Lean Manufacturing

One of core tenets is that excellence in manufacturing is more important in an offshore facility than it is domestically. Lean manufacturing (sometimes referred to as the Toyota Production System) is based upon the elimination of waste. It may require significant cultural change within a company whose processes have been more traditional and less progressive in nature. Key benefits to the customer are very short lead times and very high quality. Some of the lean manufacturing concepts employed in our facility include:
 

• Clean organized workspace, brightly lit, workers smocks
• On floor Kanban for material control, to eliminate out of stock delays
• Kanban control to suppliers and customers, to ensure a seamless supply chain
• Very little working inventory or finished goods inventory
• Just-In-Time manufacturing
• Customer dedicated work cells (team leader for each)
• Kaizen culture, for employee empowerment and continuous improvement

If you would like to learn more about Lean Manufacturing, there are hyperlinks and suggested reading lists below:
 

Suggested Reading - Books with an Overview of Lean

Henderson, Bruce and Larco, Jorge.  Lean Transformation.  Richmond, Virginia: The Oaklea Press, 1999. An excellent practical guide for performing a lean transformation.  This book is the "bible" for lean in our organization.
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Hirano, Hiroyuki.  JIT Factory Revolution.  Cambridge, Massachusetts: Productivity Press, 1989.  Originally written in Japanese, this is a pictorial guide to factory design using lean techniques
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Womack, James and Jones, Daniel.  Lean thinking.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996
The book that introduced many Americans to the concepts of lean enterprise.
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Suggested Reading - Books with a Specific Lean Focus

Shimbun, Nikkan Kogyo.  Poka-Yoke.  Portland Oregon: Productivity Press, 1989
Basic instruction of poka-yoke (error-proofing) followed by over 200 practical examples.
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Sekine, Kenichi.  One-Piece Flow.  Portland Oregon: Productivity Press, 1989
How to design work cells for one-piece flow.
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Imai, Masaaki.  Kaizen.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986
Handbook of creating a Kaizen (continuous improvement) culture with over 100 examples.
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Suggested Reading - Books on Culture and Change

Collins, James and Porras, Jerry.  Built to Last.  New York: HarperCollins, 2002
A study of the cultures of successful companies and how to build an organization with a self-sustaining visionary culture.
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Kotter, John.  Leading Change.  Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996
A great book on implementing change within an organization.
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Useful Links on Lean

www.lean.org
This is the website for the Lean Enterprise Institute founded by James Womack.