Great example. On the other hand, there's no way i...

2008-12-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

Great example.

On the other hand, there's no way in heaven, hell, or on earth my clients could get three deliveries a day of any of their raw materials...at any price.

First of all, thanks for sharing. It's always gre...

2008-09-30T04:45:00.000-07:00

First of all, thanks for sharing. It's always great to learn from others!

I don't want to get the cart before the horse as we haven't seen the entire solution laid out, but I did have one thing I wanted to ask after reading Part 1. While it was stated that "Working week end overtime is also not a solution as this would only increases the operating costs, which eventually lead to increase in unit cost." Obviously, a true statement. However, I was struck by the fact that inventory was decreased and delivery frequency was increased so drastically. My question / comment being...were transportation costs taken into account in order to map the entire value of the kaizen activity? This is an area I continually struggle getting people to comprehend in our lean implementations...that being that they need to think globally and outside of the four-walls in order to make the most sound business decision possible.

While I want inventory as low as possible, I don't always need it to be in a "lean vaccum" if it's going to cause costs to skyrocket. In other words, I want my inventory levels right-sized.

Again, this is more for discussion that this particular example as this is clearly going to be an exciting kaizen story, and for all I know the suppliers in question could be right down the street and transportation costs could be minimal. But what I always want my team to think about is total costs, not always necessarily "pure" lean.

To boil it down...what if the additional transportation costs incurred were equal to or more than the incremental costs of working weekend OT. What direction should be purused?

Thanks in advance for any feedback! Have a good day!

Comments on Learn Lean Manufacturing: Implementing Lean in our Organization - Part 1

Great example. On the other hand, there's no way i...

First of all, thanks for sharing. It's always gre...