Lean Operational Excellence

Why is it important?

Operations, defined as the repetitive process steps whether physical or informational are usually at the heart of 'adding value' in terms of delivering products or services for any business On top of this, the challenges in the business environment over the last years, companies across all industries are looking for not only quality, cost, delivery but the ability to quickly and flexibly adapt without sacrificing performance.

Our experience

Our clients are facing challenges with the supply chain, higher prices for raw materials, which increased operational costs and influenced the efficiency of capital projects and launching new products. Lean Coaching has been engaged in a wide range of Operational Excellence projects and large scale transformation, in all major Industries, which have required extensive Operational Excellence experience , with the additional challenges of a rapidly changing global environment, leveraging Digital Transformation, considering ESG sustainability whilst Innovating faster, more Agile than ever.

Optimization in Operations​

What is it?

Operations are the repetative process steps, whether physical or informational that are at the heart of adding value in terms of delivering products or services.

Why is it important?

Effective Operations are not only at the core of achieving competitive business results in terms of Quality, Cost and Delivery - but importantly also the flexibility to adapt to changing market, environmental or geo-political changes, faster and more effectively than any competition, changing this Operational Exellence capability to a Strategic advantage

Key Elements/Terms

- QCD KPI cascade
- Shopfloor and Visual performance management
- A3 Practical Problemsolving
- Jidoka, Andon, 5S`
- Standardized work, Job Instruction Training
- OEE, TPM
- Just in Time, One Piece Flow, SMED
- Kaizen, Continuous Improvement
- Flexible Manpower Systems
- Multi skilling

Optimization in Supply Chain​

What is it?

Optimization of the physical flow from suppliers to customers through the warehousing, value added and transportation processes, in sync with the information flow from customers to suppliers through the processes of forecasting, planning and order management.​

Why is it important?

The overall target of the Supply Chain optimization is:​
- to maximize the service level from the order to the final delivery to the customer;​
...while minimizing the inventories (Raw material, Work in Progress, Finished Goods);​
…at minimum “total supply chain cost."
​ ...and maintaining flexibility to re-route and re-prioritise the pipeline at short intervals

Key Elements/Terms

- Lead Time, reaction time
- WIP and Inventory reduction
- Pull Systems, Kanban
- Level Load, Heijunka
- Bottleneck Management
- Flexibility, dual source
- OTIF (on Time in Full)

Optimization in Maintenance​

What is it?

Optimizing Maintenance Systems and capabilities in order to maximise the utilization, reliability and availbility of equipment/assets for minimum total Life-cycle costs. Focussing on 'zero loss' ie zero unplanned downtime and zero defects - with lowest maintenance total lifecycle costs (time and parts).

Why is it important?

Maintenance system helps increase machine reliability, driving towards zero loss equipment (zero unplanned downtime, zero defect) operating at optimal cost, increased and flexible production output, reducing 'cost of ownership' Flexible equipment specifications and configuartions (layout) are also essential components of FMS enabling operational agility

Key Elements/Terms

- OEE, MTTR, MTBF
- Autonomous, Planned Maintenance
- Reliability Centered Maintenance
- Early Equipment Management

Assets as a Service​

What is it?

AaaS has 3 levels of Services for the clients:​
1. Technical Performance Service (TPS) – management of technical KPIs, technical availability, MTBF, MTTR, Operational Resolution Time​
2. Conversion Cost Service (CCS) – TPS plus spare parts, maintenance, output, manpower performance/productivity, facilities, utilities​
3. Operational Cost Service (OCS) – CCS plus the external factors in production, supply chain, quality, human resource etc.​

Why is it important?

AaaS is a relatively new field, especially bouyed by many app/online based service providers, hence it is a strategic lever, so the company can focus on what the company does best - ie either by the 'equipment/asset company' being a Assets as a Service provider or the 'user' of equipment/assets evaluate AaaS options incl evaluating Suppliers.

Key Elements/Terms

AaaS levels:
- Technical Performance Guarantee
- Conversion Cost Guarantee
- Operational Cost Guarantee

New Product/Service Development and Introduction

What is it?

The process of developing and managing the fast and predictable process of introduction and ramping up of new products or services into the Operations, meeting/exceeding customer expectations in existing or new markets.

Why is it important?

Competitiveness, the survival or growth of a business hinges on beating the competition to better meet customer needs in terms of quality, cost and delivery speed, meeting the expectations of all the Stakeholders.
This requires an agile and effective process from Prototyping/Minimum Viable Product, via pivots, to production/delivery planning and preparation, project management - at speed and scale without loosing sight of Customer Value and effective operations.

Key Elements/Terms

- ​Ideation/Business Case
- Prototyping, MVP
- Concurrent Engineering, Design for Manufacturing
- VA/VE (Value Analysis / Value Engineering)
- Stage-gated multi-level/multifunctional Project plans (TIP) and execution and Lessons Learnt feedback (Keshikomi)