Lean Transformation Resuscitates Medical Device Company's Bottom Line

As we began our engagement, a healthy dose of skepticism greeted the team. Many of the client’s employees had heard all about “that value-added and non-value-added stuff” and didn’t believe it really mattered all that much. To counter this and begin winning them over, our team conducted a two-day Lean simulation exercise that illustrated the nature and benefits of being Lean.

Next, using our proprietary, integrated Lean process design solution, LeanView^™, we helped the client to map its critical processes resulting in several value-stream maps being produced:

1. An end-to-end map of the entire enterprise viewed at a high level.
2. A current state maps for each of the four processes that led to final assembly.

3. Process task maps to identify inherent wastes in each process within a value stream.

4. A future state map that depicted where the client needed to go at this time.

Once the value-stream maps were completed, we helped the client to begin the early stages of a Lean transformation. Lean principles were first taught and then reinforced company-wide through a blended learning system that was customized to fit the clients’ business model.

Over a six-week period the manufacturing floor was converted from a batch assembly operation to a sequenced pull operation, and Kanban and the 5Ss helped to open up floor space for production and assembly.