific lean manufacturing handbook. Rather than use the generic literature on lean production, advanced clients prefer to compile their own implementation experience into a company-specific handbook, with actual shop floor projects used as examples and project management guidelines. Most, however, have neither the time nor the editorial skills to put together such a book, and rely on our help.

Software-related services

• ERP disaster recovery. In dollar terms, “MRP,” “MRP-II,” and “ERP” account for the lion’s share of the manufacturing software market. Failed ERP implementations, however, have brought some companies near bankruptcy. Some have become our clients; we have helped them work through the following process:
  • "Pulling the plug" on the failed system, 
  • Implementing a workable alternative, and 
  • Restoring customer confidence. 

• Software asset management. A collection of NC programs is an asset that can, over time, become more valuable than the machines it drives. NC programming teams need the apply the same engineering concepts and methods as other software development organizations to ensure that NC programs can be upgraded easily and ported to other machines, and that macros can be reused. Our software engineering experts help clients put in place NC programming environments that ensure the best return on this asset.

• Simulation of manufacturing operations. Several software products are available for manufacturing engineers to develop discrete-event simulations of operations. A simulation project, however, can be a time sink unless it is scoped properly and the answers that are sought are clearly stated. We help clients select software products that will meet their needs and develop simulation models quickly and effectively.

• Implementation of scheduling systems. Over the past few years, production scheduling products have appeared on the market that can generate Gantt charts for every machine, based on a variety of methods and principles, all aiming to improve responsiveness and equipment utilization while reducing WIP. We help clients identify when this high-technology approach is appropriate, understand what it actually does, set reasonable expectations, and achieve them.

• Requirements analysis and database design. The standard suites of office applications put much more analytical power on engineers' desks than most are used to and know what to do with. We help them use spreadsheets and relational databases to do product-quantity (P-Q) analysis, improve the allocation of products to machines with overlapping capabilities, or reduce the tooling package of machining centers.

• Design and implementation of supervisory control systems. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software is available from several vendors; they can be used to provide real-time displays of machine conditions and allow the operator to take various actions as needed. The challenge, however, is to design these displays so that they prompt operators clearly and without ambiguity on what they need to do, particularly when automatic controls fail. The solution we have found is to apply to computer-controlled production machines the same analytical methods that have been developed to keep pilots from misjudging the conditions of an airplane when they assume manual control. This analysis then drives the design of the SCADA application.

In the near future, we also intend to provide an on-line bookstore. If you are interested in discussing with us the various ways we could help you, please sign our guest book. We look forward to being of assistance.